Jakande: The Nigerian Poor Lost A Formidable Ethical Voice, Says Olurode
WITH the demise of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande alias Baba Kekere, the Nigerian poor has lost a spokesman who thinks nothing but how to mitigate the devastating consequences of poverty including its sorrows, tears and blood.
Mr. Lai Olurode, a professor of Sociology, at the University of Lagos said this in his tributes to Jakande. Olurode added that Jakande was a man of many parts, just like his mentor and leader, Chief Obafemi Awolowo: a poet while at Ilesa Grammar School, journalist, businessman, politician, entrepreneur, farmer, publisher, author, and many more. He said: “I met Jakande after his active years in Lagos State. It wasn’t a chance meeting and nobody introduced me to him. I was attracted to him by his selfless service to humanity as governor of Lagos State. I was then a very young academic. I deliberately cultivated his friendship.
“Over the years, we became close and share the same table on many occasions during iftar. Baba was always interested in anything that had to do with education. If there was one issue that Baba Kekere was full of lamentations about, it was that of stark and evident poverty of leadership in all facets of life in Nigeria.
“Pa Jakande, in one of our several conversations asked me, why do people make so much a mess of good governance? According to him, delivering social goods of democratisation should be as easy as ABC. Why? Jakande said as a governor of a state for example, you could mobilise people at any level to achieve governance objectives.