Awesome Communications, publishers of Brand Communicator and Nigeria’s foremost multi-award-winning brand, marketing and sustainability publication has extended heartfelt condolences to Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), over the passing of his father, Pa. Abolaji Ezekiel Oyeyipo Fadolapo.
Pa. Abolaji Ezekiel Oyeyipo Fadolapo passed on peacefully in his sleep on Sunday, March 29, 2026. He was 81 years of age. His death marks the end of a life lived with quiet grace, deep faith, and uncommon commitment to family, community, and heritage.
Born on May 22, 1944, in the historic Epetedo area of Lagos Island, the late Pa. Fadolapo hailed from the royal Fadolapo family of Ile-Olukan in Esie, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. His mother, the late Mrs. Esther Emiloye Oyeyipo Fadolapo, was from Ile-Elerin in Ijomu Oro, also in Irepodun LGA. Both parents were traders in Lagos, and the young Abolaji would later follow in their entrepreneurial footsteps in the commercial capital.
He received his early education in Esie, the ancient Kwara town also renowned for its famous museum housing one of the largest collections of stone figures in sub-Saharan Africa. Upon completing his schooling, he spent time in Ilorin before returning to Lagos, where he joined his father in trade, completed a trading apprenticeship, and eventually established his own business (a journey that epitomised the grit and enterprise of his generation.)
A devoted Christian and a man of simple yet purposeful living, the late Pa. Fadolapo was a founding member of the Esie Christian Progressive Union, a community organisation that has served as a bridge between sons and daughters of Esie in the diaspora and their ancestral home. He remained a committed and active member of the union until his passing.
He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Fehintola Oyeyipo Fadolapo, children, and grandchildren. Chief among his bereaved is his son, Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, one of the most respected individuals in Nigeria’s advertising and marketing communications industry, who continues to build on the legacies of integrity and service instilled by his late father.
Signing off the condolence letter on behalf of Awesome Communications and the entire Brand Communicator family, Joshua Ajayi, Chief Executive of Awesome Communications and Publisher of Brand Communicator, expressed deep empathy and admiration for the late patriarch.
In his words: “The news of the passing of Pa. Abolaji Ezekiel Oyeyipo Fadolapo has saddened all of us at Brand Communicator immensely and we commiserate with Dr. Fadolapo on this loss. Here was a man who, by the sheer quality of his character… his faith, his work ethic, his rootedness in community laid the groundwork for one of Nigeria’s most vocal voices in marketing communications regulation. Dr. Fadolapo has not only served this industry with rare distinction; he has done so with a certain groundedness that now makes perfect sense knowing the father who shaped him.”