Mrs. Mayowa Ikuforiji, a pastor and wife of the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adeyemi Ikuforiji, speaks on what she knows about her husband, politics and and the allegation of corruption brought against her husband by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
What have been your challenges as the wife of Speaker Adeyemi Ikuforiji?
I don’t see any challenges in this; it is only that he does not have much time for the family. That has been the challenge because he is very hardworking. Most of the time, I have to call him on the phone when we need to discuss. Even in the midnight he receives calls. So I switch off his phones sometimes.
Has there been anytime that you felt so frustrated that you could not cope?
As a human being, there are times that I felt that he is too busy, but as a Christian I believe that whatever you find yourself doing, do it well and I should not stand as an obstacle to that. I should understand that he is on an assignment that God has given to him, so I should support him so that he doesn’t fail.
To what extent do you influence his decisions as the Speaker of the House?
The position of the Speaker is not an executive position, it is a position that any of the lawmakers could occupy. He is just first amongst equals. I realised early that I am not superior to the wife of any other lawmaker in the Assembly and my husband is not superior to any of the lawmakers. It is just that there must be a leader and God has put him there and others have graciously given him the position to be the leader. I respect them a lot, though. I am older than most of them, I give them their due respect. Most of them are my personal friends; I am close to some of them even more than their wives.
You are a pastor and your husband is a Muslim, has it always been like that. If it has always been like that, how do you cope and how do you strike a balance?
So many people have asked me this question, I come from a Christian home, my father was an elder in the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) and my mother is also a Christian.
I married my husband as a Muslim, but he studied abroad and he has a wider outlook of what is going on. So, I didn’t see him as a fanatic, my father actually asked me a question and gave me six months to go and think about it.
He said, ‘why do you want to marry a Muslim?’ After six months, I went back to him, he gave me an important point that; ‘you cannot divorce him when you marry him. Whatever you see in marrying a Muslim, you are a Christian, you should think over it’.
But, I thank God, 30 years after we got married; I have no cause for regret. Whatever happens has never been because he is a Muslim, it can happen anywhere.
Our marriage is extremely perfect. We have had our ups and downs but God has helped us. I believe sincerely that there is no difference between Islam and Christianity. Islam preaches ‘don’t commit adultery,’ Christianity preaches the same thing.
Be nice to people, be a giver and all that. All these are the same in the two religions. Anyone that goes outside the Quran to do some other thing is on his own, I have had the opportunity to read the Quran, there was a time I had a Muslim scholar coming to teach me. I have the opportunity to know how to pray in the Muslim way and say most of the things they say.
My husband is being influenced by his orientation as someone who studied abroad. Initially, he wanted me to be a Muslim; probably I would have joined him. But there was a period in my life, when I was very ill. Though everything seemed okay, but within me I knew I was not okay.
That was around 1998 during the first Holy Ghost Congress of the Redeemed Christian Church of God tagged Lekki 1998 with the theme; ‘Divine Visitation.’
I was actually visited by God, I went with my daughter, and actually it took us hours to get there.
I then said; ‘God, you have to heal me here today, if you cannot heal me, I want to die here’. Since then, I have never been admitted in the hospital.
I put a caveat there that if He healed me, I would serve Him as a Christian till I die’. It is not that I really don’t want to be a Muslim; I would have worshipped God the Muslim way. I believe that the sickness came because God wanted me to serve Him in the Christian way.
Lagos Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.
Lagos Speaker, Adeyemi Ikuforiji.
But one wonders if your children are Muslims or Christians?
Everybody wonders because they are all grown up now; I have not really forced my religion on them. My husband actually wants them to be Muslims, I think the boy is more inclined towards Islam, he takes him to Saudi Arabia for Umrah regularly, may be the girls are Christians.
There was a period they were going to NASFAT, but they are up to marriageable ages now. As girls they might probably take to the religion of their husbands.
Have you ever discouraged your husband from continuing with politics?
I didn’t marry him as a politician and I never told him not to do politics. I saw his plan to join politics as a way of serving the nation. I never looked at the bad side at all.
May be if I had discouraged him, he wouldn’t have joined politics. Of course he told me he wanted to go to the State House of Assembly and become the Speaker, but I didn’t really know what being Speaker was.
I just felt he was going to politics, become the Speaker and be the head of the legislature. Along the line, I discovered that it is not easy to be a politician.
My female children said that their husbands would sign an undertaking that they would never be politicians because of all the scandals the press write about their father.
It is not easy when you read unsavoury things about your father in the newspapers and you know that they are not true.
I am immune to that; there was a journalist who wrote terrible things about my husband concerning women. Later, he wanted to interview me towards my husband’s 50th birthday, I said: ‘since you know the girlfriends of my husband, you can go and interview one of them,’ and he was shocked.
Have you ever felt bad about some of the things they write about him?
Well, initially I felt bad, but after sometime, I became immune to them because they were becoming too much.
Most of the times, I call him and tell him on the phone before he gets home. Recently, it was written in a blog site that somebody had a baby boy for him, I called him and said ‘congratulations to us, we should now celebrate the arrival of a baby boy,’ and that it is an addition to the family.
He just said that I should leave them that those people are not serious. I will not kill myself because of that, I am over 50 years of age now.
Are you not afraid that your husband could practice polygamy someday as a Muslim?
If he has not been a polygamist in 30 years, is it now that he would be thinking about that. I have been married to him for 30 years. Will he do that in his old age?
What is your opinion about women in politics?
We don’t even have enough of them. Women are more emotional. It is like something is covering the faces of men.
Women see most of the things that men don’t see, and as mothers, that motherly instinct is there. As women, we have the ability to multi-task, men don’t have that.
I can be breastfeeding my baby and I would be cooking at the same time. Also, women don’t spend money on the opposite sex like men do.
I don’t know why young ladies don’t believe that they could do things on their own instead of depending on men. I don’t like it when people say, ‘wife of the Speaker’. Who am I? I don’t expect people to judge me by being the wife of the Speaker.
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