Funmi,
who rarely grants interviews, recently obliged our request for a chat and it
was indeed a fulfilling moment as the erstwhile deputy speaker of the house
spoke on how she felt, when she was impeached by her colleagues in August 2009.
The
beautiful politician revealed that she nurses no bitterness against anyone and
that she has moved on with her life, adding that she will continue to serve the
people in any capacity she deems fit. She spoke with Oladipupo Awojobi.
Three
times you have been elected into the Lagos
State
Politically
powerful? Well I don’t know about that, all power belongs to God and the people
of my constituency have always wanted me to stay in this place because they
believe that the closer you are to home, the easier it is for them and when
they feel that they get the best from you, they would not want you to go far
away, you know Abuja is far, some people believe that they can’t get things
done until they see you, but it doesn’t have to be that way. I think those are
the reasons they insisted I should be here. I don’t think I am desperate to go
to Abuja, I believe it is an opportunity to serve, whether I am in Abuja or
Lagos, as long as giving the people the dividends of democracy is the reason
behind what you do, I think that is what is paramount, not where I am. But
because they feel so comfortable that I am nearer them, they are scared to say
go to Abuja .
You know we have had several military disturbances; the people don’t really
know the works of a legislator, so we have to continue to educate them like
telling them that when you are in Abuja ,
you can serve on a bigger level and get more things for them. But of course,
when you are used to something, you would not allow it to go. We are always
skeptical about things, and I think that is what the problem is, they need to
know that even if I am not in Lagos ,
I can still serve them.
At
a time you were the Deputy Speaker of the House, later you were removed, have
you forgiven those who removed you
You
see, life is not like that, I don’t have anything against anybody, if I did, I
probably won’t be talking to the incumbent Deputy Speaker, Hon. Musibau Kolawole
Taiwo now, but I don’t, he is my friend, our attitude are different in life,
there are some things I would never do to a friend, there are some things some
people would not mind doing to their friends and they won’t see it as a big
deal. You see, my life is very simple, I am very blunt, if I don’t like
anything, I would tell you, I don’t care who you are as long as I don’t insult
you. If you look at me now, I am friendly with everybody, those who signed and
those who did not sign and those who said they were not there that they signed
on their behalf, you cannot really know what happened that day because I wasn’t
there, only God knows. But like I said earlier on, when you have a challenge,
because I see that as a challenge, you have to face it, there are other people
that after being removed from office, they go into their shell, and nothing is
heard of them again. I saw it as a privilege, so I didn’t take it like anything
so big. It is something that actually happened, and I didn’t like the way it happened
because it was not proper, but the most important thing was that all the
allegations were seen not to be true, and that is okay for me. If you notice, I
was not struggling to go back as the deputy speaker, I was struggling that my
reputation was not tainted. If I did them, fine, my father would always tell me
that ‘anything you want to do, think about the consequences, if you can cope
with the consequences, do it, if you can’t cope, don’t do it.’ If I did it, I
would have thought about the consequences that this or that could happen and I
would face it. But, if I don’t do it and you say I did it, I would leave you
for God to judge you and if you look at life, God would judge you. If you look
at life, there is nothing that happens that He does not know, He would not have
allowed it to happen if He didn’t know about it. May be I was too trusting, so,
it was like a wake up call that I should stop trusting people, the next person
could want your position, so why trusting. But I felt that these were my friends
and all that, but when you get that kind of things, I believe that God has a
better plan for you. So, I have learnt my lessons, not that I am not their
friends, but I am no longer that over-trusting person, I am somebody that would
play with everybody, but I would be more careful. They cleared me of the
allegations and I have moved on, if I have not moved on, I would not be back in
the House of Assembly and the leadership of the party has confidence in me, and
that is the most important thing because our party is supreme and the party cannot
function without those people that registered the party and make sure it
functions well. It is important; if the leaders can stand for you and have
confidence, in you, what else do you want? In the House of Assembly, we
compete, initially, when I came, they said ‘ile rigimo ni,’ I didn’t know what
they meant, but later, I realized that there are a lot of intrigues, deception,
deceit and different people move up through different methods, some people
would have to pull other people down to move up, some people know that if they
work hard, they would get up. So, different people have different ways of
upbringing, so you can’t criticize anybody for doing something wrong if you
don’t understand where they are coning from.
Talking
about competition, would you like to be the Speaker of this House
Everybody
wants to be the Speaker, I fell I deserve to be the Speaker, all the 40 members
are potential speakers, nobody is better than the other person, if I could be
Deputy Speaker, I could be Speaker because when the Speaker was not around, I
stood in for him and took charge in the House and I say to myself that there is
nothing a man can do that a woman cannot do and as a matter of fact, anything a
woman cannot do cannot be done. I believe that I am educated enough, I have
enough exposure, I have been in this House for three terms and I feel that what
is it that I have not learnt that I shouldn’t have leant and there is nothing
they do to people that they have not done to me, I feel that if I can go
through all these things and still be able to laugh and play with my
colleagues, then why not. I am not trying to say I want to be Speaker, if I say
I cannot, then I have no confidence in myself, there is no member here that
cannot be Speaker.
We
observe you have a high sense of fashion and you are elegant, who takes care of
your wardrobe
Thanks
for the complement, I take care of the wardrobe, just me, I do everything
myself. My mother used to say that your appearance is your letter of recommendation,
if you dress well and you go somewhere, they would treat you better than the
next person that dresses like a tout. My mum, when she was having children, you
won’t believe she was the one who wanted to deliver a baby because she would
have bathed, put a little lipstick so that when her husband comes around, she
would be clean. So, if during labour you can remember to be neat and clean, then
when you are going to the office, you must be tidy. My father is a very down to
earth person, when he goes to a party; he spends only 30 minutes there and
leaves. He was a civil servant, director of public health, he is a medical
doctor. My mother would say, she didn’t like to go to party with my father as
he would not stay long there, but my mother loved going with her friend and at
least spend one hour so that the people would know that she came. But my father
would give them what he wanted to give them and leave. My dad won’t eat in
people’s house or outside, even till today, he only eats in his house. I remember
him going to my in-law’s house and he won’t even eat there. My mother
socialized with everybody, my father used to call her Salvation Army because
she was very nice and gave people things. Some of her friends when she was
alive included Chief (Mrs.) Fowler, Chief (Mrs.) Adebayo, they all liked to
look good, take care of their children and family.
Madam
at 48, you look 30, what is the secret
It
is God, I think some people that are as old as me have not experienced what I
experienced and they still look older. But one of the things is that I pray, I
give everything to God, good or bad, because He says in everything we should
give thanks and my husband tells me that I am not good at thinking because once
I take my shower and get on my bed, I sleep off, I don’t care what happens. I
don’t have high blood pressure and things people have, you know all these rich
people because they are always thinking about something, if you think about it,
you cannot solve it, but if you give it to God, something is going to happen. I
don’t stress myself; it is the grace of God. I get upset, when my younger ones
are with me and people say ‘yes ma,’ to them and they call me ‘sisi mi,; I tell
them the person you do ‘yes ma’ to is younger than me. Really, I think it is
the grace of God, I am not doing more than what others are doing because I
exercise and I eat a lot of chocolate, my children have learnt not to buy me
candy really. I take care of myself and my kids, I care for myself and I know
my limit.
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