Like Hilary, like Oluremi
Gabriel Amulu
THE political trajectory of Senator Oluremi Tinubu, OON, the distinguished three-time senator, representing Lagos Central Senatorial District, in the red chambers of the National Assembly, is trending in the media. Tons of advertorials and tributes have been written in her honour, even as a few cynical comments have also been made. The outpouring of commendations from distinguished Nigerians, cannot be only because she is married to the political colossus, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; it also because she is distinguished, herself.
Her political strides reminds one of the Senator Hilary Clinton, the United States of America’s former first lady, who went on to become a presidential candidate of the Democratic Party in 2016. From being a first lady, to a senator, Hilary achieved national acclaim to enable her beat other presidential aspirants to be the candidate of her party. To show how enamoured she was as a candidate, she won the popular vote, even though, President Donald Trump, won the requisite electoral college vote to become the president.
In the past three senates, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has morphed from a rookie, who many believed became a senator because of her husband’s influence, to become one of the most senior and influential senators. As a three-time senator, she deservedly is the chairman of communications committee, and influential member of other committees. Indeed, as one of the longest serving senators from the south-west, no major decision in the senate can be taken, without her opinion carrying a significant weight. So, she has earned her strips as a Distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic.
Senator Tinubu has remained an active lawmaker, not a bench warmer. She initiates and contributes in no small measure to critical bills that touches on her two major constituencies, that is Lagos State, and women and children. She co-sponsored the bill for Lagos to receive a special allocation, which but for unconscionable politics, deserves national support, considering the role Lagos plays in the economic and political life of the country. After all, Lagos carries enormous economic and political load of many laggard states in the country.
The distinguished senator has also sponsored and co-sponsored a number of bills to improve the lives and wellbeing of women and children. To merit her first election into the senate in 2011, Senator Tinubu, was an advocate and promoter of the interests of women and children as Lagos State First Lady and even after. Her non-governmental organisation, the New Era Foundation is the vehicle for most of her projects. One of her most popular projects is the Spelling Bee competition, which attracts the best and brightest to compete in essay writing.
The winner of the competition is then given among other benefits, the opportunity to act as a governor of Lagos State for one day. That programme which started while she was the first lady is still running, and in years to come, some of the beneficiaries would have been mentored to become national icons. Before she aspired to the senate, she had shown through her determination to positively touch on the lives of the less privileged, especially women and children.
Senator Hilary Clinton, whose husband Bill Clinton served as president of the United States from 1993 to 2001, went on to become a two-term senator from New York from 2001 to 2009. After contending with Barack Obama for the Democratic ticket, which Obama won and also went ahead to win the presidential election, Obama made Hilary the Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013. While out of power, she was one of the most sought after speaker, on international affairs, and by 2016, she was toughened enough for the presidential election battle, in which she distinguished herself creditable.
So, like Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Senator Hilary Clinton, morphed from the ceremonial office of the first lady, albeit of the country, to become a distinguished senator, diplomat, lawyer, writer and public speaker. Senator Clinton born on October 26, 1947, and now 72 years, may have seen the best of her political career, as spectacular as it was. On her own part, Senator Tinubu, born on September 21, 1960, and now 60, having distinguished herself as senator, administrator and first lady, may just be nearing the apogee of her political carrier.
With her stellar performance in the senate, not to talk about her private work, as a humanist and philanthropist, Senator Tinubu is fully loaded to achieve a lot more. It is interesting to note that like Oluremi, Hilary was under the shadow of a political colossus, as first lady. As the President of the United States, Bill Clinton, was so much loved by his supporters, in near equal measure as those who hated him, and tried every conceivable thing to bring him down.
Again similar trajectory plays out in the life of the spouse of Oluremi. Her husband, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, for his teeming supporters is the best next thing after God, and many of them are willing to lay down their lives to aid his political empire. Yet, there are those who wish the world should come to an end, as long as that political empire will collapse with it. But regardless of the distractions and even personal inadequacies, Asiwaju Tinubu, like Bill Clinton, has become a distinguished statesman, still with immense political potentials.
The common saying while Clinton was president, from 1993 to 2001, was that the United States had two great minds, serving the nation, even though they voted for one. Perhaps, despite the political self-effacement as first lady, the people of Lagos State also had two similar great minds, while Asiwaju served as governor of the state from 1999 to 2007. One legacy Oluremi Tinubu as wife of the then governor and now the leader of the party, has engendered in Lagos, is the exemplary harmony between the spouses of the top officials of the state.
Unlike the wives of many top officials, both at state and the federal, who stumble from one scandal to another, Senator Tinubu has had no scandal in her political and non-political career since 1999. That is not a mean achievement, considering the common experience across the political divide. Perhaps, the underlying factor is her humility, which has been attested to, by those who know her personally. With the high and mighty streaming into her house, seeking one political favour or the other, it requires the grace of God to maintain psychological balance.
Having distinguished herself, as an educationist, administrator, public speaker, and philanthropist, who knows the future trajectory her political career would take? This writer remembers her humility in accepting an invitation through Olakunle Abimbola, to chair the installation ceremony of the President of Rotary Club of Festac Town, many years ago. With 60 hearty cheers, this writer joins other numerous well-wishers, to wish Senator Oluremi Tinubu, OON, abundant God’s blessings in her journey as a mother, grandmother, politician, administrator and humanist.
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