Fresh from Lions Club International’s International Conference in Melbourne, Australia, where she was elected International Director for Africa, the first for a female in Africa and only the second for Nigeria, Lion Bridget Adetope Tychus in this interview with Gboyega Alaka speaks on her journey up the ladder, her experience in the oil and gas industry and why she no longer sees herself as a woman.
Congratulations on your recent election as Lions Club International Director for Africa. Tell us, did you go to the international conference in Melbourne with the intention of coming back with such a big title? Or was it something sudden?
No, it wasn’t sudden. It was actually a result of a twelve-year journey. I’ve been on it for twelve years until Africa was ready. I am number one for a female and number two for Nigeria. I can tell you it was like breaking the glass ceiling; and I always say that nothing good comes easy- because if it comes easy, then you have to be careful. So it was difficult, it was tough, but the tougher it became, the stronger I got, the more determined and focused I became. And here I am today; the rest is history.
Can you walk us through your journey to this coveted position?
Well it was like the goal post kept changing. Any time Nigeria thought ‘now we had it’, the rules would change, and another policy would be introduced. And so, one year became two, two years became three; and then we now had what is called Rotation by Region. So we had East Africa, West Africa. When that came into place, Nigeria was single filed out of five places. That automatically meant ten years, because the office is a two-year tenure. So if one was not consistent and tenacious, you would get tired along the line, because it requires that you go on so many trips that are self-sponsored; so many activities…. Your resources are called to task.
How does it feel to be the first African female international director?
I’ve always believed that when a woman is aspiring to an office, she tends to work twice as hard as the male counterpart; because the society, family, so many things are contesting against her. So it is left to you to see yourself as the victim, or victor. I never had the victim mentality or saw myself at any point in time as a woman. I believe I’ve been patterned to cross tough terrains. When I was to become district governor – there are many governors in this room today, they may think they had elections, but what they had was child’s play – it was like breaking the glass ceiling; it was tough. The first time, I lost and people were like she won’t come back, but that only energised me the more. The following year 2003, I was out again. That experience told me that nobody would give you political office on a platter of gold; you have to bring something to the table – your emotional intelligence, your native intelligence, wisdom, everything that you have and let them know that you’re as good as any other male competitor.
What is the role of an International Director?
Right now in Africa, Lions Club membership is close to 48,000; as ID, you are the number one Lion in Africa. And so, any of the districts- Kenya, Malawi, South Africa; can say ‘we have this project, we have this training;’ the director must be there; ‘we have this convention,’ director must be there. In our own parlance, it is comparable to a ministerial or ambassadorial role. As a matter of fact, at the directors school, we were referred to as ambassadors. So you’re like the face of Africa. Wherever there is need within the continent, you must be there to answer to that need. And it can be for service projects such as diabetes, cataract, pediatric cancer etc. And you must be versatile in all these areas, because you never know when you would be called upon to say something on the issues such as cancer, nutrition, environment etc.
What does Nigeria stand to gain with your new position?
That’s the typical Nigerian question. Even before we had a director coming from Nigeria, you can see our impact virtually everywhere you go. There is no big hospital in Lagos that you’d go to and there is no Lions Club presence. Let’s start with Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH); the only cancer screening centre that LASUTH has was built and donated by Lions Club. That was actually my project when I was District Governor in 2003/2004 but it was commissioned in 2006 by Governor Babatunde Fashola. If you go to LUTH, you will see a project, Mexico Hall, where the Lions understood that so many people come in from outside Lagos and have to sleep on the hospital corridor because they cannot afford hotels. We built the hall for them. If you go to General Hospital, Isolo, you will see an eye centre built by the Lions Club; if you go to Ota, you will see a big hospital that even carries out eye surgery. If you come back to LUTH again, you will see the biggest dialysis centre constructed, built and handed over to LUTH management by Lions Club. While you can see tangible buildings and structures in the health sector, you may not see such in education, but you will see us going to schools, carrying out advocacy with programmes like the Lions Quest, where we catch our young people and tell them the terrible things that happen when they go the way of drugs. We do this with the little ones from high school before they get into bad companies, because we discovered that they get into these things through to peer pressure. So we want them to have confidence in themselves, do what is right, so that their future and our future – because those young ones are the future of this country, they’re the future of any association. A country is as strong as the youth. So we’re investing to save the future.
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Back to your question; all that I’ve outlined were even before we had an international director, so now that we have an international director from Nigeria, you can expect things to even move at a bigger scale. I won’t do it directly but there are six district governors, who would do need analysis of their catchment areas and come forward with the right programmes. If they are projects they can handle, they go ahead and do it, but if they are programmes that they cannot handle alone, then they apply for grants from our Chicago, US headquarters. Usually when such applications are on the table, they would contact me and ask: ‘Director, is this really happening in Nigeria? Should we approve this grant? If I say approve, they will approve; if I say don’t approve, it’s the end. It therefore tells you that the district governors don’t have to go too far to see me and get my support for such projects. Number 2, as a Nigerian, anywhere Lions’ function is being held in Africa and I walk in, the Nigerian anthem must be played. That tells you that a Nigerian is in charge. So we’re projecting Nigeria and it behoves on me as the ambassador to project Nigeria in a positive way.
How do you balance your huge Lions Club activities with family, especially now that you’ve added the big one?
That’s a tough one. I joined the association 41 ago and my last child is 42. That’s to tell you that I had a one-year-old baby at the time; and from day one, I have always been this passionate. So on the one hand I am playing mother, on the other hand I am playing wife; here I am a senior officer in the oil and gas, there I am a big sister, daughter, cousin… and no ball has ever dropped. It can only be God. And till today, my home is still intact. Very intact. To the glory of God, the children came out beautifully well; my husband is still alive and kicking, and by the way, to make you laugh, he was the one to first become a Lion. He actually introduced me to it when he told me to go and represent him in some capacity; and trust me, by the time I got there and they saw my input and enthusiasm, they were the ones who were telling me come and join us. Before you could say Jack Robinson, I not only joined, I passed him, I kept going while he was enjoying himself where he was; and today he is one of my Lion members. And when he sees me, he says: ‘My International Director’.
By your earlier response, you have a background in the oil and gas industry, tell us about it.
I worked with Unipetrol Nigeria Plc as they were called then. I joined Unipetrol in 1981; it later became Oando. I actually retired early because I looked at the pattern of my life and saw that I was carrying too many loads. But then, I was really good at what I do. I was Senior Statistical Officer, Unipetrol Western House office; so when I told my boss I wanted to retire early, he said, ‘Ah madam, you can’t go, bla bla bla…, ‘ I told him I wanted to go back to school to do my masters and that I was resigning because Unipetrol would not grant me leave of absence; but he said ‘No, apply; there is always a first time.’ So I went, finished the course, came back; and then said I wanted to go for another masters. Now my boss was like ‘This is too much’ and then I told him, ‘Shebi I told you; now let me just retire and go.’ In recognition of my services, I was given a gas station on Ikorodu Road, Lagos, so that I remained in the family as a gas dealer. Thereafter, I could manage my time the way I wanted and I went for my second masters. All degrees were from the University of Lagos: B.SC Business Administration, M.Sc Management and then Masters in Public Administration with special emphasis on Policy Implementation.
Women are said to be their own worst enemies, how much support did you get from your fellow women in your journey up?
Was it American Secretary of States, Medline Albright who said the hottest place in hell is reserved for the woman who does not help his fellow women? To be a good leader, you must be there to pull another person up; if you’re not puling anybody up, then you’re not a good leader. And if you’re a woman, she made it more pressing that you have to as much as possible prop people up and make leaders like yourself. So at the end of the day, you will not even be at peace with yourself if you look back and you can’t see leaders that you have groomed irrespective of whether they are male or female.
Let me give you another story: after my year as District Governor, I was also the first Council Chair-person; as council members, we had this meeting and they looked around and saw that I was the only woman; then one of them said ‘Please, please, just address everybody as gentlemen. So from 2006, they told me I’m no longer a woman. So if you wear the cap of ‘what a man can do, a woman can do better’, you better stop seeing yourself as a woman. Scientifically, genetically, if you pull out my blood and yours as a man, under the microscope, there will be no difference on which is male and which is female.
