Vanguard Interview with Mrs. Titi Oseni - Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly

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By Kolade Larewaju


Mrs. Titi Oseni is the Speaker of Ogun State House of Assembly. She is the first woman to hold the office in the state and indeed in the South West. In this interview with Kolade Larewaju, Oseni says she would like to return to her seat in 2007 and that many women would occupy political positions in 2007

THREE years in the saddle as speaker, how has it been?

I want to thank God for His mercy so far, and for three years now, there has been peace in Ogun State and we are all still together as one family and as a body. Three years it has been a success story. We have been able to keep the state as one and also keep the members of the House together under a cordial relationship. It has been an enormous task, I will not deny that. It has taken a lot from me, a lot out of me but it has also added a lot to me.

What are the challenges?

Well, the basic challenge I will say is working with 25 men and being the head. Keeping them together, arranging, organizing and being able to have an effective and efficient House of Assembly and also combining that with my home. It has been very challenging to me but I have been able to manage and cope very well.

How has your family coped?

I thank God for the support that I have received from my husband, family and children. It has been quite difficult to be away most of the time, but they have been able to cope because they support my aspiration and are therefore supportive of what I am doing. However I have not shied away from my responsibilities as a wife, as a mother and whenever I cannot make it to be with my children, my husband has always filled in the gap and it has worked well so far.

How does it make you feel being the first female speaker in the state and in the South west?

I am the only one in the country. Well I thank God for the opportunity given to me by the members of this House. First I am particularly grateful to the governor of the state and secondly to the members of the house that it has pleased them to make me the only female among them the speaker. I however pray that in the next dispensation we can have two or more that will be speakers of various state houses of assemblies.

As a woman leader in your party, what has been your effort in getting more women to take part in politics?

There is a forum that I run which is called Women Parliamentarian Forum bringing women from different parliaments together to discuss challenges faced and also discuss how we can effectively encourage women into politics.

We have done series of programmes and we have done one in which we invited future aspirants together to talk to them and encourage them. I want to assure you that in 2007, we will see an improvement because so many women have come to me at one point or the other for my support and assistance from which I have not shied away.

So, at various meetings that I have attended, we have been encouraging female aspirants. In the area of organizing women, I have been very active, giving them the support to make sure that, in 2007, we see an improvement in the number of women participating in active politics.

Already, people are jostling for elective posts in 2007, what is your own ambition?

2007, I plan to return, come back to the House of Assembly. As we speak, people from my constituency are saying that I should come back to represent them as a member.

You want to be speaker again?

When we get to that bridge, we will cross it. When we get to the house we will now decide who will become the Speaker. We will sort things out.

A couple of days ago, your House endorsed the governor for another term despite protestations by some people who are even members of your party, what informed this?

Well, it is the performance of Otunba Gbenga Daniel. We noticed that his performance in the state has been very great, unprecedented and the people are very grateful.

We also see that lately some people especially the opposition are planning to rubbish his personality and performance and in our own way, we decided to support him for having touched the lives of the people and improving things economically, socially and educationally. We know what the budget of Ogun was before and we know what it is now.

We know the improvement that we can see all around.

We know what we met when we came in and what we have now. We know people in opposition are trying to rubbish him and in the last two or three weeks have written things in newspapers, but through our programme, Mr. Governor Explains this, we asked him questions and he explained to us. He did very well in explaining the whole story and so we have to show him and tell the people that we are solidly behind him. He has transformed Ogun State . Those who are against him are members of opposition who do not wish the state well. No member of our party is against him. He will continue in 2007.