Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, a former deputy governor of Lagos State, had represented the Lagos Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly between 1992 and 1993. In this interview, the lawyer, broadcaster and politician speaks on her years in politics, why she fell apart with President Tinubu, what she wants the Federal Government to do for Nigerians, among others. Excerpts:
How did you get into politics? How did you become the deputy governor to former Governor Bola Tinubu who is now the president?
Politics runs in my family. I came into politics because my father, too, was a politician. He contested on the platform of the Action Group and lost to the late Joseph Modupe Johnson (JMJ), but he and JMJ remained friends until their deaths.
In fact, my father’s clinic on Apapa Road was in one of JMJ’s houses. So, you see how the politics of that time was. My father encouraged me to go into politics. He felt that women were not represented enough.
You got along fine with Tinubu when he was governor of Lagos State and you were his deputy until things went sour between the two of you. How did the relationship get frosty?
We were on cordial terms at the start. When we were campaigning, all the food we were eating and everything was from my house in Victoria Island. So, as you said, it started okay. Where things went wrong was when Tinubu wanted to take over the Alliance for Democracy from the leaders and elders of the party. He wanted me to join him in the quest but I refused. That was when we fell apart.
I felt the leaders and elders of the party were the ones who supported us to get to where we were. They also were the founders of the party on whose platform we contested. I said it was wrong; that we should not plot to take over the party from them.
Have you spoken to Senator Tinubu since he assumed office as the president?
No, I haven’t. I have no reason to speak to him. We are not in the same party; I am in the PDP and a member of the party’s Board of Trustees. I have no reason to speak to him.
So, you two have not spoken to each other for a very long time?
It’s been several years.
Have things remained like this since you were removed as his deputy in 2002?
Well, we spoke, I think, when we met at one occasion when the Mobolaji Johnson Stadium was being dedicated. He greeted me and I greeted him.
That was all? No conversation?
That was all; no conversation, none, at all.
The prevailing economic situation is bad and Nigerians are complaining bitterly. What consolation would you offer the suffering citizens at this time?
Well, I don’t know whether I would go for consolation. There is no consolation I can give them because I don’t see any light at the end of the tunnel. The situation is bad. In fact, it is appalling. People cannot eat. Even I have to watch my finances now because there are so many people that I have to help. When my phone rings in the morning, it is somebody asking for financial assistance. When the situation is like this, it is really terrible.
I will give you an example: Yesterday, I had to buy some medicine for one of my relatives. I usually buy his medicine. Two weeks ago, the medicine cost N14, 000, but when I went to buy it yesterday, it was N20, 000. You see, the price of items goes up by the day.
Any day you go to the market, you find that the price of commodities has increased. The situation is really terrible and I don’t think the government is trying hard enough to face the situation and make things better for the ordinary man.
The president has been asking Nigerians to be patient, that with his reform policies, things will soon change for the better in the country. What do you make of his policies?
I don’t even know exactly what the policies are because he has not articulated them. All we know is that the fuel subsidy is gone. That’s what he said and some people say that the subsidy is not gone. So, we really don’t know what the true situation is in the country right now.
Still on the economy, a former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar said that palliatives are not the solution?
Yes, I agree with him. Palliative is not the answer. The answer is to make sure that people have jobs so that they can earn an income. The answer is that there should be security in the land so that people will not be afraid to invest in the country. That’s the answer, not palliatives. We have to do something; we have to have a rethink, and then the reliance on crude oil should not be so. This country is blessed with so many mineral resources, so what is happening? Are we marketing our mineral resources? Those minerals should be bringing in money apart from crude oil, but it seems we are not doing anything about it.
We have gold. If you go to Beirut or Dubai, you will see people selling gold. They will ask you: which kind of gold do you want? Why can’t we have gold stores in Kano, for instance, or in Sokoto? We are mining gold, what is happening to the gold? Why are we not having value added to it? Why are we not bringing people in to add value to our gold? We have other minerals, precious stones, what are we doing to develop the minerals? We have a variety of sources of income.
There is this controversy involving indigenous Lagosians and non-indigenes, especially politicians. These non-indigenes are being accused of systematically taking over Lagos from the real indigenes. What is your take on this?
I am an indigenous Lagosian and, therefore, I feel very strongly about it because I think it is being purposely done. It is being purposely done that non-Lagosians should take over the most important positions from indigenes of Lagos State.
We started noticing it when Tinubu and I were in power. Let’s face it.
Whatever anybody says, Tinubu is not a Lagosian and I feel because of that, he wanted to put non-Lagosians in power to support him. I think he knew that with his background and antecedents, it would be difficult for him to do maneuvers in Lagos State and so he started promoting non-Lagosians into positions of power.
You obviously love Lagos so much, where do you want it to be in the next 10 years?
Lagos is a fantastic place, it is my hometown. And I have travelled to various parts of the world. In fact, I would say that there is hardly a continent that I have not been to.
When we look at places like Dubai, why can’t Lagos be like that? When we look at places like Miami in the United States, why can’t Lagos be like that? That is where I expect Lagos to be. That is where I expect those who are in positions of authority to be taking Lagos, not the shambles that Lagos is now, with heaps of rubbish and chaos virtually everywhere.
There is a popular belief that Tinubu was a strong performer when he was governor of Lagos State. But under him as president, Nigerians have been groaning. What do you think is happening?
I don’t know what he did in Lagos. Lagos has become a big slum. That is what I can see. He says he saved the Bar Beach or Victoria Island from being swallowed by the Atlantic Ocean, but all that he did was to push erosion further down the coast to Alpha Beach. What kind of saving is that? I cannot attribute any development in Lagos to him.
“Where things went wrong was when Tinubu wanted to take over the Alliance for Democracy from the leaders and elders of the party. He wanted me to join him in the quest but I refused. That was when we fell apart”
Let’s talk about women. The clamour for stronger presence of women in politics has been on for some time. What advice would you give women as regards how to achieve this goal?
Well, I think a lot of women are deterred from going into politics because they fear violence which they think is associated with politics in Nigeria.
Is this phenomenon not present all over the world?
Definitely not. It is more prevalent in Nigeria and Africa. We saw the British election. We all watched it on television. People debated; they knocked on people’s doors to campaign and I don’t think there was violence. Even if there was violence, it is not tolerated. But here, we seem to actually condone it; we take it as if it is part of the system, and it should not be.
Of course, the financial aspect is also another thing because politics in Nigeria has become very expensive now. Most women don’t have the financial strength to go into politics where you need millions of naira to be able to even contest to become a councilor. How many women have millions of naira at their disposal to be able to contest? This wasn’t always so, but it became worse each time we had elections.
What then should women do to break this barrier and claim their place in governance?
Well, I will advise women not to be deterred. First of all, I think it is important that you are educated before you go into politics. If you are not educated, I don’t think you can contribute much as a legislator or in any other capacity in the political terrain.
I urge them not to be deterred. They should fight for more positions in the political parties. The problem really is that the political parties are male-dominated and because of this male domination, women are pushed aside; they are given the position of women leader. I believe that the position of the women leader should be cancelled in all political parties. Why don’t they have the position of male leader? It just shows you the attitude of the political parties; they (the men) are not yet taking women as equals and so they have to create a special position for them in the parties.
The president has been in office for 16 months, what is your assessment of his administration?
I am sorry to say that I think it has been a disaster. It has been a complete disaster because Muhammadu Buhari’s government was bad enough and one would have expected that Tinubu would have tried to turn things around, but he has not done that. He has been playing in the gallery. He has, in fact, been spending money on himself and his cronies, instead of actually doing something to better the life of the ordinary man.
What do you have to say about security?
Well, security is worse than ever because before, terrorists were in the North ravaging the place. Now they have moved down South and now we are having kidnapping in virtually every corner of Nigeria. I believe he has to make sure that the security apparatus is overhauled.
Some people are saying that the terrorists are in Sambisa forest. Why can’t the army go into Sambisa forest and get rid of them. They know where the terrorists are. These terrorists are phoning people.
Somebody is using the phone, you can locate him wherever he is. Whenever I get to London, I get a welcome message on my phone saying, ‘Welcome to London.’
So once you have a phone, you can be traced anywhere. In fact, I was watching a television this morning and one of the things being said was that all these people, those who were fighting in Lebanon, the terrorists in Lebanon, they don’t use phones, that’s why they were using pagers because they knew that they could easily be traced by the use of their phones. So, how is it that terrorists can phone people and ask for ransom and the police and the military cannot trace them and deal with them?
If you had the opportunity to meet the president, how would you advise him to address the situation in the country?
I don’t think the president would want my advice. I don’t think he is the kind of person that takes advice. After all, I was his deputy. I don’t believe he is the kind of person that takes advice. He seems to have the mindset that he knows it all.
But for the benefit of the doubt, what kind of advice would you give him?
Well, I would advise him to look around the country; we have qualified and capable people in this country who can give him the right advice and show him the way as to how to run the country.
My advice is that he should look into the security situation in the country very seriously because as long as there is no security, we would not have development because people would not invest in an unsecured country.
