Remi Tinubu

On Wednesday in Abuja, the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, advised female parliamentarians in the 10th National Assembly to cooperate and remain teachable as they carry out their responsibilities over the coming four years.

“As a former lawmaker, I advise you to please work together, irrespective of party affiliation, because the success of the nation depends on this…my advice is that, be teachable. Stay that way. Learn new things. Try it. You can’t say you are all-knowing,” Mrs. Tinubu said when she received female Senators and Members of the House of Representatives at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Special Adviser to the First Lady, Busola Kukoyi, disclosed this in a statement she signed on Wednesday titled, ‘The First Lady Oluremi Tinubu encourages female National Assembly members to remain committed to constituents.’

Senator Oluremi Tinubu, in her remarks, said, “You are the women here at the National Assembly for the masses, and you should not take this for granted”.

“As a former Lawmaker, I advise you to please work together, irrespective of party affiliation, because the success of the nation depends on this”.

The First Lady emphasized the value of adaptation and lifelong learning in her advice to the women.

She emphasized the advantages of utilizing fresh ideas and unconventional strategies in their roles as female legislators.

Furthermore, Mrs. Tinubu advised the women not to overlook their gender when fighting for power, stating, “When men are in the position of power, they do not see gender, so you as women should not fight a man who does not see gender when fighting for power.”

She urged the women not to lose their femininity in the execution of their duties.

“The joy here is that you made it. Now you have to sustain it. Men will be men. I believe that women don’t have to be men to sustain what they have.

“God created us as women; we shouldn’t lose our feminity. And that’s what we should use to get what we want. When I give this advice, it is not to put you down but to really help.

“Men have the ego to be the leaders. I have seen colleagues of mine and how they got by, honouring men to get what they want. But when you say you want to fight, a man will match you to fight. And they don’t see gender. I am married to a politician of high…how do I describe my husband? I have seen some of it,” she explained.

She prayed for success in the court cases of the female legislators.

In her remarks, Kafilat Ogbara, a member of the Female National Assembly from Lagos’ Kosofe Federal Constituency, stated that the purpose of the visit on Wednesday was to congratulate the First Lady on the success of the 2023 general elections, which brought President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima to office.

They offered to work with the First Lady whenever necessary and pledged their support and collaboration in the nation-building process.

Three Senators and fifteen House of Representatives members made up the delegation that paid a visit to the First Lady.

Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the wife of the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is set to leave the upper chamber of the National Assembly following the move by her husband to contest the presidential election on the platform of the party.

With the development, those eyeing the Lagos Central senatorial seat occupied by Oluremi have stepped up campaigns ahead of the party’s senatorial primaries slated for this weekend.
Ondo is a firm partner to provide solar energy to homes. Customs intercepts 67 sacks of cannabis and 141 drums of petrol in Oyo.

The former first lady of the state has been in the red chamber since 2011 and will be completing her third term in 2023. Her predecessors in the district and colleagues from the other two districts – Lagos East and West – served one or two terms each.

Senator Gbenga Ashafa who represented Lagos East from 2011 to 2019 contested for a third term but lost to Senator Bayo Osinowo (deceased) before Senator Tokunbo Abiru was elected in a by-election.

Experts say it appears there is an unwritten law in Lagos APC that senators will serve for two terms only. But the rule was bent in the case of Senator Oluremi who contested for the third term in 2019.

But as the 2023 general elections inch nearer, a vacancy has already been established in Lagos Central and at least four APC chieftains have already indicated interest.
The four are the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly, Hon Wasiu Eshinlokun; a former Minister of Defence, Ambassador Demola Seriki; Director-General of the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (ABAT) movement, Hon Oyinlola Danmole; and Hon Akeem Apatira.

All the candidates have recently intensified their campaigns to clinch the ticket amid speculations that Oluremi has endorsed Hon Eshinlokun.

A chieftain of the party in the state said that “The development has been causing uneasy calm in the senatorial district ahead of the primaries. But all the aspirants also have the eyes and ears of the national leader, just that one of them is madam’s favourite.”

Speaking in an interview, the leader of the party in the senatorial district and Chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), Prince Tajudeen Olusi, said the alleged endorsement of an aspirant was hearsay.
He said while GAC and the party had put forward the option of a consensus, it had been clearly laid down that there would be a contest in a situation where consensus didn’t work.