It was with great shock that we learnt of the passage today, Thursday, February 11, 2021, of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, the first civilian governor of Lagos State. He was 91.
Alhaji Jakande, journalist, publisher and politician, was the pioneer President of our esteemed Association, the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), from where he was loaned to politics in 1979.
Between 1969 and 1979, Alh. Jakande, midwifed the Association from infancy and it is to his eternal glory that the NPAN became the octopus that it is today.
Austere, selfless, people oriented, Alhaji Jakande transferred these core values from newspapering / newsroom into politics and acquitted himself.
He became a reference point for performance not just in Lagos State which he served as a governor but across the country. He was also Minister of Works under the Abacha administration
It is on record that Alhaji Jakande throughout his tenure, lived in his personal house in Ilupeju area of Lagos and also used his personal car, apart from other landmark projects consummated by his administration.
While we commiserate with members of the pen fraternity, his immediate and political families as well as the Lagos State Goverment, on this irreparable loss, we could not but ask our today’s politicians to learn from the life and politics of Alh. Jakande and emulate his modesty, selflessness and passion for the people
The nation has lost a great patriot , advocate of good governance and democracy
ALH. MOHAMMED IDRIS
General Secretary