A lot has been said and written about the current First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu. Some of the commentaries about her have been negative while others have been quite complimentary. But those who know this very accomplished woman of substance well enough have insisted that she is an amazing woman, inside and outside. They say it is unfortunate that, sometimes, she is grossly misrepresented and gullible Nigerians feast on all negative contents that are thrown out there about public office holders. But the First Lady , having been in the public glare for decades running, understands the terrain she is in and knows exactly how to swim with the tides and handle public criticism with utmost tact and diplomacy.
But this takes nothing away from the fact that she is an absolutely wonderful person that is loved by millions of Nigerians, especially women, from all all parts of the country who see in her a remarkable woman who epitomises substance, accomplishments, fairness, love and above all, compassion for the Nigerian child and mother. And the Ogun state First Lady, Her Excellency, Mrs. Bamidele Abiodun, reflects this part of Senator Oluremi Tinubu that many Nigerians don't know about. She spoke with Senior Editor, Wale Lawal (08037209290) and shared interesting encounters with the nation's First Lady, Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and the many things she's learnt from her. Enjoy.
Each time I see you at events, watch how you conduct
yourself, listen to you speak, the impressions I have of you are that you
must’ve been a firecely focused, prim and proper lady right from your youth.
But I’d like you to tell us, what kind of young lady were you, ma, were you
like any other average young girl out there while growing up?
I would say that I was like
any other young lady out there. I had the same kind of aspirations that most
girls have. I grew up like a normal person, rode my bicycle when it was time to
ride my bicycle, cooked when I needed to cook, went to parties when I needed to
go to parties and had boyfriend when I needed to have boyfriend. But I had
boundaries and my mother, she was particularly forthright. She passed away 17
years ago. I never saw her lie. She was one that always spoke her mind. With
her, what you saw was what you got. So, I think watching her as a child has had
an influence on all of us. Her way of life was like a guide to all of us. I got
into trouble like any other child, but in all, I remained a child that my
parents will always be proud of.
These are difficult times for Nigerian women, for everyone,
owing to the economic reforms and I know that, being the first lady of Ogun
state, this also puts some enormous pressure on you because what this
translates to is that lots of people come to you seeking all sorts of
assistance. Just take us through a few of the things you have done to support
women through these difficult times in your own small corner.
No doubt, the economic
realities have indeed placed a significant burden on families, especially women
who often bear the responsibility of managing household needs. In response, we
have focused on initiatives that provide immediate relief and long term
empowerment such as micro credit schemes for women entrepreneurs, skill
acquisition programmes and free health care for vulnerable children and mothers.
While these measures are not a complete solution, they provide a safety net and
a foundation for resilience as we await positive impact of the reforms. And
we’ve done quite a lot in the area of food security and empowerment of our
people financially. The Ogun state government, as you know, provided
transportation, adopted the new minimum wage and is empowering our farmers. At
Ajose Foundation, where I am founder, we have also given cash grants and food
items to families in various communitites in the state. One of the biggest
things that we are doing at the moment is partnering with the office of the
First Lady of the Federation, Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu. She has
done a lot. She’s been in office less than two years and what she has done, through
us, is amazing. The Renewed Hope Iniative is what their programme is called and
all the first ladies are her Renewed Hope Initiative Ambassadors in all the 36
states. Her contributions are invaluable. She gives us cash grants to give to
people, cash grants for the elderly. We did one in December where we had about
500 elderly people from across the state and we gave them N200,000 each with
food and stuff, I’m talking real elderly people above the age of 65.
She gave us some money to give to people living with disabilities, because that's another area where people neglect a lot. We gave like, I think it was about 200 of them, 100,000 naira, just cash grants, just to help them and make them feel better. She's also supporting farmers. There was a point she gave us some money, we gave 500,000 naira to about 20 or 40 female farmers to help them scale up what they were doing. One time she gave each of us one trailer of rice of 25 kg bags. We had like 1,200 of those 25 kg bags of rice to distribute to people in need. She gives us scholarships for people in tertiary institutions. I mean, anything that comes to her, she just gives. And we always have to report back to her to let her know this is what we've done. We include the phone numbers, BVNs, account numbers of the recipents and everything, so that if she wants to check at any point in time, she can check. So there's accountability. Right now, because of what she's doing and because a lot of people are seeing what she's doing, people are going to her and they're offering her support and she's now filtering that support through us, through the grassroots. So we are doing what we can and then we're also working through the wives of the local government chairmen and women leaders.
Sometimes we even put aside the politicians, because you know, politics is always politics. Politicians will always lean towards their own people and people that they know. And she always tells us, I'm not the first lady of APC, I'm the first lady of the federation, so it is not for APC alone and so, we have that in mind. When we too are doing our distribution, factoring PDP, factoring Labour Party, we're factoring people generally and that is something that she's driving and she's driving it very well. Then she's keeping us engaged. We're not first ladies that are sitting down at home and doing nothing, just taking pictures or looking nice, no, we're out there and we're engaging people. We're engaging people at the grassroots level.
I'm sure that you don't know about all these things, because she doesn't really publicize them. She doesn't even talk about them. I know she's doing a lot, but she doesn't talk about them. As far as I'm concerned, she should talk about them more. She should talk about them so people can see what... I mean, don't let me say some things, but she's just awesome. And she's helping us to become responsible because she's a very compassionate woman. There was one time, I think she was going through the newspapers and she saw the story of a girl that put something on Facebook. The girl is a sickle cell patient. One of her limbs had been amputated. Her mother or her parents had spent a lot of money looking after her. They didn't have anything and she just put it out there on Facebook. And the First Lady said, go and look for that girl. There were actually two of them. Go and look for that girl for me. She didn't even want the girl to know that she's the one that did stuff for her. She gave us the responsibility of going to search her out and making sure that the girl was fine. And then she just followed up. She wouldn't just do it and leave it, she would ask, that girl, how is she doing? Are things better with her family? She's a very good example. She's doing a lot for us First Ladies, enabling to support a lot of people in the grassroots and it's making us now more responsible towards the people at the grassroots level.
How do you feel as a
woman who also occupies a very exalted office in Ogun State when you hear
people make very nasty comments about you, or about someone like Her Excellency
the First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, knowing how much you're both giving back
to make life easier for the people out there?
Well, I'm not really out there like that so I don't get a lot of that. But I get a lot of that from people that know me. I mean, since my husband became the Governor, I get a lot of that from people who think, ‘oh, I should be doing this for them and doing that for them.’ I mean, I've always been who I am. I've always paid attention to my appearance. I don't look any different now than I looked then. So when people come and they say all sorts of things, ‘Ah, look at her, she's carrying that bag, she just bought this one.’ I mean, initially, it used to bother me and I used to try to prove that they’re wrong, But now, I don't bother anymore because I think most people talk out of lack of knowledge and sometimes a sense of entitlement. And maybe they think that, because you're in the office of the First Lady, there's cash growing on the trees around you, and so because of that, you should be able to hand it down. And they don't even know that different governors have different ways in which they run their homes. Some women have access to plenty of money that you can see. Some don't. But it depends on how you carry yourself. Nobody really needs to know how it is.
People who work for me, when I'm talking to them, I don't talk to them as if I'm the boss, we're a team and everybody has their own contribution, including my truck driver that's driving my truck. I'll call him and I'll ask him what the situation is at his end. I mean, I have a business that I run, and I still run it, and I still call my driver, and I'm not going to say because I'm first lady now, someone else will have to reach him on my behalf, no. I still ask him, so I make him feel a part of the business, not that I'll be lording things over him, and I'll be saying, no, I'm your boss, and so whatever I say, you must do. So because of that, because of the way I relate to my staff, my staff work wholeheartedly. I don't have problems with them. I'm not unapproachable, they can talk to me anytime, they can ask me anything. We have an understanding, so my staff turn over is like zero, except I take on new people. My staff don't leave me, because the business is not my business alone, this is our business, and we benefit from it together. And so I make them contribute and that's just the same way it is in dealing with people. You know, people are, sometimes, just small-minded, and you come to realize that, as I've always said, we can't all be the same.
So, I've learned a lot from Her Excellency Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and I have a lot of respect for her. And I'm not just saying it because I want to flatter her, or I want to say it because she's the First Lady, no. She has substance, and I can say I have seen it. And you know, like Yoruba would say, it's like smoke, you can't hide it. That's who she is.
0 Comments