I’m not interested in Lagos governorship –Remi Tinubu

[Mirror]

For eight years, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu had a remarkable stint as First Lady of Lagos State with charity works between 1999 and 2007. In 2011, she towed the path of her husband and leader of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to be elected as a senator. In the past two years, Senator Tinubu has been representing the Lagos Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly. In this interview, she shares her mission, experience, and challenges. AYODELE OJO reports.

In the last two years, you have been in the Senate, did you actually prepare for this job?

I am from a political family. There is no time that we are not ready to serve. We have been serving at the state and national levels for a long time now, so we have been in the process trying to bring succour to the people and I don't know how more ready you want me to be. For one, my husband has been a very visible active player, but if he hadn't gotten the support from home and the understanding, I don't think he would have been able to go this far.

So, is it a familiar or an unfamiliar terrain? It is a familiar terrain for a long time now. We have paid the price to even be here today. I will tell you it's like maybe this battery that they used to have in the U.S. that is Ever Ready; so, it is like where you want to be and what capacity you want to serve. So, I am always ready.

What is your primary concern in the Senate?

My primary concern is one; the rate of the poverty level of our people. This wasn't the Nigeria that I grew up to love. I keep saying it that I was not from a very wealthy family, but we were comfortable, we were the then middle class, we could aspire, we could dream to be whatever we want to be. I am here today because that dream kept me, but when I look at what we have today; I look at the young people and my concern is for the young, not for the old. What kind of Nigeria do we want to leave for them? A good parent would leave an inheritance for the children, but what inheritance, what legacy do we want to leave for the upcoming generation? What they see is corruption. We see our children doing a lot of this yahoo yahoo business, a lot of kidnapping, cultism and I am worried.

If we go wrong, we should be honest enough to say that we have gone wrong. The German Chancellor was saying recently that her generation had done wrong to the young generation. If Europe is saying they have sinned by accepting that they didn't create jobs for the young people and we Nigerians are still lying under SURE-P, we are still lying under Sovereign Wealth Fund. I am concerned and my primary concern is respect for the rule of law.

Do you encounter any challenge in the Senate?

My greatest challenge in the Senate is that out of the 56 committees, the ACN only has three chairmanships. I am the vicechairman of the Senate Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity and some people would say, oh do labour people who are in the struggle dress the way I am? But I say, this is the new face of labour, and it is in my blood. If you fight for the common good, for the people you don't have to dress in towels and deceive them, but they know who are theirs and you can see me with the rapport I have with the common man and my heart is saying, who is going to give them justice? Who is going to fight their cause? So, I want to see where social security is directed to the young person. I want to see them have access to free health care, to go to school, to have three square meals on the table. So my request is very simple. My request is that people can live like very decent human beings. They don't have to keep begging for food, they don't have to sleep under the bridge. That is my concern.

You are the one pushing for the bill for a special status for Lagos. How far with the bill?

You know the Senate Committee on Constitution Review said special status cannot be included in the constitutional amendment, but by the grace of God, we will have it. When we have the right government for Nigeria, they will know the need why Lagos should be given that special status as General Murtala Muhammed recommended years ago for Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano.

What is your reaction to the threat by the British Government to cut off assistance to Nigeria on account of the bill prohibiting same-intercourse marriage?

I don't see any reason why any government would talk down on the government of another country. Is it not the freedom of choice? Why should you now breathe down a country's neck and give them ultimatum? We are Africans and we never ask them to wear some of our traditional clothes. We have culture and we also have tradition and this is according to our tradition and culture. Even their gay right is even conflicting and now, I don't know whether they will give us another Bible and send new missionaries to us because the Bible they left with us says it is wrong and I think in the Koran it also says it is wrong.

What is the fate of the 2013 budget with the refusal of the National Assembly to pass the amendments sent from Mr President Goodluck Jonathan?

What can I say? Being in opposition whatever your views are, they are not even respected. To me, that is the way they want to see it because one day, Senate will be crying foul, the next minute you don't understand what is going on. So, they go forward andbackward with the budget. And the budget that is passed, does it translate into anything?

At the end of the day, they end up declaring state of emergency, so I am just as confused. If just one man could transform Dubai, it doesn't take a lot of people to make a change.

That is why Nigerians must look critically at President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 or whoever Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chooses. Lagos is Lagos today because somebody sacrificed. You all know what Lagos looked like after the military government, but we tend to forget. We see the bridge that Governor Babatunde Fashola has just commissioned and we think that is how Lagos used to be. No, it wasn't.

Why are senators always desirous of getting juicy committee positions in the Senate?

If I wanted a juicy committee I wouldn't be in the Labour, Employment and Productivity Committee. I can only speak for myself and I have been a rookie in the Senate and I don't know about the juiciness of the committees until I learn. I think one of the things that the chairman of a committee gives is to wield more powers to work. For me, I am quite satisfied wherever the Senate President has put me, but for us in the ACN, we want to work.

Do you support the state of emergency declared in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states?

The state of emergency came rather too late, after security votes had been wasted and could not be accounted for. To me, when I look and see the pretence, these are not the things you would want to say. It is still the more you look, the less you see and I just pray that a lot of innocent lives are not lost.

So, it is still chasing shadows. The problem with Nigeria and terrorism is the level of poverty. Until it is addressed, people are still going to be aggrieved; they are still going to be angry. So, I never supported state of emergency and I still don't. I don't believe in it.

But ACN senators voted for it?

They voted for it for their own reasons, but I didn't vote and you can count this as my vote.

Would you agree with the suggestion by the ACN national leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, that the work of the legislature should be made part time?

Governance truly is expensive. When you look at the national budget, it is mainly on paying salaries. If my husband (said that) I think he misses me too (Laughter). If it is part time, it would be nice so that credible people can go into the Senate and go back to their daily chores.

There are speculations that you are running for the Lagos State governor in 2015?

Even to run for this office, it is this press that started it. So, don't start it oh! Truly speaking, it is never my ambition to run for governor of Lagos State. Remember, my husband did it for eight years and I was not outsider to it. It is not a place for the tender-hearted, it is a lot of work to govern Lagos and I am not the type that don't put hard work into whatever I do.

I don't think I have the strength to say that I want to govern the present state of Lagos. There is still a lot of work to be done in Lagos, a lot of work. It is not a child's play. I am still in training as far as I am concerned. My first love is charity work. So, I don't have such an ambition.

National Mirror