The Guardian (Nigeria)

LASU renames longest road on campus after Jakande

- By Sunday Aikulola

THE longest road at the Lagos State University (LASU) has been renamed Dr. Lateef Kayode Jakande Road. The road stretches from LASU main gate, through the Eyo masquerade junction, to the Faculty of Management and the students’ hostel at the extreme.

The honour was done to the patriarch as part of celebratio­ns to mark his 90th birthday. Jakande was the first civilian governor of Lagos.

Jakande, it would be recalled, as Lagos governor, mooted the LASU initiative in 1981. The university even

tually kicked off in 1983 after necessary procedures had been fine-tuned.

The commission­ing was preceded by a lecture courtesy of the university’s Faculty of Arts. It was themed: ‘Lateef Kayode Jakande: A phenomenon of administra­tion‘.

Speaking at LASU main auditorium, the guest speaker, Prof. Hakeem Danmole from Al-hikmah University, Ilorin, said no government in Lagos State has been able to touch the lives of the people in a short period like Jakande.

Describing Jakande as a ‘man of integrity and honesty’, Danmole reiterated that the former governor’s achievemen­ts are yet to be equaled, and urged authoritie­s in Lagos to toe his legacies.

He said: “Governors have ruled in Lagos State yet we can say it anywhere that no government has been able to touch the lives of our people like Alhaji Jakande has done. He was fit enough to become the governor back then because he worked in Lagos unlike the accidental leaders we have everywhere. “Jakande knew every part of the state and worked started immediatel­y he assumed office. I describe him as a man of integrity if not, he wouldn’t have achieved all these greatness. Only few politician­s have that integrity today.

“We know what Lagos used to be back then before his emergence as governor. Isolo was not connected to Ijegun, Iba was not connected to LASU, Victoria Island was not connected to Epe and others like that. And in four years after achieving all that, he did not name anything after himself. I will advise the Lagos State government and other politician­s to emulate him and learn to study what Jakande has done.”

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