Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, has described the late Second Republic governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, as a political titan.
In a tribute yesterday entitled “Fare Thee Well, LKJ”, the former Federal Commissioner for Information stated that Jakande succeeded in carving a pristine niche for himself, on the Nigerian social and political landscapes.
He described Jakande as a notable journalist, who rose to the Position of Editor of the Tribune Group of Newspapers, in its glorious days.
According to him, “in politics, he held the Lagos Constituency for his Leader and Party, in a vice-like grip, before emerging as the First Civilian, and only Second Republic Governor of Lagos State, in 1979, re-elected in 1983.
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Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande died on Thursday February 11. Twenty one years ago (July 1999), when he turned 70, he granted an interview to Nigerian Tribune’s Lasisi Olagunju and Debo Abdulai at his Ilupeju residence in Lagos. LKJ, in his Buba and Sokoto, sitting in his garage, on a mere bench, came forcefully across as a man of very simple means. Yet, he said he was very satisfied with life. The interview, originally published by the Nigerian Tribune on 25 July, 1999 is reproduced here, in part, in honour of his memory.
Your simplicity is very striking. For one, you don’t wear agbada and you don’t ride flashy cars except your Toyota Crown. What could be responsible for that sir?
Jakande: The titan that took Lagos to modernity takes a bow
On
Deputy Editor
FONDLY called Baba Kekere, he was the governor of Lagos State elected in the “Class of 79” Governors of the Second Republic, under the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN, founded by late sage and nationalist, Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo.
Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, also called LKJ was, as governor, contemporary of the likes of Alhaji Balarabe Musa of Kaduna State, Jim Nwobodo of Anambra State, Sam Mbakwe of Imo State, and back home in the South-west, he had late Olabisi Onabanjo of Ogun State, Ambrose Alli of the defunct Bendel State, Bola Ige of old Oyo State and Adekunle Ajasin of old Ondo State as political actors and state governors.
Fondly called
Baba Kekere,
Jakande was the governor of Lagos State from 1979 to 1983 on the platform of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN).
He later became Minister of Works during the
Sani Abacha military regime between 1993 and 1998.
Jakande, who was also a veteran journalist, was born in Epetedo Area of Lagos State on July 23, 1923, to parents from Omu-Aran in Kwara.
He studied at Lagos Public School at Enu-Owa, Lagos Island, then at Burnham Memorial Methodist School, Port Harcourt from 1934 to 1943.
He also studied at King s College, Lagos in 1943 and then went to Ilesa Grammar School in 1945 where he edited a Literary Paper called the ‘Quarterly Mirror’.
OBITUARY: Jakande: Exit of Baba Kekere, man who transformed Lagos
Lateef Jakande, the former Lagos State governor, died on Thursday at the age of 91. 6 min read
The remains of Lateef Jakande, the first elected governor of Lagos State and a former minister of works, were interred at the Vaults and Gardens Cemetery, Ikoyi on Friday.
The event marked the exit of the last of the five governors elected on the platform of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) at the beginning of the short-lived Nigerian Second Republic in 1979.
He died on Thursday at the age of 91.
In his days as governor of the Lagos, which was also the federal capital at the time, Mr Jakande was called ‘Baba Kekere.’