Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke revealed on Tuesday that Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, once defended him from media blackmail while he was in the Senate.
The governor, speaking at a reception for the First Lady and other State Governors’ wives at Government House, Oke-Fia, Osogbo, ahead of the Sod Turning of The Alternative High School for Girls, said the First Lady, then a Senator in the 8th Senate, was his saving grace after he was caught sleeping by the media during plenary session.
Adeleke said, “I’d want to welcome you to Osun State. You are a detribalised First Lady. She was my senior colleague at the 8th assembly; once, the media discovered me sleeping in the Senate and threatened to blackmail me. I told them how tiresome our job is, making invoices and spending countless sleepless nights in Nigeria.
“We rarely sleep past 4 a.m. They (the media) weren’t listening to me, and I almost fell for their blackmail. So, when Mama (First Lady) was on her way to Lagos, I informed her I needed to ask her something. I said I was sleeping, and the media came to me and told me they observed me asleep and looked to want to collect something from me.
Ademola Adeleke
“She told me, ‘Ma da won lohun‘ (don’t respond them), let them go and write whatever they want to write, and remind them you are a human being since they have done it to her in the past. I used what she told me. That allowed me to avoid paying a large sum of money. So if we have problems, we usually turn to her because of her extensive knowledge.”
Source: guardian.ng
