Reminiscences with Chief (Mrs) Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor
You know girls don’t play pranks, only the boys do that. Our parents were very strict, and the school too was. From Abdullateef Aliyu, Lagos
Chief (Mrs) Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, 79, was the Deputy to Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in his first term as Governor of Lagos State from 1999-2003 and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In this REMINISCENCES with Daily Trust on Sunday, Chief Bucknor-Akerele speaks about her childhood, her impression of the Nigerian military, the problems she had with Asiwaju Tinubu that forced her out as his Deputy and other raging issues in the polity
Though you hailed from a famous family in Lagos, many people hardly understand the conjugal arrangement of your names. Which of Bucknor and Akerele is your spouse’s name?
None. My father was Dr Oni Akerele, a prominent politician in the First Republic, while my mother’s family name was Bucknor, which is yet another famous family in Lagos. So I simply combined the two to form my own surname.
So what is your husband’s name?
Alhaji Ibrahim El-Yakubu, from Kano State. I was one of those who pioneered inter-ethnic marriages in Nigeria because I married my husband from the far north, which was rare at that time.
How did the romance start?
I think we met at a party, at the late Zainab Buka-Diphcharima’s cocktail party. I didn’t take much notice of him, but obviously he had noticed me, because the next day he was in my office.
How would you childhood?
describe your
My childhood was a very happy one. I had loving parents who took good care of me as they were quite well off. I was the only child of my mother. I was brought up by my grandmother, who, unlike many grannies who shielded their grandchildren from mixing with friends, actually encouraged me to have them. Although I was an only child, I really didn’t suffer from any loneliness problem because I was always playing together with the children of my parents’ friends.
My primary education was at the CMS Girls’ School. People I went to school with included the late Mrs Olivert Okoya Thomas, Femi Williams and Ambassador Ajose, many of whose parents were professionals like mine.
How did, at that impressionistic age attending an all-female school, affect your perception of, and psychology about boys?
No, it wasn’t really an all-girls school. There were some boys in the primary school with us. The Femi Williams I mentioned was a boy, as were Taiwo Alakija (now deceased) and Dr Dayo Doherty. It was just that for the secondary education, the boys would go to the CMS Grammar School, while girls would continue at the Girls’ School. But I didn’t continue. I went for my secondary education in the United Kingdom.
The CMS Girls’ School was on Broad Street, next to the CSS Bookshop. The CMS Grammar School, the boys’ school, was across the road to us.
Our Headmistress at a time was a white woman and she and the entire staff were very, very strict. They gave us very good education. In fact, when I went for my secondary school in England, I was already ahead of my class. That shows the high quality of education we were getting at that time.
I was 10 when I was sent to boarding school abroad. And that was a different experience altogether because there weren’t many black children in that school. In fact, I was the only black child there for quite a number of years. Of course, they all had very funny ideas about Africa. They thought Africa was a jungle because of all the films that obviously they had been watching. I turned their impression into jokes, telling them all sorts of fantastic stories like, ‘Yes, there were elephants walking through my back garden.’
I was very good at sports. I got gold medals in 100 metres and high jump. I was also very good at gymnastics and was in the hockey team.
So, for me, it was quite an enjoyable period.
When I finished my secondary education, I read Law at Surrey, in England there, and after that was persuaded by the late Gab Fagbure, a journalist, to study journalism as well because they were looking for people in that area of broadcasting.
The childhood of most children is replete with pranks, tricks and some fooling around. Looking back, what outstanding pranks would you say marked your growing up?
I can’t remember me playing any real prank, especially those that
would warrant punishment. You know girls don’t play pranks, only the boys do that. Our parents were very strict, and the school too was.
There was a lot of discipline, and if you told a lie, you would really get a good beating.
But we did have fun. As children, we had birthday parties and things like that. I remember that in front of our school, there was a big fruit tree at which we threw stones to get the fruits.
I took so many positive things away growing up under my grandmother’s tutelage. I was staying with my parents actually, but it was my grandmother who took charge of me, so to speak. She taught me a lot of things. She taught me to sew, do embroidery, do mats, and so many other things that defined a disciplined girl.
Would you say travelling out of Lagos at such a tender age deprived you of experiencing, especially in your teenage years, the high social lifestyle Lagos was then known for?
No, not really, because I still experienced life my own way in Lagos before I travelled. In those days, the Lagos society was very small; at least, we Lagosians, I mean real Lagosians, knew one another.
At that time, Lagos was a very compact society and everybody knew everybody else. Even till today, if you mention your name, people would know whether you are a true Lagosian or not. We all knew one another other and we were visiting one another. The children of the various families were friends. It was a very happy Lagos at that time; you could walk anywhere on the Lagos Island and there would be no problem. It’s not like now when it has become something of a jungle.
Even in those days, Yaba, on the Lagos mainland, was like Ikoyi, because eventually my family moved to Yaba from Lagos Island. In Yaba, you had houses with beautiful gardens and lots of flowers. If you see my garden now, I have a lot of flowers. That was how my love for flowers started.
But there is this perception about Lagos having a notoriety for… Notoriety for what? That people from Lagos Island were or are bad, aggressive people? There were no bad people on Lagos Island. I know my family house at Campus and my grandmother’s house was on Breadfruit Street in those days and the people were quite good.
But let’s put it this way. They say, ‘Eko o gba gbere’, meaning Lagos people don’t condone nonsense. If you had read Chief Nnamdi Azikiwe’s autobiography, My Odyssey, you would see that he mentioned my father and his brother in it, mentioning how they maintained order in that Campus area. The people in Lagos at that time were very good people.
You talked about the Yaba masterplan and how beautiful the area was.
At what point do you think the masterplan was distorted, and how has that affected that beauty?
Yaba still retains some of that beauty. If you look at Yaba now, you will see that all the roads are interconnected. You can hardly ever get in Yaba the kind of traffic jam that you have in other places because it was well planned by the town planning engineers of that time. I think everything in Nigeria started derailing during the military era. For instance, military men were the first people I first saw drive up a one-way street in Lagos. It was then they talked about curbing indiscipline among the people, but that was when indiscipline really started and things began going wrong.
You don’t seem to have a good impression of the military. Did you ever have a brush with them?
I know that as a country, we must have the military, but I believe any country’s military must be disciplined, which our military men were before the first coup. After that coup, they started to derail because it became a question of a man with the gun against civilians who were not armed and, therefore, most of the time, they use the power of their gun to terrorise the civilian populace.
But our military, whenever they intervened in governance, claimed to be doing so to fight indiscipline and corruption. Didn’t you ever believe them?
No, they were not. They were the most undisciplined ones. And, of course, they were never interested in fighting corruption. It was during their rule that we saw impunity, when people brazenly dug into the treasury and the states’ coffers, and they all got away with it.
In fact, most of the problems we are having now were engineered by the military. They were very corrupt; they were stealing from the treasury with impunity, as I said. That’s all I will say.
What informed your choice of law after your secondary education?
My grandfather was a lawyer and he encouraged me to study Law. Again, though my father was a medical doctor and my mother a nurse, the secondary school I attended was not very hot on Physics and Chemistry, which were needed for Medicine, so I had to settle for Law.
Considering the medical careers in the home in which you grew up, would you have studied Medicine if you had not chosen Law?
Yes. So, besides the issue of Physics and
Chemistry in the secondary school you attended, would you say you opted for Law more in deference to your grandfather’s preference?
No. I didn’t really set out with a mindset to study either. I wasn’t quite sure of what I wanted to do in my early years in secondary school. It was in my last year that I decided I would study Law. And studying Law those days was a very gruelling exercise as you had to do Latin successfully to qualify for admission to enable you study Law.
What love overtures came your way when you were in the UK?
Our group of Nigerians who were students there did go out to parties, to clubs and we interacted well. Of course, there were guys who tried to date me and some actually proposed. But it was when I came back that my husband swept me off my feet.
When did you return to Nigeria?
It was after my programme in journalism. At that point, in 1963 or so, Voice of Nigeria was starting up and they were looking for announcers. I applied and I was given an appointment as an announcer.
Comparing the broadcasting you practised then and now, what is the difference?
Things have gone digital now. We were just doing electronic at that stage, but we had some very good broadcasters like Okonkwo Ndem. We had some very good writers like Uche Chukwumerije. We had people like the late Abubakar Rimi; he was in the Hausa Service. We also had dynamic people like Christopher Kolade and Chinua Achebe.
So when did you practise law?
No, I didn’t practise. Yes, law served as, and surely is good basic education because you learn everything studying it. But I didn’t practise it at all. Was that a deliberate choice you made? Well, of course, I did a little bit of it in the UK but not here.
Apart from VON, where else did you work?
While I was working in a chamber in the UK, I was also doing some broadcasting for the BBC Africa Programmes. Actually, I was recruited by Sunday Young Harry who was at the BBC at that time. I wouldn’t know how we met. He just asked me to come to the BBC. I was interviewed and I began freelancing for them, doing some programmes.
When did you leave broadcasting, and why?
I think it was in 1971. The pay was bad, so I decided I needed a better source of income. I was recruited into advertising as a Client Service Manager at Graham and Gillies Advertising Limited.
At what point did you think it was time to join politics?
I joined active politics when former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, asked Nigerians to form political parties. I came from a political family. My father, Dr Akerele, was the first president of Egbe Omo Oduduwa. In fact, the body was formed in his house in London before it became the Action Group (AG). My father contested for a political seat on the platform of the AG but lost to one of his best friends, J.M. Johnson. They remained good friends, though, until death separated them.
My first cousin, the late Chief Babs Akerele, was a prominent politician in Lagos in the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), and later, in the National Republican Convention (NRC). I had always wanted to join politics but I didn’t do so until my children had grown up enough to care for themselves and I could go conveniently go into politics.
Which party did you first join?
I can’t even remember. But when Babangida first asked that political parties could be formed and we all took truckloads of materials to the then Electoral Commission and then he (Babangida) cancelled them and formed two parties, NRC and SDP, I joined the SDP.
I contested on the platform of the SDP for the Lagos Central Senate seat, which I won. Of course, the military stepped in again and dissolved everything, including annulling election of Moshood Abiola as president.
Did you ever think of quitting politics, despite the challenges women in politics face, including attending nocturnal meetings?
No, I was not discouraged at all because, as I said earlier, I came from a political family. I was determined to make my mark in politics.
I remember that the first meeting they called when I was in the Senate was at 11pm. Then, I was the only woman in the Senate out of 91 senators and I remember walking into the room and everybody just turned round and looked at me as if to say, ‘What the hell is she doing here?’ because I don’t think they expected me to come to a meeting at that hour.
Fellow senators in the room that night included the late Chuba Okadigbo, Olayinka Omilani, Wande Abimbola, Ayo Otegbola, the late Kanti Bello and the late Francis Okpozo.
How did the political paths of you and Senator Bola Tinubu cross and how did you emerge as his running mate for the 1999 Lagos State governorship election?
I first came across Senator Bola Tinubu in the Senate. He was in the Peoples’ Front, led by the late Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, while I was in the Peoples Salvation Party.
We began relating more in the National
I remember that the first meeting they called when I was in the Senate was at 11pm. Then, I was the only woman in the Senate out of 91 senators and I remember walking into the room and everybody just turned round and looked at me as if to say, ‘What the hell is she doing here?’ because I don’t think they expected me to come to a meeting at that hour.
Democratic Coalition (NADECO) where I was a prominent member of the steering committee. A lot of things had gone on before then. When Senator Bola Tinubu emerged as the governor-elect on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy, he was from a different caucus. We were Afenifere, while he came from Primrose. But since the structures and everything belonged to Afenifere, Afenifere felt it was important they had somebody from their fold who would be part of the government and I was nominated to be Tinubu’s Deputy.
So why did you fall out with him so irreconcilably you had to relinquish that position?
We fell apart because Tinubu wanted us to take over the party from the elders of the party who were really its founders. I, too, was part of building the structures that formed the AD and on which platform we rode to power. He wanted me to conspire with him to take over the party from the party leaders, but I refused. He eventually took over the party structures despite my warnings to the elders that that was what he wanted to do. They didn’t believe me until it was too late and he had taken over the party.
Tinubu wasn’t an original member of Afenifere but he instigated some people to break away from the mainstream Afenifere and he formed the Afenifere Renewal Group.
Do you have any regrets over your relationship and disagreement with Tinubu?
My only regret is that I accepted to be his Deputy, because truly, I did tell the late Baba Onasanya the day he phoned me and said they would like me to be Tinubu’s Deputy that I wasn’t keen on accepting that offer. I would have preferred if it had been Wahab Dosunmu, now late, who had also contested the governorship. I knew Wahab was a gentleman and I could work with him, but Tinubu was a different kettle of fish altogether.
Did you feel humiliated about what happened between you and him?
No, I wasn’t humiliated, but certainly, I was annoyed with his attempt to humiliate me.
Was it that he never gave you the opportunity to perform as Deputy Governor?
Well, I was given some roles. For instance, I was in charge of local governments and we had made promises to the electorate on what we planned to do for them. When I wanted to ensure that the local governments were functioning properly, Tinubu put a stop to it.
How do you think that particular development has affected local government administration in Lagos State today?
I don’t know how to describe it, but it is as if we don’t have any local government administration at all. The local governments are not doing anything. I was living in Victoria Island, a local government secretariat was just opposite my residence and I knew that at the end of every month, all they seemed to be doing was share money. People went with nylon bags, collected money and walked away. Most of the streets in Victoria Island are in a complete shambles.
Even in Ikoyi here, in the Eti-Osa Local Government, they don’t clean the gutters. Actually, they don’t do anything. In fact, we have to virtually do everything ourselves. I don’t know what functions local governments are performing right now, if any.
But some people believe that Lagos State is the model for other states as the most performing state in the country, and that it was Tinubu who laid that foundation. What is your take on that?
I don’t know what foundation was laid by Bola Tinubu because I was in government with him. We had a blueprint, which had since been dumped somewhere and is really not followed. When Babatunde Fashola came to power, he tried to make a difference by, at least, giving us a more conducive environment. He planted flowers and tried to keep the state clean. But that was just about it.
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has also tried his best by repairing some roads. But really and truly, with the kind of revenues that Lagos State is generating, I think there could have been a lot more done.
Hasn’t Tinubu once again shown he is the main force to reckon with in Lagos politics by how the APC governorship primary in the state went?
That was a complete shambles. When you look at it closely, it was one man dictating, ‘You, you will become a Councillor’; ‘You, go and sit down, it is not your turn’. It is a oneman show in Lagos. Even in other states, you can see that the APC is in turmoil.
Lagosians have had enough of the APC. Go into the streets and hear what the people are saying. This time around, in the 2019 elections, people are going to resist that coercion because they have seen that their lives are not better under the APC.
What have you been doing since you left the Tinubu administration?
I have been doing my business. But I also joined the PDP in 2002 and I am now a member of its Board of Trustees.
How do you fancy PDP’s chances of returning to power at the federal level in 2019?
It is more than feasible. Everybody is seeing the ‘change’ that the APC touted, and everybody now knows that the people are worse off for that change. Therefore, a lot of people will very much like to see the PDP come back because they saw the concrete programmes which the PDP had earlier done.
The APC people are only prosecuting the PDP for corruption. But I believe they are now becoming a laughing stock even with their corruption crusade.
Are you saying the PDP was corruptionfree when it ruled at the centre?
Corruption has always been there and there is no country where we don’t have it. It all depends on the level. But the level of corruption now is far higher than what it was in the days of the PDP.
You were one of the delegates at the recent PDP convention in Port Harcourt which produced former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2019 elections. What would you say about the allegation that the delegates were heavily compromised with dollars?
Yes, I was a delegate there and I was not bought and I did not see anybody being bought. I was there from the start to the end for the two days. It is all propaganda just to disparage the PDP.
How do you rate Atiku’s chances against President Muhammadu Buhari in next year’s presidential election?
Atiku has strong structures on the ground throughout the federation, and he has a lot of goodwill too. And Atiku has accomplished a lot. He has been providing employment, as he has done a lot in education with the American University in Yola. He has companies which employ thousands of people. When you have somebody with a mindset like that as President, you would see genuine efforts in improving the lives of the citizens.
We fell apart because Tinubu wanted us to take over the party from the elders of the party who were really its founders. I, too, was part of building the structures that formed the AD and on which platform we rode to power. He wanted me to conspire with him to take over the party from the party leaders, but I refused.
When was your happiest moment in life?
That was when I gave birth to my first son. It was really fantastic being able to give life to another human being.
And when did you experience the opposite side of life, a particular period of melancholy?
My most tragic moment was when I lost one of my sons.
You are 79 years old and have been a major player in Nigerian politics. Are you thinking of capturing all that in a book?
Yes, I am writing my memoirs. I am telling everything as it is. The public should be expecting my autobiography sometime next year.
What would you say has changed in Nigerian politics between when you came into it in the 1990s and now?
Money is playing too much of a part in politics these days. When we started AD, we were all broke. Let’s put it that way because when you heard Bola Tinubu was funding NADECO, maybe he was helping some people who were in exile abroad. But certainly he was not funding we who were here in Nigeria in NADECO.
We were funding ourselves and, therefore, none of us really had much money or any money to contest elections. Yet, we contested and the party won in all the Yoruba states. We didn’t spend any money apart from printing our posters and things like that.
But now it is cash-and-carry politics. It is very sad. I don’t know whether it is because the people have become so impoverished that they now only go for cash to be put in their hand and don’t really think of their future. They don’t think that once they collect cash from politicians, those politicians might not deliver anything for them in future.
What are your words to Nigerians?
My message to Nigerians is that, ‘Please, stop selling your votes’, because that is what is giving us bad governance, which is affecting all of us and will affect not only those of us alive today but will also affect generations to come if we do not have a change of attitude.