By Fatai Ahmed
Former military administrator of kwara state, Group Captain Salaudeen Adebola Latinwo (Rtd) is dead. He reportedly died early today (Saturday) in the United Kingdom (UK) after battling a protracted illness.
He was 80.
Latinwo, a retired Group Captain in the Nigerian Air force, served as military governor of Kwara state from January 1984 to August 1985 under the military government of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari.
Born in Offa, Latinwo 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). The Nigerian Air force was formally established on 18 April 1964 under the Air Force Act of 1964.
In 1999, Latinwo and other retired military officers became power factor in Nigeria. In 2001, when President Olusegun Obasanjo approved the composition of the boards of Federal Government Parastatals, Latinwo was named as a board member of Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
In 2008, Latinwo was appointed by President Umaru Yar’Adua as the chairman for Kwara State for the National Committee on Mineral Resources and Environmental Compliance (MIREMCO).
Latinwo was born into the famous and mega rich Aliu Onaolapo Olatinwo family of Offa, in Offa local government of Kwara State in 1943. He was one of 43 children of 10 wives of his father Aliu Olatinwo.
Latinwo attended St. Marks Primary School from 1950 to 1956 in Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria. He was also educated at Offa Grammar School, Offa, Kwara State, Nigeria, 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 until 1963. He went to the National Institute of Administration in the United Kingdom in 1962 for an executive officers’ course, and he rose to the rank of an assistant chief executive officer in the then Northern Nigeria Ministry of Education.
In 1963, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, handpicked Latinwo from the Northern Nigeria Ministry of Education and other youths from Nigeria for training in Germany, to form the nucleus of the Nigerian Air Force. Latinwo was recruited into the Nigerian Air Force in 1963 to represent the northern part of the country.
In 1971, Latinwo married his only wife, Mrs. Mercy Latinwo (née Aganga). He has four children.
