“...the only angle you’d still face that problem from is your wife. Your wife would not like to lose sight of you and she would insist on coming to Abuja so that no ‘small girl’ will steal me away from her (laughs). But on a serious note, while a busy schedule is bound to affect your family, it’s a sacrifice you have to make.”Why do you wear your signature round glasses?
I can’t say exactly how or when I began to wear them, because it was a long time ago. When we were young, we all pretended to be ‘comrades’, adherents of Communism and all that. We looked at Chief [Obafemi] Awolowo as our mentor, so that’s probably where the interest in those spectacles came from. But right from my days in the university, I have always been wearing them.
And I think, it is a result of me having my major political break under [Bola] Tinubu, so it would probably explain my leaning towards the round glasses. Sometimes we all have mentors we want to emulate.
It goes without saying that you’re one of the busiest ministers today, due to the nature of your portfolio. That’s been the status quo for you for a long time. How has that affected your family life – how much of your family do you get to see?
I am lucky that most of my kids are all grown up, so it’s not like fifteen years ago when I was going abroad before I became Chief of Staff to Tinubu. But I know that this – being this busy – could affect the relationship between wife, husband and children.
Let me tell you from the experience I had in the early 90s, as Co-ordinator of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation, later becoming his Chief of Staff when he became Lagos State governor. It was a very long transition, and we would wake up in the morning, go and campaign and come back at night when the kids are asleep, and we would leave again in the morning when they are still asleep, before they wake up and get ready to leave for school. They wouldn’t see me for quite a while.
That must have taken a toll on your family life...
Yes. That time, my youngest daughter went to my brother in-law and asked him what kind of job he was into and he said he was an engineer. So she asked if he could get a similar job for me and he said no, that I am a lawyer. That was when she complained that they don’t see me. When my brother told me, I felt very bad.
Those days when I was Chief of Staff,one day I came back late and I saw a note on the dining table that read: ‘Daddy, may I please have an appointment to see you?’ That was when I knew exactly how bad the situation was.
How about now, when your children have all grown up?
It’s true that when you have a younger family, you miss each other. However, when you get older, your children become more independent. The only angle you’d still face that problem from is your wife.
Yes. That time, my youngest daughter went to my brother in-law and asked him what kind of job he was into and he said he was an engineer. So she asked if he could get a similar job for me and he said no, that I am a lawyer. That was when she complained that they don’t see me. When my brother told me, I felt very bad.
Those days when I was Chief of Staff,one day I came back late and I saw a note on the dining table that read: ‘Daddy, may I please have an appointment to see you?’ That was when I knew exactly how bad the situation was.
How about now, when your children have all grown up?
It’s true that when you have a younger family, you miss each other. However, when you get older, your children become more independent. The only angle you’d still face that problem from is your wife.
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