Lagos State Commissioner for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Uzamat Akinbile-Yussuf, a trained pharmacist, speaks about her strides and challenges in public office as well as gender inclusion in politics in this interview with KUNLE AKINRINADE.
In what way has your personality rubbed off on your performance in the three ministries you have superintended?
First, my purpose for coming into politics is to serve humanity. The first thing that comes to my mind whenever I am assigned to a ministry is what I have to offer to make a remarkable difference. This is the reason for the relative achievements my ministry has recorded this year despite the turbulence caused by Covid-19 and EndSARS protests.
Second, I have a very good and cordial relationship with the management and staff of the ministry, not minding the fact that some could still make mischievous remarks about me. From the Special Adviser (SA) on Culture to the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, there has not been any sour relationship, and you can see that the SA was all smiles when he sauntered into my office a few minutes ago. It is the same with the directors and other principal officers.
Also, I am a go getter. I don’t procrastinate at all. I go for what I believe is right and result-oriented. That has been my driving force wherever I found myself. I always want to achieve something and I am driven by success to put in my best for good results. I don’t believe in attaining 99.9 per cent pass; I always want to have a 100.1 per cent success in all that I do. I don’t look at any immediate gains; I always set my eyes on things that could crystalise into a success story for me. I thank God that I haven’t failed in that regard, and to a very large extent, it has been a success story for me in all that I do.
Do you have fears when you were redeployed from Home Affairs Ministry to Tourism, Arts &Culture?
(Laughs) As a trained pharmacist, I relate more with the public. So, considering my private sector background, I was able to fit into the social services rendered by the Ministry of Youth and Social Development as a first time commissioner. And my robust interactions with youths propelled me into success, coupled with the fact that I had a young and vibrant permanent secretary who supported me and is now the state’s Head of Service. The synergy enabled us to conceptualise and plan our programmes very well; same with my tenure at the Ministry of Wealth Creation and Employment.
But the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture has a professional outlook such that one has to be versed in the critical sectors, and it is majorly arts-based. But as a scientist, I am not given to writing long correspondence, but I have relied so much on the people at the ministry to make my work smooth. I must mention a friend of mine, who was also a colleague then: Oba Gbolahan Lawal, the Oniru of Iruland, who supported me and rally around me. The monarch invited some core professionals to take me through the nitty-gritty of the responsibilities at the ministry.
Also of note is my mentor and Minister for Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who was also there for me. He actually hired a consultant to work with me. So, I have people who did not abandon me to wobble and fumble on the job at all. Their support boosted my morale that I must not fail at all. So within four weeks of going through tutelage from the people brought to help me, I became a master of issues relating to tourism, arts and culture. I had even told the staff of the ministry to give me just four weeks to understudy the ministry and I would become a guru. It turned out exactly the way I predicted after people like Bolanle Austin-Peters, Makin Soyinka and others put me through on matters relating to the ministry’s critical sectors and issues.
How have these assignments impacted on your life?
Public office has added exposure about governance to my life. If you have not been there, you cannot know what it takes to govern people. And the experience there is something you cannot get from any school except you are part of the system. The bureaucracy of governance is so difficult that your hand and legs are so tight. People think it is easy to get things done, but there are protocols and guidelines that must be followed, which even the governor cannot afford to jettison in order not to cause problems. Therefore, we have learnt to be very careful in doing our jobs. I will do my part and pass the rest on to people within the system to also do their work to consummate the required process and procedures.
At times, you want something done fast, but you get slowed down by process and procedures. In my private enterprises, I can have things done with a snap of the fingers, while it is a different ball game in public office. In my private organisation, we can get projects executed once the board approves of such projects. But in public office, the governor’s approval would still be subjected to due process, which may take lengthy time or period. At times, I would have to follow or pursue files to various offices, tables and agencies where necessary compliance is needed in order to get the job done. What you can execute within 48 hours in private sector would usually take longer days to accomplish in the public sector because of inherent bureaucracy, as files have to pass through various agencies and departments. That is why the job drags for too long.
Some people think that once the governor approves of something it would be executed immediately. But approvals are subject to conformity with necessary procedures to perfect the statutory procedures.
So what has being a public office holder taken away from you?
It has snatched my private life, which I don’t like. When I was running my private businesses, my companies were more popular than me. People hardly knew me as the owner of the businesses because I allowed my businesses to take the forefront while I remained in the background. So, when people saw me, they could hardly relate me with the companies because I allowed the businesses to function as corporate entities rather than signposting my person with the businesses as the owner.
But in public office, your image as the head is built around the ministry, which I am not used to because it entails that you show your face and be everywhere with the image of your portfolio and ministry, and you are easily identified by people. This means you can no longer be what you want to be but what the public wants you to be. As a commissioner, people easily read meanings into what you do either positively or negatively, and the scrutiny can rob you of your cherished privacy. This is one of the things I have experienced so far as a commissioner.
Also, public expectation is too high and negatively demanding at times. For example, someone else’s wife was delivered of a baby and you are expected to sponsor the naming of the baby. And if you don’t, some would tag you as being unfeeling and call you different names, forgetting that you are on salary. I have a friend who always jibes at me for doing so much for people who do not appreciate gestures. She said that people appreciate her greatly for just a N10 000 gift than me who would spend hundreds of thousands of naira on people who would pay back with ingratitude.
I got the shock of my life a few days ago when someone accused me of collecting as much as N18 million as monthly salary but was not taking care of them. I told them that not even the governor earns that much and that I have relied on my salary and the support of my dutiful husband.
So the situation we have found ourselves as public office holders is that people expect us to provide for them and take care of all their needs, and that is impossible. So, there must be public orientation to tell people that public assignments are supposed to be strictly service to the society.
Given the experience you just shared, would you encourage other women to take up public office?
Of course, I will, because we need more women in governance. Women are better managers except for the unserious minded ones. Women can multi task by taking care of their children, home and husband and at the same time do well in public office. Only a few men can do that.
When a man returns from work he gets tired and ordinarily would show little or no interest in how his children have fared at home or in their schools in his absence. But no matter how hard a woman works or how tired a woman is, she would on her return home feel concerned about her children’s wellbeing while she was away from home, hence, women are better at multi-tasking than men.
However, while I would encourage women participation in politics or public office, I don’t believe that we have to be given any special status to participate or excel in public office. I don’t like hearing that we should be given certain privileges because we are women. If you know that you have what it takes to do the job or fix the society, go there and do it; don’t ask for special privileges to excel or that men should have a pity for you. A lady recently asked me what consideration I was going to give women to women and I told her that we don’t have to push men away for women to flourish.
But it is generally believed that women are only engaged by male politicians as praise singers…
No, that is not correct. Only women who make themselves available to be used are being used. If you don’t make yourself available to be used as a female praise singer, nobody will use you. You don’t use anyone who is not ready to be used. If I call on you to praise-sing me and you reply that you don’t want to be a praise singer, I cannot force you to do it.
How has the year been for your ministry?
We are gradually coming to the end of the year and it has been so challenging for us, especially the effects of coronavirus pandemic and the EndSARS protests on government activities and programmes. However, despite these challenges, we cannot totally say that the Lagos end of the year concert is totally out of our focus. But the way and manner we are going to plan the event is not clear to us yet because of the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic staring us in the face. Yes, some people can be asymptomatic and still infect others at large gatherings. So, the combined effect of Covid-19 and EndSARS crisis is giving us concern about how to organise our annual end of the year concert.
I will be meeting with the authorities of the Ministry of Health to get their professional advice on how best we can actually plan our end of the year concert. We don’t want to have a concert that will correspondingly spike the number of Covid-19 infections in Lagos State. As you can see, there is no advanced country in the world where big concert had been staged since the beginning of the pandemic. Even the frenzy that usually precedes Christmas in Europe and America is not in sight as we speak. However, I am not saying that we won’t have the end of the year concert this time around. What we are only waiting for is the professional advice from the state’s ministry of health. The plan is ongoing and in about two weeks from now, we would engage the press on the modalities for the concert this year.
Are there other creative projects on entertainment sector?
We realise that a lot of people were beginning to go into depression because of the boredom associated with lockdown over the pandemic. Lagos State is the only state in the country with a ministry like ours that organised virtual entertainment for people during the lockdown. And immediately after the lockdown, we realized that people’s lives were getting worse. Those who were used to clubbing could no longer do so because of the restrictions on social gathering, and that has really affected their health and mental state, hence, we decided to do something that could liven up residents by organising the first ever virtual concert in Nigeria, and it was well attended by the public.
Thereafter, we had Ileya virtual concert and the subsequently Independence Day virtual concert which lasted 12 hours from 12 pm to 12 am to celebrate Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary. And like I said earlier, we have not finalised arrangements on our end of the year concert. But definitely, we would not be standing it down.
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