RECENTLY, THE Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II CFR marked a decade on the throne of his ancestors and celebrated it by conferring the Yeye Asiwaju Ile Oodua on the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu CON. The title was once held by the late Chief (Mrs) Hannah Idowu Dideolu Awolowo, the wife of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
When the host Governor Ademola Adeleke was making a speech and in his usual characteristic manner was singing, the First Lady got up, walked up to him and told him that she would switch off his microphone and that he had only five minutes to wrap up his speech. When Adeleke seemed not to listen, she went back and threatened him again.
This was arrogance and an abuse of power at its apogee by the First Lady. If she felt irritated by Adeleke, she could have quietly gotten the protocol officers to slip in a note to him instead of her rather combative attitude which is unbecoming of a supposed role model.
Remi Tinubu has a rather ugly antecedent of picking up needless fights in public and so one is not surprised at her flagrant disrespect of the office of the Governor of Osun State.
As the senator representing Lagos Central (2015–2023), she once embarrassed the then Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, when on June 10, 2015, she refused to shake his outstretched hand during her inauguration together with 27 other lawmakers, including George Akume and Ahmed Lawan.
On Wednesday, November 18, 2015, she wilfully took over the seat of the then Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu who was not at the plenary that fateful day having survived an alleged assassination attempt the previous day. It took the vehement protestation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) senators to stop her from using the microphone on the DSP’s seat when Saraki asked her to second the $200 million Lagos State loan request. It was a deliberate act of provocation.
On yet another occasion, she almost slapped Senator Rafiu Ibrahim from Kwara State. But it was her verbal assault on Senator Dino Melaye who she called a thug during an executive session in July 2016 that threw the Red Chamber into a tailspin of confusion.
Remi Tinubu is haughty and conceited. Melaye narrated how “just after she was first elected into the senate, one of the commissioners, who went to pay homage and congratulate her ‘mistakenly’ referred to her as “distinguished senator.” She took everyone aback when she flared up and warned never to be addressed like that again, asking the commissioner: “What happened to Yeye? Do you know how many senators we have made? You probably should have called me by name.”
It is bad enough that the Ooni chose to needlessly roll out the drums to ‘celebrate’ not taking into consideration the mood of the nation occasioned by the anti-people policies of Remi Tinubu’s husband. It is worse that Remi Tinubu has still not changed and is doomed to repeat history of other nasty First Ladies around the globe.
History tends to repeat itself because man in his usual frailty always learns the stories but never the salient lessons.
The late Maryam Babangida held sway as the nation’s First Lady from 1985 to 1993. She was flamboyant and extremely powerful. She had a pet project – Better Life for Rural Women where huge public funds were funneled into. So influential was she that her then fashion designer, Folorunsho Alakija was gifted an oil block just like that as if it was some candy from a shop. When her husband, stepped aside in 1993 after the June 12 annulment, she immediately faded into oblivion as the court jesters, sycophants, and bootlickers hurriedly moved on to her successor.
Maryam Abacha was Nigeria’s First Lady from 1993 till the demise of General Sani Abacha in 1998. She had a project – Family Support Programme. She was very powerful but all that ended with the untimely death of her spouse. As usual the courtiers abandoned her for their next meal ticket.
Turai Yar’adua was so strong willed that her late brother-in-law, Late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’adua once quipped when the Late Umaru Musa Yar’adua was running for Governor of Katsina State ‘Is it Umaru or Turai that wants to be Governor?’ When her husband was ill in Saudi Arabia, she shielded the news from the public and worked in cahoots with the cabal to keep Nigerians in the dark about the true situation of things. Where is she today? How many Nigerians still defer to her?
What about Imelda Marcos of the Philippines who was so loud and extremely extravagant? She reportedly had over four hundred pairs of shoes while the generality of the populace lived in grinding poverty. Her spouse Ferdinand Marcos was eventually overthrown in February 1986 and she was forced to flee into exile faraway from the trappings of office.
Elena Ceausescu was the wife of Romanian communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, Elena was a powerful political figure in her own right, serving as First Deputy Prime Minister. She was known for her vanity, limited education despite holding many scientific titles, and was deeply involved in her husband’s brutal and repressive regime. Both were executed following the 1989 Romanian Revolution.
I can go on and on to mention the names of the arrogant wives of past leaders who ended up in ignominy. Remi Tinubu should indeed learn from history so that she doesn’t end up being a footnote after 2027 or at best 2031 as there is definitely life after office.
I hope that President Bola Tinubu apologized to Adeleke in private as the optics doesn’t look good at all. It is sad that none of the official spokespersons have issued a statement condemning the action of the First Lady. How sad!
Those who the gods want to destroy first make mad; Remi Tinubu take heed before it’s too late!
