Former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu, was born in Isale Eko, Lagos Island. She studied Economics at the University of Lagos and later proceeded to the Long Island University in New York, where she studied Finance and Business Management.

Alhaja Ojikutu joined the banking industry and rose to the position of Executive Director at the Nigerian Bank for Commerce and Industry. Her appointment to that position was the first time a female banker had risen to that exalted position. He also served as Secretary to the Lagos State Transport Corporation.

Her journey to politics was dramatic and historic. She was nominated as running mate to Sir Michael Otedola, governorship candidate of the then National Republican Convention in Lagos State in 1991, a time when women were not being considered for such political position. They won the election, and she became the first elected female deputy governor of Lagos. The administration was short-lived following a military coup in 1993.

Since leaving office, Alhaja Ojikutu has remained active in advocating for women’s rights and mentoring young women. She had served at the Federal Character Commission, contributing to national development.

The amiable septuagenarian spoke on the state of the nation during the week.

As a female politician, what is your take on the Adamawa election?

Well, I am not too familiar with their local politics, but when the lady came out for governorship, knowing my position, I tried to make some enquiries about her. They said she was strong in the grassroots. You know as a woman we have been looking for this position, so if they say somebody is not that good, I have no cause to say, once she has brought herself out to run, we have to support her. So, I am hoping she gets it, if she actually wins it. I don’t believe in anything underhand, I hope she is not cheated. If she gets it that will be good, first for women in Nigeria; I will like her to get it without any ambiguity, that is the way I feel about it. I wouldn’t want them to be an extraction, that it is because APC is in the centre she actually didn’t win and all that. When we get this thing, there will be no distraction for her performance. I pray that she can really make a difference in the way governance is run. As I said, I don’t know much about her. We later got to know the woman did not win the Adamawa governorship. So disappointing, but good try. However it’s very sad if she was involved in the bribe scandal of false announcement to bamboozle the electorate to force her victory. Gradually, women are getting sucked into the corruption pit. This should not happen and be condemned in strongest terms by all of us especially those who have the avenue to make themselves heard. When I heard some uncomplimentary things about her, I put it down to male chauvinism! We don’t need to join the men in the hateful practise of political brigandry for us to get there to make a difference. Just be steadfast in showcasing the good stuff you are made of in any public environment, definitely recognition, acceptance and upliftment will be automatic creditably.

What is your perception of the general elections, from the presidential to the governorship, what is your assessment?

Nigerians, we’re ready for the election, everybody was geared towards voting and I think it was a determination that was like people just wanted a change. We all know what is on ground, PDP metamorphosed into APC, so it is like five and six, all of the same and kind. And people were looking into other parties, Labour Party, SDP, NNPP. But the strong character that came out, with the way the youths wanted a change, actually it is the youth that are actually very concerned about their future and with the way it appears, as if we older ones have actually messed things up in output, in performance. And more of diversion of resources that are being used than the actual use for projects and all that. As I said some time ago in an interview, I am actually embarrassed to call myself a former public officer because I can’t see what I am proud of in the system. The nation, where when you are sick you are afraid to go to the hospital because the facilities are not top-notch and the roads are bad. The education system, the ASUU strike all that we made sacrifices for just started going down the drain and then you have people strutting around, saying that they are public officers, they are ministers here, commissioners there. If the account of stewardship of public officers is examined, the benefits illicitly obtained will outweigh the services rendered and therein lies the Nigeria problem. All public enterprises that have collapsed or under performing no one is held accountable so, the cycle of self- enrichment at the expense of the nation continues to the detriment of the masses. To put it mildly, strong, accountability organisation is needed with power to penalise. So this election was like a determination of, let your vote count and then the assurance that the machine will make our votes count. Once we vote, it registers that gave everybody the urge to go and vote. Only for us to start hearing no transmission, manually transmitted, it will not register if you manually transmit. It left a bad taste in the mouth. It is actually a disillusionment, a disappointment and in some areas, voting went quietly, but overall I did expect that on February 25 actually there was no fighting as such, nothing but for the result now to be transmitted when there was overwhelming turnout for voting, only for them not to be able to register for whoever they have voted for; that is a big disappointment. And that affected the next election, the governorship election and the state assembly as many people did not just come out. The one we did, what did we get? And that one now, the intimidation before it, the threatening, the cult usage, it didn’t go down well. We were short-changed. It is not what we expected. Maybe those who are beneficiaries of the disorder can be happy that it is okay election has come and gone. As far as I am concerned, it is like I am dreaming, that did this really happen? Can any human being really come out and intimidate another human being, the way things went, openly doing sacrifice, openly calling what is supposed to be cult of the night, calling it out during the day? Bare faced intimidation and thuggery and even saying it out that people should not come out to vote if they are not going to vote for a particular candidate. I just pray that we don’t have something like that ever again. And the only way we can’t have something like that is if disciplinary measures are put in place. Whoever has been found to have threatened the democratic structure should really be dealt with. But I don’t know if we have the spine to do it because it is like those who are in power that seem to be mostly guilty of what went on. And you won’t be surprised by the performance, from the way people were not happy, inflation prices in the market. And like we said, things have not been easy for Nigerians. It has been suffering and smiling. They say they are doing capital projects. Those projects do not easily translate to the comfort and welfare of the people. Whatever you are doing people must believe that this is going to mean something to them and benefit them, not in the immediate but at least they can see in the future that okay, it is going to benefit us and it must be at a cost that is reasonable. Billions have now become thousands. And when they quote these figures you will be wondering and when you compare the figures to what is happening in other nations you wonder whether Nigeria is in space. The cost of projects outside, compared to the cost of projects within the nation will be different and astronomical figures for that matter. People are not happy. And that is why when the result was announced for the presidential elections, it was like Nigerians were mourning. No joy anywhere, even the people who said they won could not rejoice because their neighbours would pounce on them. With all these that we are suffering, how could you have said you won? Unless the nation has been jazzed, otherwise I don’t see how it can go down well that what we have now is what actually happened.

You were once an executive deputy governor, in your own time was the election that brought you in like this?

No, no it wasn’t like this, there was no inducement, there was money for logistics, for conveying people to the voting area, but there was no real inducement of people. Vote for me, I give you this, you must vote for me. If it ever happened, it must not be heard of. Now, it is a common thing, if you don’t do it, you don’t get a vote. Gradually, as the late governor, Jakande said, he said some people came into politics and monetised politics. Politics was not monetised in our own time. It is whatever you were before that speaks for you. For example, I was not really a politician, my work, and my performance in all the duty posts that I held made people nominate me and decided that they should vote for me and my principal. It was more or less character and merit. But now it is moneybag, it is how much you can spend and they are gradually trying to make merit and character to be secondary and that is why somebody like me I’m afraid that Nigeria is going into abyss. If character now becomes nothing, if merit does not matter, then what else? And then there is no more fear of God. Everybody is just doing anything, look at how people can take human organs to go and do money rituals. Just because they have taken money as God. Nigerians are now worshipping money as God. All this trend has to stop. The way the trend is going we will soon become a nation where people will be captured in daylight, right in front of you just because someone wants to get rich because they are seeing samples, bad role models. People whom you cannot see which enterprise they are engaged in or what they are doing suddenly become benefactors of others. The trend must stop and the only way it can stop is if government policy changes and there are establishments of industries, the core values that make up a nation, start being emphasised again. Not lackadaisical. Universities can close for one year, who cares, that is not the way a country is run. People die in hospital, you want to follow up on why a pregnant woman who has no symptoms of illness or anything should go into labour, a doctor operates and the next thing she is gone. No autopsy, nobody cares as to why that woman should die like that. It is covered up. Where are we going, integrity has come back into the system, and fear of God has to come back. There should be nobody that should be allowed to equate himself or herself to God, the creator and be accepted and allowed.

Atiku and Obi have gone to the tribunal to contest the election results, what is your take on that, is it necessary? People are complaining about the judiciary, that the judiciary is corrupt?

If the people want the judiciary to work, it will work. Human beings have a way of making things work. The judiciary are human beings, they don’t live in space. They live among the people. They move among the people that is why we are saying that they should as much as possible make the tribunals open, let’s see what is going on and that is where the fourth realm, the media come in. There is nothing classified in whatever the tribunal is doing. When a judge knows that whatever he is doing on that bench is in public arena, he or she will know how to behave because even if policemen are guiding you all over the place, people who want to catch you will get you. I am not advocating violence, but if you decide to short-change the people, the people will short-change you in the long run. And don’t forget no human being is an island, if you can escape the punishment, what of your people? Anger can be vented on anybody. So, if whatever they are doing in the tribunal is open, facts are presented, and I am begging all these lawyers to fear God to stop using technicality to increase bad behaviour in the society. Because if someone has stolen and it is obvious to everyone that that person has stolen and the evidence is there and then you now bring one technicality to make the man escape with the loot, what kind of nation are we trying to build? Others too will come in and steal and be looking at technicality with which to escape. So, I am appealing to the lawyers to have fear of God, every nation that has become great, the legal system has helped and then most nations that have become great, the media too have helped to expose whatever bad that is going on and Nigeria should not be different. So, there are so many things that are obvious that are wrong. Don’t let any lawyer come and make wrong right for us because they are damaging the future. The bench should try to look at each case, and make sure whatever the Constitution says is upheld. Don’t twist, red is red, black is black. Don’t say that in some cases black can be red and red can be black. You are damaging the psyche of the people as it is now, a lot of us are traumatised, and the situation is traumatic for many people. You see people walking on the street and they are talking to themselves. When a nation is sick, you can feel it. Nigeria has been blessed, we are a blessed nation, and natural resources are everything. There should be nobody who should go to sleep hungry in Nigeria if our resources have been well managed and it is still possible for us to get to it. There was a time I was advocating in some of my interviews that those who have stolen the money from this nation should try and bring it back in terms of setting up industries and so on. Some nations steal there, but they invest it in their nation. Stop taking our money out to build other nations, bring it back. Use the same people that you have stolen from to work, at least to earn their livelihood. Then loopholes should be blocked, of syphoning funds, collusion among public officers and elected officers, any nation that does not have strong institutions to checkmate corruption is bound to fall. Whoever is in charge of checkmating corruption like EFCC and ICPC should try and be above board. Here you have policemen having wives in almost every local government wherever they are deployed that is where corruption comes in, they need money to maintain such a lifestyle. There are certain discipline for soldiers, you must know their immediate family, all that has gone to the dogs, and where are the checks and balances in the system? You will go to the house of a public officer, it is so opulent, the furniture, you will be wondering how can he acquire all these things with the salary they are receiving if he or she is not on the take. They should bring in the checks and balances of lifestyle monitoring and all these have been eroded. So, she has made it, everybody has made it, in what way did you make it? And they don’t care. That is why we are going down. Somebody has to care. You are buying this car, how can you afford to buy this car? Where is the money coming from? You are going on holiday with your family to England, where did you get the money? And they will say it is bad belle, it is not bad belle because once the rot starts setting in, it is going to affect everybody. It is like a wood, when the pest starts eating the wood, a big tree from under the insects are beneath, that tree is going to fall in the long run and that is where Nigeria is now too much rot is in the root.

What do you think about INEC in this whole election?

I think INEC was compromised. I believe from all the evidences, it is either it was compromised or naive, lack of experience because you came out as INEC chairman to assure that the recordings are there that it must be transmitted. BVAS or whatever, and this gave people confidence, then you the same man is now saying, the thing can be faulty, it can’t be transmitted. Haba, something is fishy there and I think if we have a strong checks and balances institution it is very easy to trace bad money. But who is going to do it? When the person who should do are actually the ones on top of the situation. I wish there is a way, where the president doesn’t belong to any political party, I wish we can have that kind of system. So, that you will be neutral, I think PMB has been compromised with this election because how can a president vote and then show the whole world, that I have voted for you? As if there is something, that I have to prove to you that I have thumb-printed for you. So, there should be a kind of you become neural because you are now father to all, you’re father to whether the person is in APC, PDP, NNPP or LP. You should be neutral so that the best person emerges and succeeds you. Especially if also you have tried to be above board on that job. But if you have a lot of cover-ups to do, you will need somebody who can cover up whatever you need to cover up. People are surprised, they say you were there how can you be talking like this, I tell them that I didn’t have any hidden covenant with anybody.

And lastly, you said you want to ‘Japa’ even with this your luxury home in Ikoyi, why would you want to leave your country?

Do you know at what cost we are living in Ikoyi. The electricity bill is skyrocketing, it’s not easy maintaining the lifestyle especially when you are retired and you are not being paid your retirement benefits. So, what you see is just contentment of God. That I am able to have worked in my life and be able to save some things and also from inheritance. I inherited from my father and my mother otherwise people will be regarding me as a pauper on the road. I have worked for over 50-something years ago, I have not received pension or benefits from anywhere.

I thought as a former deputy governor your housing is free, among other benefits?

Governor Bola Tinubu refused to pay our retirement benefits. He said that it is only people who are elected along with him that are entitled, but the Assembly Edit said everyone who was elected, but he said it is only him and those who worked with him. And that is one of the reasons I want to leave Nigeria for him because of what I have suffered since I came out as a gubernatorial aspirant under PDP in 2003, when he was going for second term if not that I have the grace of God, I would have broken down. But I thank God. So, he has not paid. I went to court and won the case that they should pay me instead they went to Appeal Court and hanged the case at the Appeal, not following it up, they just abandoned it till date. I have not been paid. So, it is grace of God that I and my husband did some investment, apart from my inheritance that is what I am falling back on. Anything you see around me is a personal effort. It took me almost 12 years to complete the house. I got the allocation of where I am now when Babangida was military head of state and they were allocating to civil servants in that area. My own allocation of land in Victoria Island, Bola Tinubu revoked it and gave it to UAC just because I said Lagos deserves better treatment, the indigenes deserve better when I went to pay a courtesy call on him as commissioner representing Lagos State and Federal Character and he said that I came to play politics because I was then a gubernatorial aspirant and I said no, I am not playing politics, the data were there and I sent the data ahead. Probably he wasn’t properly briefed before coming to the courtesy call and immediately we left the courtesy call, I understand that within three minutes he revoked my certificate, and I didn’t know he has revoked the certificate of occupancy until I gave the land to developers and they came back to me that it has been revoked that is about two or three years after he had revoked it. He later gave them Abijo something that is not at par with the value of the land that he took. I have suffered a lot of humiliation at state functions; I will not be recognised that I was there and if not for my own personal relationship with people it would have been very obvious but because I have been kind to many people, they couldn’t really reel out whatever they have been told to do against me. So, it has been tough since 2003, this is 2023. In the last 20 years, it has been very tough. That is why this japa thing came about. If he was doing that to me because he has all these people who he has been influencing their being governor. If he was doing that to me as a remote control now that he has the power what then will happen, that is why I said it is better I renounce my citizenship, take the citizenship of another country and know that I am out of Nigeria. Especially, when I now heard it that when people asked him about me, my situation, and those whom I talked to, to talk to him to let them pay me my entitlement, he now asked if I am still around, if I’m still alive? And I called some of those who I believe are close to him, that I heard this, they said they will go and investigate, they go, they never come back. They have nothing to say because probably they found out that it is true that he said it. They never came back. On my pension, I spoke to someone like Pius Akinyelure (who is close to him) who spoke to him, he was very close too to my late cousin, Prof. Gilbert Adeleye Adegite in his lifetime, but he went and never came back. I spoke to Dr. Oluyomi Finnih, Prof. Bayo Williams and I spoke to Senator Anthony Adefuye, Kabiyesi, Oba Rilwan Akiolu (Oba of Lagos) is aware that I have not been paid my pension. Nobody could influence him to let go, so why will I say, I am going to continue to be in the same situation when he now has the almighty power. The presidential power in Nigeria is monarchical power. They can just pick you up in your house and that is it. He is very opaque, no transparency. Everyone is under his pocket, except I want them to kill me. What is to be done when one’s presence and uprightness displease the one who wields power? (Sunday Sun)

Update news