BY OSEYIZA OOGBODO
THE AJASINS are one of the most respected families in the South-West of Nigeria. The most popular Ajasin till date still remains the late Michael Adekunle Ajasin, former Governor of old Ondo State. As Governor, the legacy the late Ajasin left behind is that of virtuosity, credibility, righteousness and accountability.
Unlike today’s politicians, he went into politics not to enrich himself but to truly serve his people and the nation at large. When he was in office as Governor, it was his own car he used as his official car. When people therefore talk of the poor state of today’s governance, Ajasin’s administration is one of those they still make reference to as one that should be emulated.
Such is the enormity of his legacy that nobody, not even his children, have been able to take on from where he left off. “My daddy’s shoes are too big to step into,” admitted Jumoke Anifowose, last child and daughter of the late Ajasin. “I cannot even begin to contemplate how to step into them.”
Asked further on whom she thinks can adequately step into Ajasin’s shoes, she chose the acclaimed cleric, public commentator and social activist, the Right Reverend Moses Gbonigi, saying Gbonigi has all the qualities that the late Ajasin had.
Despite admitting that she cannot continue what her father did not finish; Anifowose is a chip off the old block and is as politically active. And just as he was highly successful, she is also, having risen politically through the ranks to now be the Chairman of the Ondo State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), a position which she is the only woman in Nigeria occupying any like it.
Her success is all the more astounding since politics, particularly in Nigeria, is a game for men, and not just any men, but the boldest and bravest of heart. How has she then been able to survive and is surviving in this man’s game?
“First, I don’t report to anybody. I am a professional. I am a widow, my children are grown up and so I have all the time in the world to play politics. As I said, I don’t report to anybody, cook for anybody, I’m not at the beck and call of anybody. Because of my own peculiar situation, I think I have been able to survive and been able to take part and take part very well.
“Politics needs your time, your money, your talent in order to be able to practice it. Also, I want to be in politics, it’s in me, so I have the interest, so I create the time for it. I’m also lucky that as a woman, the men that I work with have not discriminated against me. They have cooperated with me all the way.
“Maybe if I was younger or at the time I was taking care of my kids, I would be singing another song. But in the position I am now, I practise politics the way the men do. They travel in the night, I do so too. They hold meetings at night, I do so too. I am not hindered in any way to practice it,” she said.
It would have been natural to assume that men would want to intimidate her, yet she says the men she works with have not discriminated against her. But has there never been an occasion that a man had challenged her, or worse still, berated her on what she had to offer politically as a woman.
Her answer was swift: “I would tell such a man too what I have done since, because I met a comatose party on ground and I have been able to raise its profile in my state, so nobody can say that to me because I’ll answer back, yes.”
Nigeria’s politics is synonymous with violence like assassinations and armed assaults at rallies. Anifowose explains how she copes with violence at rallies.
“Well, there are occasions that people will want to scare you. It’s for you to stand your ground. If you stand and they know you’re not running away, even the thugs will run away because they will think that maybe you too have some things on you. That will affect them, so I am never afraid. I go to rallies and anywhere I have too.
“The security agencies too are always on ground because we have to take permission before holding any rally and they would have warned us if they knew there would be a problem in any of these places and they would be on ground anyway to make sure nothing untoward happens.
“But so far, so good, I have not experienced violence in any of our rallies,” she added.
She also claims that politics hasn’t made her a tougher woman. “I think I’ve always been myself. And if there’s any reason to be tough, I am there, and if any reason to be soft, I am also there. So, I have been able to manage situations regarding their circumstances. If there’s need for me to show the other side of myself, I do. And I have my own quiet way of reacting to issues, but I don’t think politics is for the lily-livered. You have to be a bit of a tough person to do politics,” Anifowose pointed out.
Her success is surely astounding, making some people wonder if it’s her father’s name opening doors for her.
She has the answer for such wondering minds. “I’ll be deceiving myself if I say that my father’s name hasn’t played a part in my life as a whole. It definitely has and continues to, but that doesn’t mean I just rely on my father’s name. I work very hard too because nothing comes on a platter of gold. And as a matter of fact, my father’s name makes me work even harder because people expect much more of me because of it.”
An accomplished lawyer before she went into politics, she chose politics as the field she has been more successful.
“In politics, I’ve risen to be the chairman of a very big party in Nigeria at the state level. At least in this dispensation now, of the 36 states in Nigeria, when talking about parties, you talk about ACN, PDP, CPC, and I’m the only woman chairman in their midst. There may be others, but not of known political parties.”
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