EXAMPLE OF INCIDENCE OF SELFLESS ACTIVITIES IN NIGERIA

ALHAJI LATEEF JAKANDE

The fact is that, despite his political errors, Jakande’s place in this history remains solid. His
errors will be noted and can still be chastised, but above all else, his contributions will continue
to be honoured and celebrated. It was as if Providence kept him alive longer than all of his
contemporaries to give us all enough time not only to forgive his political transgressions but
also to reflect on his administrative genius…

Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, the first executive governor of Lagos State (1979-1983) who died
on Thursday, February 11 at 91, was a rare combination of administrative genius in public
governance and humility, even self-effacement, in personal life. He was a remarkable giant in
public life, who never made anyone feel small in his presence. Without doubt, Jakande was one
of the ablest public administrators that the country has ever produced.

An encounter with the man popularly called LKJ by one of the top aides of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu
illustrates the profound modesty of the spartan politician. Jakande, as the aide told me a few
years ago, was in the governor’s office to see Tinubu. He had obviously announced his presence
to one of the assistants in the governor’s outer office. Incidentally, he conceived and started
the construction of that building. But he never occupied the office before the military seized
power in December 1983. Perhaps the governor’s assistants were either too ignorant about
who Jakande was or, because of his humble mien, they didn’t think he was important or
relevant enough for his presence to be immediately brought to the attention of Tinubu. He was
made to wait. The top aide to Tinubu came into the outer office and found Jakande waiting
among many others. He was embarrassed. It was apparent to him that the former governor had
been waiting for a while. Fortunately, Jakande didn’t notice the top aide, who he knew well.
The latter quickly dashed in to ask Tinubu if he knew his predecessor was in the waiting room.
Tinubu expressed surprise. No one had informed him that Jakande was there. He asked the top
aide to usher the former governor in immediately. What other Nigerian politician of Jakande’s
stature and special connection to that office and the building would suffer such blatant
disregard with comparable equanimity?
LKJ, whose other popular appellation was Baba Kekere, a salute to his rank within the Chief
Obafemi Awolowo political family, was such a man: An accomplished and conscientious
administrator and manager of (wo)men and resources whose deep inner peace and ascetic
simplicity were never disturbed by either the exuberance of office and public ranking or the
difficulties and scorns that the vagaries of public life attracted. He was an incorruptible man
who was never incorrigible. For several decades in and out of corporate and public offices, he
lived in his Bishop Street, Ilupeju private residence in Lagos. In this, he had learnt a crucial
lesson from his leader, Awolowo, who resisted the temptations that the transition from home
to official residence and vice versa constituted – among many other challenges of the passage
of power in Africa.

As Governor Tinubu said in his tribute, “Whatever we have been able to accomplish in Lagos
State is because of the groundwork … Jakande set out before us. In so many ways, he is the
inspirational father of modern Lagos State. In housing, education, health care, and road
construction, he left an indelible imprint.” Tinubu should know. He inherited this tradition of
efficient and effective governance championed by the likes of Jakande, which was based on a
progressive ideology that was identified with the Western Region of Nigeria and its succeeding
states. However, this is threatening to become the exclusive heritage of Lagos State.

Three of the most notable manifestations of LKJ’s administrative genius are worth
remembering, especially for the younger generation of Nigerians who are unfamiliar with what
constitutes a proper political party and what it means to methodically and consistently execute
the programmes and policies upon which a political party canvassed for votes. First was in the
area of education. The Jakande administration was quick in executing the free primary and
secondary education programme of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). Putting all the children of
school age in Lagos into school, while ending fee-based schooling in all schools within a short
period, was a massive endeavour. It involved the government take-over of all existing schools,
including mission schools, and also the establishment of many more schools to accommodate
the explosion in school enrolment. The urgent and massive need for the construction of new
classrooms forced Jakande to take a pragmatic approach. His administration built a particular
kind of new schools or added new classrooms to existing ones. Critics, particularly opposition
elements and members of the upper middle class in Lagos, derided the ‘Jakande schools’ as
some glorified concrete chicken pens or coops because they were built to lintel level with
added metal poles that held the roof in place. But, as these classrooms sprang up all over Lagos,
those who recognised the transformation that was afoot acknowledged the egalitarian
pragmatism that necessitated the choice that was made by the government. Jakande was more
concerned with the effectiveness of the free education policy than the aesthetic value of the
buildings. He recognised that, in the first iteration of the policy by the predecessor political
party in the 1950s, the Action Group (AG), some beneficiaries were even happy to gather under
trees before buildings were ready to accommodate the explosion in enrolment for primary
education.

As every child in Lagos headed for school with no concern about the cost to their parents and
with even school uniforms supplied free along with free meals, it became apparent that the old
ethos of leapfrogging the Lugardian contraption to modernity, which was started in 1955 in the
Western Region and aborted by military intervention in 1966, had returned with a new vigour.
While many spoke to national unity and pretended that they cared more about this, Jakande
operationalised it. No other State in Nigeria had a greater representation of the multiple ethnic
and religious identities in Nigeria than Lagos. Jakande cared for every child of school age, no
matter where they came from.

Undoubtedly, there were several problems with the implementation of this policy. Yet, these
were understandable challenges of massive social transformation. Though the process of our
instruction was affected in part by the some of these challenges, those of us described then as
omo Jakande (Jakande’s children) later appreciated the massive transformation in the lives of
several thousands of kids and their families wrought by the policies and actions of this most
able of public administrators.

Beyond infrastructures, LKJ’s style of leadership remains part of his legacy. His sartorial
simplicity, including the signature horsetail fly whisk, amiable bearing and easy smile will be
missed. I still recall vividly the first time I saw him as a student in one of the new schools he
created. We lined the street of our school as his convoy drove by.

The second was in the area of housing. Low-cost housing was one of the central programmes of
Jakande’s administration. Affordable housing was – and remains – a major challenge in Lagos.
In response to this, LKJ started massive low-cost housing projects all over the state. In this too,
there were many administrative impediments to the successful implementation of a laudable
project. Yet, his administration completed many housing projects from Oke-Afa and Amuwo-
Odofin to Surulere and Ikorodu. Again, what this scheme reflected was Jakande’s recognition of
the critical role of the state in intervening in the social process which, at that moment in
Nigeria’s evolution, constituted an important reflection of the kind of social democracy that he
and his political party espoused.

The third was the metroline project. Apart from the free education programme, this potential
high-impact project was one of the greatest demonstrations of the modernist and
transformative agenda of the Jakande administration. It was designed not only to address the
perennial problem of traffic congestion in Lagos, but also as part of the instruments for
economic renaissance in the city-state. It was therefore the most critical, most imaginative
response to the problem of urban transportation. It was designed to ensure that Lagos joined
other global cities in providing true mass transit. If it had been implemented, the metroline
would have transformed Lagos forever. Thus, we cannot overemphasise the importance of this
project.

Though it was not implemented, the project revealed three things about Jakande and the
political camp that produced him. One, it showed the massive transformative vision, principles,
policies that were the signal assets of the Unity Party of Nigeria, which made the party, among
all others in the Second Republic, a superior instrument for gaining and deploying state power
in the service of the common good. While some parties on the right, such as the National Party
of Nigeria (NPN) were only invested in power and domination, and others on the left cared
more about ideological purity and discourses than the challenging and messy work of genuine
social transformation, the UPN under Awolowo’s leadership was an ideologically pragmatic
instrument of rule that had an unparalleled clarity about the means, modes and capacities for
social transformation in the Nigeria of that age – as reflected in its Four Cardinal Programmes.

Two, it showed that Jakande, perhaps more than any of his contemporaries, not only
understood how the social transformation so conceived was to be achieved in a conurbation
such as Lagos, but that he also had the vision to organise the most effective and efficient ways
to accomplish the set goals in the context of the specific realities of that era. Three, starting the
project confirmed Jakande’s place as, administratively speaking, one of the most remarkable
strategic thinkers that Nigeria has ever produced. However, the abortion of this project (which
eventually cost the state and the country as much money in arbitration as would perhaps have
been needed to finish the project) was not only a sign of the myopia and heedlessness of the
Major General Mohammadu Buhari regime, it was also a stark reflection of the nature of
Nigeria’s ‘federalism’ and military rule. That a class of retrograde soldiers who had neither a
rudimentary understanding of the progressive principles nor of the developmental values
behind this vision could hijack the instruments of federal power and, with fiat, terminate one of
the most important means of urban transformation again reminds of the problems of the
Nigerian state and Nigerian federalism. We are still living with the consequences of this terrible
decision. Almost four decades after the Buhari regime aborted this project, Lagos is still trying
to build a similar project – with an incalculably higher ratio in cost. Yet, the state has not
succeeded. Two quick lessons here. One is the real and multiplier effects of efficient
governance that is the tradition of progressive politics in western Nigeria, and two is the
devastating and long-lasting impact of the atavism called military rule, particularly the most
invidious type that was experienced in Nigeria, and its concomitant subversion of federal
principles.

Beyond infrastructures, LKJ’s style of leadership remains part of his legacy. His sartorial
simplicity, including the signature horsetail fly whisk, amiable bearing and easy smile will be
missed. I still recall vividly the first time I saw him as a student in one of the new schools he
created. We lined the street of our school as his convoy drove by. He smiled and waved his fly
whisk from inside his personal car (which was also his official car) as we waved back to him.