Mallam Ibrahim Aliyu, the Chairman of Urban Shelter Limited has said that the development of Nigeria is dependent on its ability to produce quality leaders like the former Governor of Lagos state and Former Minister of Works, Lateef Jakande.
Aliyu said this while delivering a speech during the 1st Jakande Housing Lecture Series (JHLS) organised by REDAN in honour of the icon last Thursday in Lagos.
Aliyu who was the Chairman of the Occasion said he will forever be a student of Lateef Jakande.
‘’I landed in Lagos in 1983, having been appointed as a federal permanent secretary. In effect, I became a citizen of Lateef Jakande who was then the Governor of Lagos state.
‘’My favourite event at that time was to take a drive along the Epe road – it was the most beautiful road I had ever seen. It turned out that even at that time, his government knew how important that corridor was going to be for Lagos. 30 or so years later, that is the most rapidly developing part of Lagos,’’ he said, praising Jakande for his vision.
He also reminisced on the time when he became the Managing Director of Nigerian Industrial Development Bank, now Bank of Industry, when the Governor of Lagos state, in the person of Lateef Jakande paid him a courtesy visit at the office despite his objection, given that he was at least 20 years younger than Jakande.
‘’That in my view is a man of a lot of humility,’’ he said of the experience.
Aliyu also spoke about the time in 1983 when Jakande as a Governor contacted a French company to provide mass transit for Lagos.
‘’The figures are still in my head – just slightly shy of $800 million. He had already paid the 15% and the French has already given him the export finance required to do the job. But the project did not take off for reasons that were no fault of his
‘’In government, especially in military government, there was always the aspect of blackmail. They always had something on every governor, but they didn’t have any on Lateef Jakade. Because it was a big contract, they asked the French company to confess to a deal with Jakande or cancel the contract. The French company stood its grounds that there was no deal because there was truly no deal. That contract was eventually cancelled. Today, 2019, we are still yet to get mass transit for Lagos.
‘’For him to conceive such a project in the first place showed how ambitious he was, despite how it was affected by bad politics. In a way it is tragedy for this nation that the best of us hardly ever move to the top. We have become a nation of averages, and some may even say a nation of mediocre.
‘’We pray to God to create the opportunity for us to have good leaders. A people without good leaders can do nothing. There are 2000 million of us and we have good people. May good people like Jakade be given a chance so that we can live up to our potentials as a nation,’’ he said.
