By Sadiq Umar – Second Republic deputy governor of Lagos, Rafiu Jafojo has died at the age in Lagos.
Late Jofojo who was the deputy to governor Lateef Jakande died at the age of 80.
The remains of Jafojo will be committed to mother earth today at his resident in Ikeja, in accordance to Islamic rite.
The former deputy governor was born on December 6, 1935. His parents were the late Pa Bakare Adeyefa Jafojo in Ebute Meta and the late Madam Taiwo (nee Adebunmi) of Ebute Meta, Lagos, but he grew up in Isale Awori, Ikeja.
Jafojo attended Alafia Institute, Ibadan and Christ High School, Ilubinrin, Lagos, where he wrote the West African School Certificate Examination and passed with flying colours. He began his working career in 1959 as a Building Inspector with the Ikeja Town Planning Authority, but left for England In 1961; his bosom friend Chief Ayo Otegbola was with him on the trip.
He gained admission into Hackney Technical College, England to study Building Engineering three year later. After obtaining a National Certificate in 1966, he moved to Brixon School of Engineering, where he graduated with a Higher National Certificate in Building. Due to his thirst for further education, in 1969, he proceeded to the Northern Polytechnic, Holloway (now University of North) London, where he bagged an Advanced Certificate in Building Technology a year later.
While in England, Chief Jafojo was a student-activist; he was a member of the West African Students Union. It was from here he honed his skills in partisan politics. Upon his return to Nigeria, unsurprisingly, he pitched tent with the Egbe Afenifere.
In 1978, when the Army prepared to return the country to political rule, Pa Jafojo joined the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), whose founder/national leader was the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. His ambition was to be a lawmaker. To achieve this, he collected a form to represent his Agege Constituency in the state House of Assembly. This was not to be as mother luck smiled on him; the late sage Chief 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, alongside Alhaji Jakande was sworn in as the first democratically elected Deputy Governor of Lagos. The event was historic because at 44 years, Chief Jafojo also became the first Awori to occupy the exalted number two-seat in the state.
After their very successful term, they were re-elected. The military later sacked the Jakande administration in 1983.
