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, Leadership reports that 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.