Lagos Renames Onikan Stadium after Mobolaji Johnson

Ololade Adeyanju/

Lagos State government kicked off the burial rites for the first Military Governor of the state, Gen. Mobolaji Johnson, with the renaming of the Onikan Stadium after him.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced at a ‘Day of Honour’ event organised to celebrate the late elder statesman today that the stadium will now be known as Mobolaji Olufunso Johnson Arena.

Paying tributes to the late Johnson, Sanwo-Olu described him as “a man who saw the future and worked to achieve the Lagos of our dreams”.

He said, “In whatever role we knew him, the first and longest serving military administrator of Lagos State stood out as a special person for his leadership and charismatic personality.

“If anyone was qualified to be addressed as ‘an officer and gentleman’, it was Brigadier-General Johnson. Despite his imposing frame, he was as gentle as a dove.

“He never threw his weight around, even though he was a man of power.

“As a man of authority, he was never authoritarian. Though a soldier, he never ruled with an iron hand; he was compassionate.”

The Sanwo-Olu and his deputy, Dr Obafemi Hamzat, led members of the state’s Executive Council and high-profile dignitaries to the event to honour the life and times of the deceased