Mr. Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director, International Press Centre and former Chairman, Lagos State Council of NUJ and an Abuja based Lawyer, Sir Kayode Ajulo joined in paying glowing tribute to the late former governor of Lagos state, Alhaji Lateef Jakande.
Jakande died on Thursday in his sleep at 91 years. He was the last of his political group.
Arogundade described the late Jakande as a pillar of Nigerian press and national development.
Arogundade said the former governor remains peerless among the countries bourgeois political class from the second republic to date.
He stated, “Thank you Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande for being a pillar of the contribution of the Nigerian Press to Nigeria’s development. From journalism to politics, you were such a wonderful pioneer of enduring media legacies – from being the Managing Editor of the Nigerian Tribune, to establishing the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), to the setting up of the first weekend 24/7 broadcast station in Nigeria – Lagos Weekend Television/Lagos Television as first executive Governor of Lagos State, etc. the records speak volumes of who you were.
“Of Nigeria’s bourgeois political class from the second republic to date, you were peerless. In four years and three months from October 1979 to December 1983 you simply opened up Lagos through a programme of massive public works mostly done by direct labour (facilitated by the establishment of the Lagos Bulk Purchase) that led to the construction of low and middle income estates all over the state, none of which you named after yourself nor even after your political leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who commissioned some of them; but which the people in recognition of your foresight gladly ‘named’ after you. Thus, till today you have Jakande in Isolo, Jakande in Agege, Jakande in Ogba ….and just everywhere. The opening up also meant the construction of roads including Lekki – Epe road, LASU-Iyana Oba road. In the field of education the Lagos State University was a product of your vision. But perhaps what distinguished you most, educationally speaking, was the eradication of the shift system pf primary and secondary school education which had hitherto been the practice and which had subjected generations of Lagos kids to the hardship and horror of school attendance in sunny and rainy afternoons and evenings.
“Not many would remember now that the Lagos State secretariat used to be located around the Ikeja high court premises but it was your government that built a new secretariat complex at Alausa which has since been the seat of the state government. You also had the vision to start a mono-rail project but the military led by Buhari-Idiagbon struck in December 1983 and several years after the rail system remains a missing major ingredient in Lagos State mass transit system.
“For us in the media, the greatest pride we had and will continue to have in you was the fact that you served, served well and left political offices without any baggage of corruption whatsoever.
Also, Ajulo paid a glowing tibute to the late former governor of Lagos state.
The Abuja based lawyer said Jakande died a colossus, a political avatar whose style of governance was yet to be equal by any govenment either state or Federl level.
He stated, “Though Baba died of a ripe age, yet I received the news of his demise this afternoon with the rudest shock. Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande died a colossus, a political avatar whose style of governance as the then Governor of Lagos State is not only unprecedented but also yet to be unrivaled by any government in Nigeria including the Federal Government.
“As a young lad in the 80’s I was a beneficiary of the free education and other laudable party programs propounded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo but aggressively promoted and implemented by Late Jakande. His approach to quality and free education is so laudable that people moved their wards from other states to Lagos; I narrowly escaped same.
“Everything he touched is not only unparalleled but also humungous and unbroken. It is on record that Late Jakande built the largest and unparalleled mass housing both for the elites and the commons.
“What stood him out like a rock of Gibraltar is his unflinching loyalty to his political ideology, principle and humanity.
“Alhaji Jakande demonstrated that governance is truly for the people without discounting the elites and the administrative style impacted on every side of the divide including inter party level is a reflection of his status as the compass of good governance and true leadership which endeared me to him.
“Truly the progressive family has lost of one its scion!
“Adieu Baba Kékeré.”
