Chief Rafiu Bakare Jafojo, a former Lagos state deputy
governor, died at 80 on Saturday, April 23.
Chief Rafiu Bakare Jafojo died at the age of 80 after a
brief illness.
Jafojo died in Lagos after a brief
illness. He is to be buried today at 2pm.
Jafojo served as a deputy governor to Alhaji Lateef
Jakande on the return of the country to civil rule in 1979
to 1983.
His former boss was one of the first callers at the
deceased home. He described Jafojo as “a loyal deputy”
and praised for the repose of his soul.
The late Jafojo was born on December 6, 1935. His
parents were the late Pa Bakare Adeyefa Jafojo in Ebute
Meta and the late Madam Taiwo of Ebute Meta, Lagos,
but he grew up in Isale Awori, Ikeja.
He began his working career in 1959 as a building
inspector with the Ikeja Town Planning Authority.
However, in 1961 he left Nigeria for England where he
studied building engineering at Hackney Technical College.
In 1966, he obtained a National Certificate and moved to
Brixon School of Engineering, where he graduated with a
Higher National Certificate in Building.
In 1969, Jafojo entered the Northern Polytechnic (now
University of North) in London, where he bagged an
Advanced Certificate in Building Technology.
Shortly after his return to Nigeria, he pitched tent with the
Egbe Afenifere. He mobilized and encouraged the Awori to
be politically conscious.
Between 1975 and 1977, he was elected a councillor in
Ikeja local government and later became the chairman of
the General Purpose Committee.
In 1978, Jafojo joined the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria,
whose national leader was the late Chief Obafemi
Awolowo.
Awolowo encouraged him to join the then governorship
candidate Alhaji Lateef Jakande as his running mate. The
joint ticket worked; they won the election.
On October I, 1979, Chief Jafojo was sworn in as the first
democratically elected deputy governor to Alhaji Jakande.
