For LKJ, A Moment of Honour

By Kayode Komolafe

kayode.komolafe@thisdaylive.com

0805 500 1974

Memories of the greatness of accomplished journalist and the first elected governor of Lagos state, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, came alive on Monday at a lecture organised in Lagos by the guild of editors. 

A lot of lessons could be learnt from the Jakande story  as told at the event.

The memory of Jakande, fondly called LKJ, was hugely honoured by a 62-year old  organisation of which he also  happened to be the  first president.  Journalists across generations  and from all over the country graced the highly successful event, with the doyen of the profession, 88-year old Sam Amuka-Pemu, publisher of Vanguard Newspapers,  sitting among the distinguished veterans on the podium. In attendance were journalists who interacted professionally with Jakande in the 1960s and 1970s as well as those born after Jakande had  left the newsroom for the state house. For instance, former foreign minister and former military governor of the old Imo State, Major-General Ike Nwachukwu (rtd), who chaired the occasion, was a reporter in the early sixties working with Jakande as the editor of the Daily Service Newspapers. Sam-Amuka  was the features editor of the newspapers at the time. Here is Nwachukwu’s  counsel to today’s journalists: “Whatever you do, follow the path of LKJ who left a light on our feet. His footprints are everywhere.”

The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) under the leadership of Mr. Eze Anaba, editor of Vanguard, deserves all the commendation it has received  for this sense of historical purpose. After all, it is not every day that reporters honour their own professional greats. Besides, the NGE president reminded his colleagues that just as  Jakande and his contemporaries formed the guild to meet the challenges of their time, editors  should also be prepared for the present challenges of the media industry.

In the programme, the organisers of the event   duly acknowledged the support  of the Lagos state government  in staging the  annual memorial lecture with  the inaugural theme as “Lateef Jakande: The Man, His Journalism, His Politics.”  Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was represented by his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat. Coincidentally, Hamzat’s  father, Alhaji Mufutau  Olatunji Hamzat, was the commissioner for transportation  in the administration of Jakande. The deputy governor was also the chairman of the committee that organised the 90th birthday celebration of  Jakande  in 2019. Jakande died barely two years after the celebration. To immortalize Jakande, according to Sanwo-Olu,  the Lagos state government has established the Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy. The governor said the academy “will provide an avenue for the younger generation to imbibe the ideals and essence of responsive, responsible and selfless leadership which were the hallmarks of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande both in his private and public life.”  Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun  said Jakande’s concept of governance should “serve as a manual for policy makers in Africa in the quest for urbanization and human capital development.” Abiodun spoke through a media consultant, Mr. Kayode Akinmade.

As Mallam Garba Shehu, a former president of NGE and former presidential spokesman, put it,  there was ample education from the gathering of journalists for those who listened to the various speakers. Immensely instructive testimonies about the life and times of Jakande were warmly  rendered about his famed journalistic practice and the indisputable  success in the governance  of Lagos state.  

Jakande’s pioneering role and exemplary vision in the formation of  the NGE, the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) were richly told by speakers from various angles. Beyond the shores of Nigeria, the story was also told  of Jakande as the first African to head the Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI) based in Vienna, Austria. The message of the Executive Director of International Press Institute (IPI), Frana Maroevic,  was delivered  by Alhaji Raheem Adedoyin, a member of the Executive Board of IPI. The provost of NIJ, Mr. Gbenga Adefaye,  said that he learnt from Jakande’s journalism of “ideas and ideals.”

The  guest-speaker, Chief Felix Adenaike,  seemed to sum up things when he said that  Jakande was a “pioneer of plans.”   Adenaike was represented by another veteran journalist, Prince Bayo Osiyemi, who was the chief of press secretary  to Jakande as the governor of Lagos state from October 1, 1979 to Dec ember 31, 1983, when the military regime of General Muhammadu Buhari put an end to the Second Republic. The guest speaker made a sweep survey  of the undeniable progress  made by Lagos state  during  the  Jakande administration.  

Within those  51  incredibly impactful months,  policies that benefitted the people concretely  were conceived and implemented especially in the important sectors such as  education, healthcare, social housing, water schemes, basic infrastructure etc. For instance, the education landscape of the state was remarkably transformed from the primary  to the tertiary  level. The Jakande administration  established the Lagos State University (LASU).  According to Adenaike, more schools were established by the Jakande government. As a result, Lagos state was able to end  the  inequity of the “shift system” in which children attended schools in shifts because there were no enough classrooms. The phenomenal impact of the Jakande education policy in broadening access to basic education can never be over stated. The policy was criticised by some persons and organisations from purely elitist vantage. For an instance,  this tinge of elitism in assessing the Jakande schools was  re-echoed at the event by  eminent journalist and fellow  of NGE, Mr. Lanre Idowu,  when he criticised the policy  for the building  of classrooms on  the tennis court in his alma mater. According to Idowu, the policy discounted the importance of “all-rounded education.” Contrary to the philosophical  orientation of his  critics, Jakande was propelled by a greater sense of social justice to use the limited space and resources to provide classrooms for more students  as an ad hoc measure. The tennis court for a few students was  the  trade-off. The situation in the  education sector of  the 1979 Lagos state was akin to that of an emergency. So the Jakande government  should be judiciously assessed in that context.   Remarkably, as Jakande’s son, Mr. Seyi Jakande, testified at the forum, the governor transferred his children from a private school to one of the public schools. What’s more, some of those who attended the Jakande schools,  which some   critics called “poultry sheds” later became doctors, lawyers, editors, engineers, professors, civil servants, businessmen etc.     

Quality medical care was also  made accessible to the  people by the Jakande administration. This reporter’s life was saved  because he benefitted from  the lingering impact of  the free medical service barely two months after the coup that removed Jakande from power because the free medical service in Lagos state had not been dismantled  by the succeeding  military regime. Just imagine an unconscious  patient who was taken to the Badagry General Hospital   from the scene of  an automobile accident and was on admission  for weeks without being charged a kobo.  That happened because  the Jakande administration made stupendous investments  in human development a focus of governance. 

Little surprise, Adenaike touched on a topic which remains a sore-point among development enthusiasts whenever the Jakande era is reviewed: the metro line project  that  could have been long consummated if the 1983 coup had not taken place. According to Adenaike,  not only did  military regime  upended  some of the developmental gains of the Jakande years, “Buhari also abolished the rail project contract between the Lagos State Government and the French contractors.” Not a few observers have pointed  to the irony that 40 years later Buhari was President when Sanwo-Olu’s government in Lagos state executed the blueline rail project. 

It is noteworthy that  the story of Jakande’s success as an elected governor has virtually eclipsed the controversy that has dogged  his political personality as a minister in the military government of the maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha. In one of   the most contentious parts of the  profile  of the highly principled politician,  Jakande was Abacha’s minister of housing. Although his political stature was never diminished, yet Jakande got alienated from the progressive wing of politics especially in his base in the southwest. At the height of the struggle for the re-validation  of the June 12, 1993 election won by Bashorun Moshood Abiola,  which was annulled  by the military regime of President Ibrahim Babangida, a resolution was passed at a summit of some  Yoruba leaders in Ibadan that all the Yoruba  political figures in Abacha government should resign their appointments. Jakande, Chief Ebenezer Babatope (transport minister), Dr. Olu Onagoruwa (attorney -general) and others ignored the resolution, invoking  their own  points of principle. The resolution was part of the pressures mounted on the vicious military regime. Jakande was  instead focussed on executing the housing projects of the military government. One of the most famous among the projects was  the development  of the Banana Island in Lagos Island, which is now the abode of the  rich and powerful. The political backlash against Jakande’s political foray into the Abacha’s government from  some progressive elements still lingers. But as Mr. Seyi Jakande  pointed out, the truth of the matter is that it was actually Abiola himself who persuaded Jakande to be in  the Abacha cabinet in the mistaken impression  that the military dictator would restore the June 12 mandate to the winner of the election after a short transition. The rest, as they say, is history.  

The reminiscences about Jakande’s illustrious career in journalism  were spiced by insightful anecdotes and soundbites generously offered by the veterans.  They all attested to Jakande’s ethical rigour, hard work, discipline  and sense of organisation. They all celebrated Jakande’s  inimitable ability to craft punchy and informed editorials.  It was fascinating, for instance,  listening to former managing director of  The Guardian Newspapers , Mr. Lade Bonuola, saying repeatedly that “my bosses are here”  (in apparent reference to Amuka-Pemu, Aremo Olusegun Osoba and others). Meanwhile, several journalists in the hall had earlier risen with enormous excitement  to  welcome Bonuola himself as “the boss.” Bonuola said he learnt at  the feet of Jakande. 

Veteran journalist, Chief Dayo Duyile, who bagged his PhD in Mass Communication at 82 from the University of Lagos in January said Nwachukwu “ defected”  from journalism to the  Nigerian army while they were  both covering  the courts in the early sixties. Duyile was a Daily Times reporter while Nwachukwu reported for Daily Service. And  the banter was stretched further by the man who always brings dignity to the profession by introducing himself amidst other professionals as “a reporter for life,”  Aremo Olusegun Osoba. The former governor of Ogun state said Nwachukwu ought to face newsroom “court-martial for the defection” as alleged by Duyile. While making his remarks as chairman, Nwachukwu at a point spoke in flawless Yoruba as he paid warm compliments to  Jakande’s widow, Alhaja Sikirat Abimbola  Jakande,  and the audience applauded. Osoba later said  it was no “big deal’  that  Nwachukwu spoke fluent Yoruba  because he was after all  a  “Yaba boy, who grew up in Yaba and got married in Yaba,” Lagos. He added that Nwachukwu speaks Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba. 

The portrait of Jakande, “the man,” was unveiled  by Jakande’s son, Seyi, who  spoke about the selflessness and frugality  of the father  as well as   his keen sense of public purpose. For instance, he said that although Jakande was  in the saddle as minister when  Banana Island was being developed, no member of his family got a plot from the artificial island. In his view, Nigeria might  have to go back to the future, so to say, in order  to make progress. The son also paid tribute to his  mother for keeping the home front while the father was busy with the pursuit  of his career.  Alhaja  Jakande,  who calmly  sat on the podium,  was given a standing ovation for being a fitting partner to the journalist.

Although Jakande did not write his memoirs, yet he left a rich library and archives which should be treated as treasures. There are many lessons to be drawn from the  career of Jakande. One of the lessons  is that a genuine legacy will endure enough for posterity to acknowledge it. The projects executed more than 40 years ago by  the  Jakande administration are remembered today because of the true impacts  on the lives of the people and not because they were  “commissioned” or decorated with  plaques.  It is worth pondering the fact that although Jakande’s achievements were recorded decades ago, yet people talk about his role in history as if it  happened yesterday.