Family of the late Lisa of Lagos, Joseph Randle, has revealed that none of the beneficiaries of their father’s estate has acknowledged the gifts bequeathed them as charity, which they never asked for.

One of the children and former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), Bashorun JK Randle, disclosed this at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Marina, during an event the family organised to commemorate 65 years of the patriarch’s demise.

In a statement entitled ‘No More Grief’, he noted that his father bequeathed substantial sums to two Islamic schools – Ahmadiyya College (now Anwar-Ul-Islam) in Agege and Ansar-Ud-Deen College in Isolo, as well as the Catholic’s Holy Cross Primary School, Lagos, for their sports development programmes.

He said: “It is rather strange that all these years, none of the beneficiaries from the estate of Chief JK Randle have publicly or privately acknowledged the generous gifts bequeathed them as charity without any solicitation on their part. I have no recollection of any sporting event being held at or by Ahmadiyya College, Ansar-Ud-Deen College or Holy Cross Primary School in memory of their benefactor.”

He said the generation that produced the late Randle was totally committed to building a virile nation that future generations would be proud of.

According to him, the reason Nigeria is in trouble is that the generation that succeeded Randle opted to do the exact opposite and the consequences are there for all to see.

He said: “The road map that was bequeathed had rightly identified the danger zones of religious conflict further compounded by ‘Elite Capture’ to the detriment of the poor and under-privileged. Before, what we had was the under-privileged. They have been supplanted by the no-privilege-at-all. Their lives have become a zero-sum game. Consequently, the lower class has morphed into the underclass.

‘They were determined to share wealth and prosperity. Hence, they made generous bequeaths, in the belief that the glue that would hold our nation together and galvanise it to prosperity was education reinforced by sports and sportsmanship.”