Senator-elect of Lagos Central Senatorial District and wife of the All Progressives Congress (APC) National leader, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has reveled that she would like a woman to succeed her when the time for her to leave office comes though she is not yet sure when that will be.
Speaking on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at the Press Day event of Dansol High School, Lagos, the senator expressed her disappointment over the fact that all the major contenders for principal offices in the National Assembly are men because according to her, there were eminently qualified women for the positions.
“I feel appalled when women beg for appointments. Who says a woman cannot be President? If we had so many women inspiring other women, it would not be that way. We want to have another Senate President, it will be a man. The Speaker will be a man. Isn’t that a shame? Where are the women?”
She revealed the reason why she wasn’t going up for any of the positions herself as: “Don’t ask me, ‘What about you?’ My situation is different. My husband said, ‘you will not be used to blackmail me’. And I accepted.”
The former Lagos State first lady also admitted regardless of the fact that her surname is controversial, her family was not extremely rich. She lamented over the disappearance of the middle class in Nigeria thereby urging the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari to fix the economy to ensure the re-emergence of the middle class.
“The Tinubu name is a controversial name but we are not as wealthy as people think. Everything we have we expended on the struggle. You say 16 years of struggle, but it has been 21 years for us,” she said.
“I came from the middle-class of old and I attended public schools. I am from a very humble background by the way but I learnt to see and appreciate beauty. But today it is only the rich that can afford beautiful things. We do not have a middle-class anymore. It is either you are rich or you are poor. The new administration needs to create the middle-class which is a buffer for the poor and the rich.
“We have a good leader now who is credible. A former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, came here and said the world is proud of Nigeria,” she added.
