Chief Mrs. Alaba Oluwaseun Lawson is the chairman, Governing Council of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY), Abeokuta, Ogun State. She doubles as the Iyalode (Women leader) of Yoruba and Egba Land. She is a former president of the Ogun State Chamber of Commerce Industries, Mines and Agriculture and hopes to be the first female president of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Maritime and Agriculture (NACCINMA)
She spoke to Vincent Kalu on her life and challenges in a male-dominated environment and how the interest of others comes before hers
What was your growing up like?
I had a Christian upbringing. My father was a no –nonsense man. With my mother, you must do all the chores in the house before you leave for school. One thing I would also want to say about my parents that you can see in me, is that they always put others first. All these helped us to make sure that our environment is well taken care of, and that others’ interest come before ours. My upbringing was a very strict one and I am enjoying it today. I was never a rebel to my parents. I have been a blessing to them all along.
You appear to have a soft heart for the development of children. How did it come about?
This is something that God must have endowed in me. Every person is endowed. I have passion for the younger ones. If you can look after these younger ones properly, then the future of this great country is well positioned because the young shall grow. When you are able to tailor them in the right way, they would never depart from it. That is why it is better to train the young ones from the tender age and make sure that they are well disciplined. For the young ones, what we usually do is to give them manners and good morals. These are the areas we look into when dealing with the young ones. By the time they now get into the tertiary institutions, they will find it very difficult to go into cultism, they would find it very difficult to do anything that would not be good for the development of the country. I have passion for that because it has been an endowment from Jehovah God.
How do you feel being the Chairman, Governing Council of MAPOLY?
I feel very great to be the Chairman of this great institution.
Do you think the government is doing its best in funding polytechnic education?
They are trying and they can even do more. We don’t want to feel as if polytechnic education is inferior to university. One is technical while the other one is theory. The polytechnic is technical and that is what we really need in Nigeria now that many graduates are unemployed.
What are your grogrammes for the institution?
My objective is to ensure that we improve more on the standard of education, the welfare of the staff and as well as trying to make sure our students are not into cultism. When I came in, we met with the council and the management of the institution and one of the most important aspects of my objective was to make sure that students are well taken care of by having their lecture rooms well structured to suit their purposes. I also canvassed the same thing for the students’ hostels in order to make them feel at home.
I also picked interest in the welfare of the staff because it is the welfare of the staff that can make them work efficiently and make it possible for the goals and objectives to be achieved. We are going to transform the institution into a university of technology. We are going to do that by the special grace of God with the cooperation of the government especially now that we have a seating governor who is an old student of the institution. We are going to transform it and make the graduates employers of labour instead of those that would be looking for white collar jobs after their graduation.
What is your take on the reoccurring ASUP strike?
Well it is very unfortunate that we keep having strikes. I don’t believe in strike because it is something we can discuss on the table. Most of the lecturers who went on strike, I believe needed to have had a change of heart because we are dealing with the future of this great country. We have a situation where students who are supposed to spend three or four years ended up spending eight years. It is unacceptable. I think we should all sit down and iron it out properly. Those in government and the lecturers need to put an end to this incessant strike. I think some of them have hidden agenda.
They go abroad to lecture and all that. I think it is unacceptable because it is drawing this great country back. Before, when our students travelled abroad, they were placed on higher levels but now, when you have first class, they will still demote you so that you can spend another two years to reach the level of that country. Why are we embarking on strike when what we are asking for is still going to be given to us? And those who are supposed to give what is being asked for, what are they waiting for to give what they are supposed to? It takes two to tango. I don’t like it and I don’t believe in it.
MAPOLY was in session during the ASUP strike, does it mean the institution is not part of union?
We are part of it. When I came on board, I made them understand that we would give them all their necessary outstanding packages which we have done. Therefore, there is no need for them to go on strike. We are part of ASUP but we were working. Before we gave them the package, the council met and we told them we would look into it and we gave them our words. We have put our words into practice and have given them the package and we have to work. We have even told them we have to work more than before.
For us, any demand by ASUP has been met. We have resolved it and that is exactly why I want the other polytechnics to make sure that the welfare and packages of their staff are given to them. There is no point allowing them to go on strike. As a way forward, I want ASUP and those in government to put their heads together and resolve the problem.
You wanted to establish a vocational university, have you jettisoned the idea?
How can we jettison it? This is going to help our students. When you are into a vocational training, it will make you an employer of labour because what you have learnt will help you to start your own business. As time goes on, you will not be able to do it all alone; you will begin to employ some people. It will help you to make money on your own and stop looking for white collar job from office to office. Once upon a time, white collar jobs were there.
When I left school, I had eight good jobs to myself but now there are no more jobs. If going to study accountancy, law and medicine etc was the way then, let us now change to vocational training and education so that we can now change the orientation of looking for white collar jobs.
What are your achievements so far in MAPOLY?
We have tried because with Jehovah God all things are possible. I have told you about the welfare package of our staff, we have brand new buses for our students, renovation of old lecture theatres and construction of new ones for our students, fencing the school to ensure security of lives and property and to prevent encroachment on our land. We have a petrol station we are proposing to take off very soon. We have new ambulance for our health centre and the renovation of our auditorium. All these put together tell you that we are working. I believe in quiet achievement. We are also thinking of hall of residence for our male and female students.
As a female occupying top positions in many organisations, what is your relationship with the males working with you because females are often seen to be bossy?
It depends on your upbringing and home training. I was trained to be polite. Like you rightly said, I am in the Chambers of Commerce where we have about 20 men, sometimes, I am the only woman and I don’t feel bad. I just see it as a challenge that I must rise and live up to expectation. That doesn’t mean I should shout or be bossy on anybody but we can work together as a team. It is the teamwork that is making MAPOLY work and I thank God for the kind of rector that we have. He is a well experienced professor. Working together with him and his management team, we can move this MAPOLY to greater heights.
What challenges do you think confront women entrepreneurs?
By the special grace of Jehovah God, come 2017, I will be the first female national president of Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Maritime and Agriculture. Chambers of Commerce came into Nigeria in 1898 and NACCIMA came into being in 1960 and so you can see that for a woman to be the first female president, it must have taken you some challenges. I have passion for women and I got it from my maternal grandmother. She really took care of us. The challenges indeed are about finance and how they can breakthrough where you have the male domineering.
The only way women can do it is by networking and we have been able to do this very well. We meet policy makers and lure them and make them understand that women must be well taken care of. We also use advocacy and it is helping them a lot. So many of our women now are into export. We work together with the Export Promotion Council. We just came back from The Gambia networking globally. Next year we would be in Burundi. When we were in the Gambia, our people who are doing Adire and those who are into recycling got MOU and are supplying them now. That is the result of networking and you can see the result in our women. We also hold seminars and workshops to enlighten them and they progress from there.
Why are you called Iya Gomina (governor’s mother)?
Yes they call me Iya Gomina. I have known Governor Ibikunle Amosun for over 30 years and I have seen the honesty in him and fear of God as a religious man. Since, I have known him to be fasting 24/7. We don’t appreciate something in anybody until another person realises it. I have taken interest in him, his wife and their children since then. When you see their children, they are well trained. I know this because I have lived with them for four years. You will see a high level of respect in the children. You can never see any act of hooliganism in them. All these attracted me to the family. Some few years back, for being what I am, never calling black, white, I was made to go into self-exile.
With all these things culminating in my coming back, people now say Iyalode is Iya Gomina. My answer to them is ‘yes’ because if it is in his era that I have security to come back to the town where I was born and bred, then, I am Iya Gomina. I will continue to pray for the goodness of this state and for the progress of everything there in. I came back during his tenure back in 2000.
Why did you go on exile?
I went on self-exile because my life was being threatened.
Who were the people threatening your life?
I would never know but they know themselves. My house was invaded twice and they tried all their possible best to come into my own house and they succeeded in killing my guard. They slaughtered my guard. I still have the picture. Thank God I am alive today. The first time they came in, my dog chased them out. The second time they came in, they had already planted somebody in my house that caged all my dogs and even covered them up.
Even within my area, the dogs didn’t even bark. Four Alsatian dogs could not even bark because they have known this man that they planted in my house. What else did I need to wait for? If I had lost my life, I wouldn’t have been talking to you today. So, definitely, I ran for my dear life. I can admit that it was a self-exile. But if you run away, you are coming to fight another good fight another day.
You never planned to travel out of the country at that point in time. So what were you doing when you suddenly went on self-exile as you called it?
I was in Nigeria. I was only away from this state where my life was being hunted for. David ran away to save his dear life in the Bible. I also did the same to save my life.
With all that you have passed through, what has life taught you?
Life has taught me to take the back seat at any point in time I feel insecure.
That is something that I have learnt and it has really helped me a lot. But if you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs and blaming it on you; if you can trust yourself when all men doubt you but make allowance for their doubting too; if you can wait and not be tired of waiting or being lied about but not taking to lie or being hated but not giving way to hate; and yet don’t look too good or talk too wise. Don’t let your integrity slip away even amidst any challenge. That is something that I have learnt and it has brought me up to this stage.
You have been mentioning Jehovah in this interview. As the Iyalode of Egba and Yorubaland, the belief out there is that anybody occupying this position would be fetish?
When I was to be installed Iyalode in 1999, by our late Kabiesi, HRM, Oba Oyebade Lipede, the then Alake of Egbaland, (the immediate past Alake of Egbaland), I told him that I didn’t want any fetish thing and he agreed with me. You heard me mention Jehovah here because I was born into an African Church family but my parents joined Jehovah Witnesses along the line. You can see that all I have been doing in my life have been guided by the Bible principles if you know what the Jehovah Witnesses sect stands for. I also went to Anglican school and was trained by people of high moral standard. You can see that I am into all of African Church, Jehovah Witness and Anglican.
On January 15, 2008, you were removed as the Iyalode of Egba. Why?
It had no effect on me because I did not get any letter to that effect. I only heard it on the radio. What you did not give to anybody, you cannot remove from him or her. If they had written to me, I would have taken it up legally. But for something that was just being mentioned on the radio and the newspapers, it had no effect on me at all. Anybody can say anything but as you can see, I am now back as the Iyalode of Egbaland without any written letter because I was never removed. Those that were doing that were doing so for their personal gains. As the Iyalode of Yoruba the truth has prevailed because time will always tell.
Some people query why only you should be the Iyalode of Egbaland and also that of Yoruba land. They said the Alaafin doesn’t even have the power to confer on you such title. What is your take on this?
If some people feel that Alaafin has no right to do so, let them query him. He has said it over a thousand times that he has the power to install anybody with the titles in the Yoruba land. He has done it to Afe Babalola; he has done it to the late Aare Arisekola Alao. He has installed so many in the Yoruba land. He has the power and the authority and I am saying it categorically that HRM Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, the Alaafin of Oyo kingdom, has that right to install anybody. My being the Iyalode of Yoruba land is merit. Everywhere I have gone out with him, he always asks anybody to challenge his authority on the titles he has given out as Iyalode Yoruba land, Baamofin of Yoruba land, Aare Musulumi of Yoruba land or anyone of Yoruba land.
Back to your question on being Iyalode of Egbaland and Iyalode of Yorubaland. Excuse me, the first Iyalode title I took was in 1990 as Iyalode of Ake Christians. Then Iyalode of Egbaland in 1999 and then Iyalode of Yorubaland. They are in stages. As we moved from one stage to another, Yorubaland captured more territories. Egbaland was one of the territories captured from Yorubaland, whereas, Ake is one of the territories conquered by Egbaland. You can see how it happened. Always do things as the Lord has made it possible. Yorubaland, Egbaland and Ake are within a territory of which a woman and a girl herself, knows that she is doing her job judiciously.
Would you say you are satisfied with the heights you have attained in life?
I am contented with what I have. I always pray a lot for Jehovah to give me that guiding principle because we were taught at home when we were younger to pray first thing in the morning and after that, you take up your daily chores one by one. As I grew up gracefully, one thing I have enjoyed is that I allow each day to take its shape. In all the places I have been in my life, I always put the right people in the right place.
I put the right peg in the right hole and we come together to discuss once in a month because a tree never makes a forest. If there is any urgency, we call each other. Another hallmark of my life is honesty. It is an important aspect of my life and it goes a long way. When we were younger, if we did anything wrong and owned up to it, we would be scolded but would be allowed to go scot-free but if you should tell lies, my father would flog you mercilessly and for many days, your body would ache. We have learnt to be honest and that has kept the integrity in us to keep us going.
What do you enjoy doing at your leisure hour?
I enjoy listening to Christian music, gardening and cooking. The other one is travelling to historical places of note. What I was enjoying in the 60s and the 70s was visiting the aged and listening to their old ideas but I haven’t got time for that again. If I can still do it once a month, I would appreciate it because they have wisdom. Those elderly people have experiences that can lead and guide you into another life.
What are your regrets in life?
I have no regrets in my life. I am a positive minded person. I don’t believe there is any mountain that is insurmountable in my life. I don’t have any moment of regret because I believe that Jehovah will give you the right instinct and you will do it. I don’t have any regret in my life and I will never have it.
What is your relationship with former governor of the state, Otunba Gbenga Daniel?
Our relationship is cordial. We met at sports club recently and we accorded each other respect. I am at peace with him. We have a very cordial relationship.
But it was during his tenure that your house was invaded. Don’t you have mistrust for him?
I don’t think so. He will never hurt me and I don’t think he will hurt me.
On a last note, I learnt you are a good fan of Evangelist Ebenezer Obey. What is your relationship?
Very cordial.
Chief Mrs. Alaba Oluwaseun Lawson: Life in a man"s world
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