Oluremi Tinubu, senator representing Lagos central, says she
became a born-again Christian while she was in exile with her family in the
United States.
In an interview with Television Continental, Tinubu, who
celebrated her 60th birthday on September 21, said the trauma of being alone in
the US, with little kids and without her husband, led her to Christ.
She said when she became the first lady of Lagos at a young
age, she knew she had to seek God’s guidance to handle the responsibilities that
came with the position.
“Like I said, if you get into a position you never envisage
in your life time that you will ever occupy, you believe it is a privilege and
God must have made you to become that. So you have to go back to God and ask
‘how do I do this,” she said.
“Thank God before I became the first lady, we were in self
exile for almost five years and when you have problem, the only person you run
to is God. So while I was in the US, I went to church, that was when I became
born again.
“I went into exile as an Anglican, came out as a
Pentecostal. I remember I was looking for God from one church to another, it
was very difficult. When I came back, l had amnesia, I lost my memory, it was
traumatic for me and that’s why I don’t like attending social gatherings because
people walk up to me and I don’t recognise them anymore.
“It was traumatic for me because I was around 34, first time
of being separated from your husband, and then you are stuck with two children
with a lot of responsibilities.
“My husband couldn’t come see us until 18 months after. They
locked them up for a while during the Abacha period and to see us, they have to
go through neighbouring borders and the only passport he had was a diplomatic
passport that couldn’t get him to UK because there were sanctions on diplomats
because of June 12.
“He had to get to a neighbouring country to get their
passport to come see us. Through that passport, he came to see us once every
six months. But for me to raise the children to go to school, they were very
young, it was traumatic for me. So to come back and become a first lady, it was
something else.”
Tinubu, who is an ordained minister of the Redeemed
Christian Church of God, said she has never experienced any conflict with her
husband as regards their different faith.
“When I met my husband, I didn’t know it was a big deal.
We’re from the Anglican Church. Then, a lot of Christians married Muslims. It
was my sister that introduced us,” she said.
“One of the things that was profound for me, when we both
went to see my dad, my dad asked him ‘are you a Muslim?, that was the first
time I heard that. You’re a Muslim, I hope you won’t prevent my daughter from
going to church and he promised not to.
“The point is he is quite respectful of my faith and if
someone respects you it is quite right you show the same respect. He respects
my faith, I respect his so there is no conflict.
“He doesn’t stop me from praying even if some pastors come
around. He also has a lot of pastor friends that I met through him.
“My husband is very liberal when it comes to faith, being married to a Muslim I never had any
problem. But when it is time for me to put on hijab during his events, I’ll do
that but that doesn’t change my faith.
“He didn’t impose his faith on our children, I raise my
children as Christians despite they bear Muslim names.”
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