Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State recounted a moment when Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, rescued him from a media smear campaign during his tenure as a senator.
Speaking at an event honouring Senator Tinubu and First Ladies from other states, Adeleke shared how she intervened when he was photographed sleeping during a session.
Despite his explanations to the media about the demanding nature of a senator’s job, they attempted to blackmail him with the image. He thanked to Senator Tinubu for her support, describing her as a saviour during that challenging period.
The governor said in part;
“We don’t sleep till 4 a.m. most times. They (the media) were not listening to me, I almost fell for their blackmail. So I ran to Mama (First Lady) when she was going to Lagos, I told her that I wanted to ask her something. I said I was sleeping, and the media came to me that they saw me sleeping, and it seemed they wanted to collect something from me.
“She told me, ‘Ma da won lohun’ (don’t answer them), let them go and write whatever thing they want to write, tell them that you are a human being because they have done that to her before. I made use of what she told me. That helped me out of paying a lot of money. So anytime we have issues, we always go to her because of her wealth of experience.”