TEMITOPE AJAYI
Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, Labour Party Guber candidate in Lagos, is reported to have said that Alhaji Lateef Jakande didnt have experience prior to his becoming Governor of the state.
While it is difficult not to believe such coming from him going by his many careless speak, I still want to give him a benefit of doubt.
Just for the records, Gbadebo was born in 1983 after Jakande had finished his first term as Governor of Lagos State. I think we can excuse him since he probably didn’t study in Nigeria to know enough about the country and Lagos State.
To say Jakande had no experience when he became Governor of Lagos State in 1979 by someone who aspires to the same seat the legendary Baba Kekere once occupied only shows poor sense of history.
Gbadebo belongs to the social media generation that finds it difficult to read any text above 200 words, still a simple Google/Wikipedia check on Jakande would have helped to fill any knowledge gap.
Jakande was among the foremost journalists in pre and post independent Nigeria. He started his journalism career in 1949 with the Daily Service. He joined Nigerian Tribune in 1953 and became Editor-in-chief of Nigerian Tribune in 1956, a position he held till 1975 when he started his own John West Publications where he published The Lagos News. Jakande was the first President of Newspaper Proprietors of Association of Nigeria.