The first civilian Governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, is dead.
ARISE NEWS reported that he died in the early hours of Thursday at the age of 91.
Jakande was a frontline journalist and became governor of Lagos State in Nigeria from 1979 to 1983.
He later became Minister of Works under the Sani Abacha military regime (1993–98).
His administration as governor of Lagos state is still revered for the massive infrastructural development recorded during his four-year stint especially the numerous Jakande Estates built across many local governments in the State as well as sterling investment in schools.
Jakande was born in the Epetedo area of Lagos State, though both parents were from Omun Aran, Kwara State.
He studied at the Lagos Public School at Enu-Owa, Lagos Island, then at Bunham Memorial Methodist School, Port Harcourt (1934–43).
He studied briefly at King’s College, Lagos in 1943, and then enrolled at Ilesha Grammar School in 1945, where he edited a literary paper called The Quarterly Mirror.
In 1949, Jakande began a career in journalism first with the Daily Service and then in 1953 joining the Nigerian Tribune. In 1956 he was appointed editor-in-chief of the Tribune by the owner Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
After leaving the Tribune in 1975, Jakande established John West Publications and began to publish The Lagos News. He served as the first President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).
Pa Obafemi Awolowo encouraged him and he ran for election as executive governor of Lagos State in 1979, on the Unity Party of Nigeria.
