15th August, 2014
Adebimpe Akinsola, the lawmaker representing Ikorodu Constituency 2 at the Lagos State House of Assembly, is one of the few women that are ready to knock down all barriers in order to serve her people in government. The trained teacher-turned politician speaks on her experience in politics when she was recently hosted by journalists covering the House.
Q: How was growing up like?
My father was a Muslim, but my mother is still alive and she is a practicing Christian. My mother had nine children, but we are four now. I started my education at UMC Primary School, Igbogbo and later proceeded to Government Teachers College, which used to be a teachers training college. At that time, teachers were so respected, so my mother wanted me to be a teacher. Actually, I wanted to be a nurse because I loved the way they dress, but as I grew older I discovered that I hate the sight of blood and I agreed to be a trained teacher. I taught briefly at Ansar-Ud-Deen Primary School, Ikorodu before I proceeded to Lagos State College of Education, now Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, where I obtained NCE. Then, there was a break in my career as I had to travel out of Nigeria with my husband; he is a diplomat, so we were going everywhere together. I didn’t take up career as a teacher until 1992, when I came back to Nigeria and started working.
I subsequently went to Ogun State University, now Olabisi Onabanjo University, where I read French. I taught till February 2011, when I retired from teaching service. I had been doing politics on part time basis because I had always wanted to serve my community.
We used to go to Yewa River in my place to swim when we were young because we believed that there was one deity inside the river. Anytime people went to the river to fetch water, there was a snake that used to come out and we would run away from it. During holidays, we had a group through which we would go to the farm to fetch firewood so that we could have money to spend whenever we went to school since I was in a boarding school.
It was my passion for service that brought me here. I contested in 2006/2007, but it didn’t work out. Yet I didn’t loose focus, I continued. I believe that even when you try and it doesn’t work out, keep trying. I don’t move from one party to another; I was in AD, AC, ACN and now APC. Even, when I tried in 2007 and it didn’t work out, people from other parties came to me that they would give me ticket and I told them I didn’t want to go into the Assembly to satisfy myself, but to serve my people and in 2011, I got the ticket and I got here for the first term.
How would you rate the standard of education in Nigeria?
I would not want to put the blame on the state of education on the government alone. All of us are stakeholders of the sector. The issue of decadence came about because in Nigeria we value certificate more than anything. The perception that before you can become somebody, you must have certificate, work in government office and be up there, and get as many degrees as possible is the number one problem that has affected education in Nigeria. When my children started their education in an American International School, you could take your child there at age six months or one year, but he or she would be in playgroup till age 5. This means during this period, no teacher would teach him or her ABC or 2×2. What they do is to make them play with so many things to bring out the potentials in them for the first five years which are their formative years. At age 5 they would have known how to handle pencils because they use crayons to do all sorts of drawings and other things, and the teachers write report on every child each year.
If I have opportunity to start a school, that is the system I would use because in Nigeria we ask the children to do a lot of things they cannot do on in their formative years. My own grandchildren come home with so many home assignments, which their parents do for them. The issue of certificates causes children to do syndicate, they use mercenaries for exams, you must get some cut off point in JAMB to go to the university. A lot of students want to go university but we don’t have enough universities to accommodate all of them. And because of this, they go to any extent to achieve their goal.
For instance, we have lost focus on why polytechnic education came into being. They are meant to train technicians who are not less important than who went to the universities. Today, you would see a graduate of Yoruba, who wants to work in a bank. My advice is for the government to shift focus from certificate and let people go into other things and assist to give them recognition. For instance, you don’t need to go to the University of Lagos to obtain Masters degree in communication arts to be a journalist. There are other ways through which you can become a very good journalist and you would do well. This is what they do in other countries. When you get to an average home today, you see children watching pornographic films, they don’t read again. Now, you see students engaging in bunkering because their parents don’t have time for them again; all of us are busy doing one thing or the other. We don’t even monitor what our children are doing after school; we should all wake up to our responsibilities.
It is believed that most women in politics experience sexual harassment. What is your experience?
A lot of women are actually intimidated, they feel that politics is mainly for men and men too feel politics is for them only. The moment they see a woman, they would start feeling jittery that instead of staying with her husband, she is coming into politics. But, I can tell you that politics is not designed for a certain gender, it is for all of us and we can all play it effectively. Any woman that wants to come into politics would face sexual harassment if she is desperate, If you want to get to office at all cost, you would be harassed sexually.
Men are not crazy, it is the way you present yourself that matters. You know we have 33 men in the Lagos State House of Assembly, who slept with the men before they were given tickets? I am sure nobody did that. And are the women united. When we want to contest, it is our fellow women that would say people should not vote for us believing that when we get there, we will not see them. I have a friend who says she would not vote for men because before they do anything for you, they would say they want to sleep with you. But some women would say they prefer men, I think things are changing; women are better managers, they are better in politics.
As I am in politics now, any extra money that I have would not be taken to the club house and I would not spend it on girlfriends. I would use it to put smiles on the faces of my constituents. I found it easy because at the time I joined politics, my children could take care of themselves. At that time, my last child was about to get into a university. Men should give us a chance and people should not think that any woman that is up there slept her way to the top.