From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan

The Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, on Monday extolled the virtue of the first civilian governor of Lagos State, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who died last week, saying he should rather be celebrated than mourned.

The first-class monarch, in a press release, made available to journalists in Ibadan, Oyo State, listed the achievements of Jakande when he served as governor in Lagos State between 1979 and 1983.

Oba Adeyemi, who also highlighted the lessons that the contemporary politicians should learn from the life and time of Jakande, said: “Lateef Kayode Jakande (LKJ) belonged to the political school of the great Chief Obafemi Awolowo to whom politics is about service to the people where they served as servants rather than masters or overlords.

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‘He was a governor, who was not attracted by the luxury of Government House but preferred to remain in his private house at Ikeja. More than that, he chose his old personal car rather than the exotic brand of vehicles usually assigned to a governor.

‘He never lived a life as governor to which he could not adjust to after leaving office. Hence, he remained the same LKJ of the same profile after the military coup of 1983. He built so many Housing Estates of which he never named one after himself. It is the people themselves who branded those housing estates after him with populist acclamation.

‘In his creative thought to decongest the menacing traffic hold up in Lagos, he initiated the famous Metroline, which, however, the military did not allow to materialise.

‘The lesson to learn from the Jakandes of the world is that the present set of politicians should see politics as a call to duty rather than an industry for material acquisition.’