By GILBERT EKEZIE
One of the Nigeria’s egalitarian leaders, Chief Sir Salaudeen Adebola Latinwo, a retired Group Captain in the Nigeria Air Force and former military Governor of Kwara State is dead.
A reliable family source informed that he died in his London home yesterday (Friday) in his sleep at the age of 80.
Born into the famous and mega rich family of Late Aliu Onaolapo Olatinwo of Offa in Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State on 12th July, 1943, Latinwo was one of the 43 children of 10 wives of his father.
He attended the St. Mark’s Primary School Offa from 1950 to 1956. He later proceeded to Offa Grammar School from 1957 to 1961 where he obtained his West African School Certificate.
In 1961, Latinwo joined the Northern Nigeria Civil Service and worked at the Northern Nigeria Ministry of Education.
He went to National Institute of Administration in the United Kingdom in 1962 for an Executive Officers Course, and rose to the rank of an Assistant Chief Executive Officer in the then Northern Nigeria Ministry of Education.
In 1963, then Sarduana of Sokoto and the Premier of Northern Nigeria, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, handpicked him from the Ministry of Education and other youths in Nigeria for a training in Germany to form the nucleus of the Nigerian Air Force.
Latinwo was therefore recruited into the Nigerian Air Force in 1963 to represent the Northern part of Nigeria.
He married his only wife, Mrs Mercy Latinwo (Nee Aganga) in 1971 and has four children.
His first son is being groomed as a future Governor of Kwara State.
The late Latinwo was the brother-in- law to the former Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Oluwatoyi Aganga.
He served under Muhammadu Buhari’s military government from January 1984 – August 1985.
He was part of the pioneering sets of officer cadets recruited into the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in 1963, under the first Chief of Air Staff of the Nigerian Airforce, Colonel Gerhard Kahtz, who was on secondment as head of the German Air Force Assistance Group (GAFAG).
He retired from active service in 1986.