Hon. Adefunmilayo Tejuoso, the chairman, House Committee on Finance, is the longest serving lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly. Tejuoso, who clocked 50 last week, is a graduate of law from the University of Buckingham, England. The second female legislator to clinch the deputy speakership of the State House of Assembly and the first female to get a fourth term in office tells Adetutu Audu she has learnt to be more cautious.
HOW do you feel having spent half of a century on earth?
I always say age is a state of the mind. I am not feeling old. I feel strong and alert. Life, they say, begins at 50. So, I am looking forward to more good times and more success in the coming year.
I am excited because when people meet me, they don’t believe I am 50. I am happy that I am happily married, have children who are getting older. I have a 19-year-old daughter, I have a 17-year-old son, I have a 13-year-old son and I have an eight-year-old son.
Is there something you were doing that you can no longer do anymore?
No. I still wear my high heels. I still hang out with my children to movies, beaches, etc. I think with exercise, you don’t really miss anything. Once you are fit, you are fine. Maybe when I am turning 60 or 70, then I might be thinking of, “Oh there are some things I was doing that I can’t do anymore.” I don’t think at 50 there is a big difference to 40.
At 50, you are old, of course, and wiser, but I don’t think there is anything you will really say you miss. There is nothing you want to do that you can’t do.
How do you cope as a wife, a mother of four children, a politician, a lawmaker and a student pursuing PhD in Law?
I have always been a very active person. When I started as a lawyer, I had to wake very early to get to court very early. Sometimes, you have to be at the Lagos High Court or Federal High Court in Ikoyi. You have to get to court early so that your case wouldn’t have been heard before you get there.
So, if one has been used to a pattern of hard work right from youth, then it wouldn’t be a big issue when you grow old. I was doing all these and I am still doing them now. It’s even easier now because the children are getting older.
My husband is an adult. He knows what he wants and he will demand for his rights which are always available for him. So, there has to be that balance in all your responsibilities.
Nobody said it is easy. Life itself is not easy. Everything you want to achieve you must be ready to work hard to achieve them. The good thing about life is that when you are younger, you work very hard for your old age so that as you get older you relax.
What lesson has life taught you at 50?
I have learnt to be cautious. I have learnt that you cannot trust everybody. I have learnt that the fact that you are upright doesn’t mean the next person is. Basically, I have learnt to be more careful with people. I learnt to accept people for who they are and not try to change them.
People often have the impression that you are very arrogant and mean. How do you react to this?
God has created us in different ways. For some people, the first impression they have of you is that you are arrogant. Arrogance is a perception; it is not who I am. I saw a movie the other day where I heard that fear is not real, but danger is real. You might think I am arrogant looking at me from afar, but when you get close to me, you would see that I can speak and talk with anybody. I am the kind of person who gives back what you give to me.
I don’t poke my nose into what does not concern me. If people want me to get involved, I would, but if they want their privacy, I give it to them since I sometimes want my own privacy. These all might be seen as ‘she is arrogant’.
That is why you see that I like to work; I like to be at the floor of the Assembly and make my contributions to issues as much as I can. If I don’t have anything to say about an issue, I won’t talk. But I am always conscious of the fact that I am the voice of my constituency. They have given me the trust that I would talk for them.
When issues about domestic violence crop up, I get very passionate to ensure I contribute to make it a thing of the past. When we talk about issues of children, I worry and add a voice. I don’t want any law to come through my table and I would not do what I think is right on it so that when they ask for what I said in future, documents would show. You don’t have to take what I say, but I want it to be documented for people to know I said what I said, especially for posterity sake. If I don’t talk and a bill is passed into law or a motion is brought before the House to become a resolution and I don’t say anything for or against the motion, I would feel bad knowing that I am supposed to speak up. I think that is where people might say: ‘oh! She would always contribute.’ It is not because it is exciting to me, but because it is my job and I have to do it well.
You are the longest serving lawmaker. How do you feel?
I am grateful to my constituents because they believe in me. And if they still want me, I will continue to serve them. Moreover, I was not there because I am Funmi Tejuoso. I was elected there and my goal was to make a change and make an impact in the lives of others. Our leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, would say power is not served ala carte. You have to work for it, you have to earn it. So I try to earn what I believe is my right, I try to show to my colleagues that I am not just a woman here, but I am qualified to be here and can compete with the male folk.
Are you satisfied with the level of women participation in politics?
When I came in 2003, I was the only woman and we were 40 members. But the story has changed now and we have seven women and 33 men. I just pray we have more women in politics and we are getting there.
What is the biggest challenge that you have faced as a lawmaker?
For me, challenges are not issues, but the way I handle them is the issue. I do believe everything that happens to me is the will of God. I feel there is nothing that has happened to a politician that has not happened to me apart from going to jail and I pray I do not go to jail. I try to keep my hands clean at all times. But in life, there are intrigues and you cannot control intrigues or other people. When I first came in 2003, one member told me that the House was full of intrigues. With time, I know what he meant; it is a House of intrigues where some people feel if they don’t pull you down, they cannot achieve. I feel this is a bad way to live and eventually, they would be pulled down as well. We can see that those who tried to pull other people down have ended up down themselves. It is not me, but the will of God.
When I have challenges, I would comport myself and ask God to handle the ones that are too much for me. And He has always handled them. For me, it is not the challenges, but how you handle them. Some people go through challenges and never recover, but once you are able to recover from yours, then God is faithful.
Politics, some say, is a dirty game. What will you say you like and don’t like about politics?
I like the fact that I am impacting on the lives of a greater number of people, particularly women and children. I touch them in different ways. I have contributed in making laws that impacted on the lives of children, women and my constituents. All these things become a thing of joy for you when you realise the number of people you have touched their lives positively. It makes me feel better. For example, the domestic violence law which I sponsored when I was the only female member in the House. It took me four years to get the bill passed into law. But today, I am happy that the law is having positive impact in the lives of women and children.
I don’t like deceit. There is a lot of deceit in politics. I don’t believe in sycophancy or hypocrisy. I think that is another problem I have in politics. I don’t follow anybody. I give my leader utmost respect; I am loyal to my party. I am respectful but I don’t believe in following anybody.
We all must contribute to make the House of Assembly a success but you don’t need to back bite anybody. You don’t need to bring anybody down. We need to work as a unit, as the broom of APC. It is difficult to break a broom when they are together. I believe in that. It’s difficult for me, like my children would say, to kiss an ass (laughter).
Despite your past travails, you also seem to have a career worth celebrating, how have you managed this?
Well, it is the grace of God. God is wonderful. He builds you from the beginning and prepares you for whatever is going to come your way. Everything that is going to come our way he knows beforehand, so there is always a solution for it. He prepares you, there is a path for it and I want to say I thank my parents for bringing me up in a Christian home and my dad for loving my mother and his children. My mother gave her life to seeing that she raised her children very well. She gave all to her children. When she was alive she was a beautiful and fashionable woman. My dad used to call her salvation army because she was very generous and I remember many times when we were travelling on holidays she would meet someone in the airport either in England or somewhere and she would tell my father that the person had no where to stay and that she should come and reside in the house. It used to really annoy me because the house by then would already have been full. Even in England where we resided in a flat, the house was already full and she would still bring in a stranger. But then, growing up I realised that when you help people you will also get help. Such assistance may not come to you directly but your children. Once you know you have to build yourself and be able to stand and compete in the world that we are in today, then everything else is easy because you will know that you are going to have challenges, trials and travails because the Bible says that, but you have to overcome them. If you look at it, God won’t put you in any situation that you cannot overcome. He won’t put you in a situation that you cannot manoeuver and I believe that I am a legal practitioner because that is what I wanted to be, and being a politician was destiny. And as I have always said, I am not a professional politician; I am a professional in politics. I am not a do-or-die politician. I do it when I can and if the constituents permit me.
How were you able to keep your shape after four children?
First of all, I give myself peace of mind. I don’t see challenges as problems, I am not the type that when I go to bed I start thinking what is going to happen. I make amends where I need to make amends, I add value where I need to add value, I celebrate with people when I need to celebrate with them but at the end of the day at night time I cannot do anything to change whatever it is that has happened during the day. God has always been good to me. I also do exercise, I go to the gym, I go to the spa. I feel as you get older you have to keep fit so you can do things. I drink a lot of water. I am not the type that does cleansing of your face. I feel some of these things dry the skin. I think it’s better to use simple soap to wash your face. I eat healthy.
