She is a First Lady with a difference; an Amazon behind the throne, a great companion of the Commander-in-Chief and a dependable ally in the unity of service to the country and humanity.
Her antecedents aptly prepared her for the pre-eminent, special and strategic role. She has been a teacher and moulder of character and lives; a successful wife and mother of promising children; an astute politician and experienced public officer; a cleric, humanist and philanthropist. Her worldview is shaped by varied experiences. She knows her onions.
Her strength lies in her power of ideas, initiative and compassion for the indigent, particularly vulnerable women and youths. She is held in high esteem for her clear sincerity, focus, and resolve to succeed in tasks that add value and promote public welfare.
In private and public life, she stands out as an asset, a trusted and dynamic leader in her own right. She has a lucid understanding of her household’s responsibility to the nation at a time of greater expectations. In over three decades of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s illustrious career as a senator, a governor and now President, she has remained a devoted confidant and an example of utmost fidelity and commitment in times of pleasure and pressure.
Oluremi Tinubu, Yeye Asiwaju of Lagos, three-term senator, wife of the President and First Lady of Nigeria, is now a role model for women in Africa. She carries the roles with grace, charm, charisma, maturity, dignity, influence, time management, discipline of mind, mobilisation prowess, service orientedness and socio-economic enlightenment. This may have informed her election as a member of the Steering Committee of the Organisation of African First Ladies for Development (OAFLAD), the highest decision-making body of the organisation.
She is setting a new example of reorientation with emphasis on anti-HIV/AIDS campaigns, advocacy against early marriages, genital mutilation, child labour, and the essence of educating the girl-child.
As the First Lady, Oluremi has not misused any presidential privilege. Her focus is women and youth empowerment, reminiscent of her duty and obligation when she was the wife of Lagos State governor in the first eight years of the current dispensation. At that time, her New Era Foundation projected her as a first lady of philanthropy, ploughing back to the society that offered her an enviable opportunity to excel.
Her contributions to the attainment of federal power can only be rightly captured in future reminiscences in a memoir by her beloved husband.
Oluremi deployed her networks as a federal parliamentarian. During the critical period, she donated more than inspiration and emotional support, a life of worship, fasting and prayers, galvanising the womenfolk who saw her as their loyal representative and believed her shared promise of ‘renewed hope’.
As the First Lady, she hit the ground running, maintaining a focus on giving succour to her primary targets, the deprived and the indigent. Oluremi has combined the good qualities of her predecessors – Flora Azikiwe, Victoria Gowon, and Maryam Babangida. But she is poles apart from the covetous lot in other climes; the tribe of arrogant first ladies focused on the primitive accumulation of gold and jewellery, which they, nevertheless, will not take to their graves.
The First Lady also carries other messages to women in politics and public life; in fact, she has something for men who think they can always dominate their women counterparts. It is the wish of Her Excellency that the gaps created by gender barriers should be bridged through inclusion. But women should also be vigilant, show more interest and avoid pulling down fellow women out of jealousy. Thus, Oluremi often urges women to rally behind one another for political office, emphasising the importance of solidarity, goodwill and mutual support in leadership.
Her activities as the visioner of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) are unique. Driven by the passion for equitable public welfare for the less privileged, the First Lady has packaged RHI as a vehicle for alleviating poverty, scholarship for students, economic empowerment, financial assistance to the aged and assistance to women in agriculture.
It is interesting that Mrs. Tinubu, having set a model, has also mobilised and encouraged wives of governors across the 36 states to creatively replicate the activities of the RHI in their domains. They see her as a mother figure and source of inspiration in the gospel of empowerment.
Although there is no constitutional role for the First Lady, Mrs. Tinubu fills a void in service delivery and beneficiaries of her interventions appreciate her contributions to their wellbeing.
Within the first 100 days of the current administration, 43 students from different states and geo-political zones received scholarships under the RHI. The motivation was her eternal belief in education and skills acquisition as guarantors of life enhancement, employability, self-reliance, socio-economic uplifting, and political consciousness.
Under the programme, girls in Bauchi State savour the benefit of ICT education through the ‘Alternative High School for Girls.’ The school assists those who may have faced obstacles, including early marriages and lack of support.
The ‘One Nigeria Unity Fabric Competition,’ which showcases the creative ingenuity of youths, also inspires the spirit of enterprise. The winner was entitled to N25 million. It was a boost to talent, giftedness, and spirit of industry.
The flag-off of the RHI agricultural support programme in the six geo-political regions encourages women to till the soil and reap bountiful rewards for their labour. At the initial stage, no fewer than 20 women from each zone got N500,000 each. It is a programme done in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture. Also, the special population was taken into consideration as 100 people with disabilities received N100,000 each.
The Food Outreach Programme under the RHI’s Social Investment Scope was launched in March last year in Abuja. No fewer than 80 women in each of the 36 states were later targeted for empowerment. In October last year, Senator Tinubu launched the RHI Food Outreach in Ekiti State, with the distribution of food items to people living with disabilities, widows, special schools, and other vulnerable groups. The goal is to boost the productive energies of women, tackle hunger and poverty, and end food deficit in accordance with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration. RHI also distributed N1.9 billion to 9,500 elderly citizens nationwide.
Under the scheme, scholarships and free laptops were also given to each of the rescued students of the Federal University at Dutsinme in Katsina State while each of their parents also got N2 million.
In Borno State, 5,000 women who were victims of the Maiduguri flood disaster received N250 million. The victims of tanker explosions in some parts of the country also received the First Lady’s financial support.
Of concern to Mrs. Tinubu was the plight of 500 displaced Mangu families. They received N1 million each.
This week, 500 women from each state in the Northcentral, namely: Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), got empowerment items, including deep freezers, grinding machines and cooking gas/ovens. Indeed, 18,500 women across the country will ultimately benefit from the scheme.
In Niger State, 500 women went home with various items, such as deep-chest freezers, maxi gas cookers with microwave ovens, generator sets, and industrial grinding machines.
In Maiduguri, over 9,000 bags and cartoons of food items were donated to vulnerable women. The items included 3,000 units of 25kg bags of rice, 2,000 units of 50kg bags of sugar, 2,000 gallons of vegetable oil and 2,000 cartons of pasta.
It is not the money that is donated that is the main issue. The more important lesson is the noble intention of showing empathy, sympathy and affection to those hitherto neglected, the extension of a duty of care to one’s neighbour.
The latest outstanding contribution of the First Lady is the distribution of professional kits to trained midwives in the North as part of a broader national effort to equip frontline health workers with essential tools to enhance maternal and child healthcare.
When it comes to doing good, Senator Oluremi is predictable. Like her husband, she hates poverty. Her philanthropy transcends Nigeria. Worried by the plight of people in war-torn Liberia, she built a school in the devastated capital, Monrovia.
To observers, the First Lady is building on her Lagos legacy. Her New Era Foundation survived her tenure as wife of the Lagos governor and architect of modern Lagos. From that impressive performance, she entered the soap box, and the hidden virtues of an empathic politician unfolded. Mrs. Tinubu became a researcher, mobiliser, organiser, political host, party leader, and effective political and public speaker. She bares her mind on critical national issues, including electoral reforms, integrity of the ballot box, increased roles for women in democracy, party membership drive, women empowerment and social security for the elderly.
While she was in the Senate, Mrs. Tinubu was not a bench warmer. She also never became an Abuja politician who forgot her home. It is on record that Mrs. Tinubu canvassed for special federal economic assistance for Lagos as the nation’s economic nerve centre. Up to now, that quest for a special status has remained a tall order.
However, today, the entire country is her constituency where she has to expand the scope of her battle for a better and improved life for women in urban and rural areas, and where the 36 wives of the governors are expected to draw inspiration from her activities and creatively replicate them in their respective states.
