…His sense of discipline prepared me for life in America and career exploits
…Says Tinubu is always years ahead of his contemporaries in politics
By Tunde Abatan
At 70, Dr Olu Mcguinis Otubusin is a fulfilled man by all standard.
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Having been born into a Christain home with a strict father,who he described as,” an English man to the core” and whose tough handling mould and prepared him for success in life,he can’t but be grateful he had a disciplinarian as a father .
Today, when he looks back,he thank God for the father he gave him without which he would not have face life challenges and climbed the ladder of success as an attorney in the United States of America where he studied both at the University of Wisconsin and Howard-one of the most prestigious University in the United states where he horned his academic skills and became highly successful in his law practise.
TInubu will win landslide but … – Otubusin
Everybody has a story and Otubusins is incomplete without his fathers role as a disciplinarian- an experience which adequately prepared him for life’s struggle and ultimate success.
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However,he has one regret,his father who made a lasting impact in his life was not there when he became an Attorney in 1988 and when success came knocking from his law practise.
Today, when he looks back,the last 35 years as a practising lawyer and CEO of Law Chamber of Macguinis and Associate,Houston Texas,he can’t but thank God for his success.
What is more, having survived a close shave with death twice during COVID -19 pandemic when his doctor has almost given up about his chances of recovery, he has cause to thank God as he turns 70 today in he land of the living.
Otubushin is however not happy that back at home, his people condone bad leadership and accept anything thrown at them by successive government over the years.
As an activist-a former President of Egbe Omo Yoruba in United States of America,he believes Nigerians deserve better leadership than it has today and convinced that the youths has the chance to effect the much needed change .
In his assessment of the leading contestants, he believes Asiwaju Bola Tinubu,the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate stands taller than the other three aspirants to give good leadership and unite the country after emerging as Nigeria’s next President.
He speaks on this and other issues,in this encounter with Editor, Tunde Abatan.
Excerpts:
Newdawn:What is it like to be 70. When you look back what are those things you ever cherish?
A:I give glory to God for making me to be 70. Last year because of the pandemic,I had a terrible year.i had Covid twice,I was in the hospital for ten days. I have problem with my heart. It happens that my doctor is my friend,he was so scared that I might die. He didn’t tell me but he told my wife and that is why the celebration of my 70th birthday is very,very, special because I am still in the land of the living.
It is not by my own doing but by Gods might,so I give glory to almighty God for saving my life and being able to talk to you today.
Q:How would you describe the journey so far. Your birth, early education,your career as a lawyer of almost four decades now.?
Nigerians tolerate bad leadership- Otubushin
A- I give glory to the almighty God for my beginning. I thank God that I was born into a family that is very,very proud. We are very,very, proud of our name and that is why you can’t hear of anywhere a Otubushin committed crime or anything like that. Our parents built that in us and you must not let the family down, You know you are from a great family and that has been my premise.
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My father-Zacheus Banjoko Otubusin,was judiciously strict.
My father, a banker by profession,was an Englishman to the letter. Even at a time,I thought I wasn’t his child the way he disciplined me.
Q:What do you mean by saying, he was an English man?
My father will speak English to you 97 percent of the time. Even my friends,they call him names. If they come to my house and say,excuse me sir,”Se Olu wa nile..he will reply, “I don’t know go and check in his room.”
So when they come into my room,they call my Dad,Olu de . They will say…. “Go and tell him,that his English is too much.”
I was shocked when my father spoke in Ijebu dialect,I was shocked .That was when I came back from the United States for a visit.
That is what I mean when I say my father was an English man to the letter.
He believes in One Man,One wife and all those things.May His soul rest in peace.
My aunt,the late Mrs S.O Awokoya,may her soul rest in peace, was a fan of my father ..she said once that she never saw an African attire on my father until the later part of his life. My father was always in suit.
I remember one day I was going for an interview with Gulf oil after I finished high school. I went to meet him and said I was going for an interview. I was in shirt and trousers and he said,where are you going? I said I am going for an interview and he said go and put on your suit.
And lo and behold, when I got to the interview,as I entered to talk to the panel,one of the panelists said-dressing Excellent.I took it.
I contemplate I should tell him my experience and he would say “ara oko ni e.”
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Q:Would you say your father has played a very significant role in your life thereafter ?
Yes,he sure did. I didn’t appreciate him until when I got to the United States.
Q:Why?
Because, when we went to the United States, it was such that you can easily go astray.
But at the back of my mind,I always remember the son of whom I am. Im thousands of miles away from Nigeria.
I’ve seen and experienced the discipline of my father so that made me not to be a bad person.
I’ve always followed the rules and regulations to the letter and I tried to be the best I can be based on the background of my dad.
To let you know how disciplined my father was,when I went to him to say I want to go back to school,..(I was in the boarding house at CMS grammar school between 1967-1973 for my West African School certificate and Upper Sixth),At that time when people are going home for the holiday,they were happy but I’ll be on the other side because I’ll say,I’m going back to that dictator.
That is how I feared my father so much and that fear he built in me has gone to help me later in life.
Q: What did you miss in him?
I can’t tell you what I missed but I regretted that he didn’t live long enough to enjoy the fruit of his labor. That regret is still in me till today.
When I became a lawyer,he died the year that I left the law school in 1988. I would have loved he will be there.
As a result,I always do what I couldn’t do for him for my mother but those are things I should have done for my father too.
Q:You must have practised for over three decades now,what are the landmark cases you have handled?
There was a settlement I made in my early years of practise,it was over a million dollars that was how I started. I thank God that my law firm is well known not only in Houston, Texas but across the United States.
I give glory to God for that. My law firm has been doing pretty good over the years.
Q:Why did it take you so long to go to the Nigerian law school as a Nigerian?
I never thought I would study law in Nigeria but the pressure was so much on me by my friends like General Alani Akinrinade,Bola Tinubu,late Kemi Nelson and Kenny Ailoje,especially Dr Ailogbe.
She won’t let me rest and as a result, I took courage, and I don’t regret it.
Q:What was their motivation for asking you to attend the Nigerian law school?
Because those people want me to come and practise here. They knew about my practise in America especially the late Chief Kemi Nelson who was my relative.She always looked out for me…. Tolu,just come here.
Im happy that I came at an older age because going to law school in Nigeria gave me another perspective of this country. The perspective I have known about this country.
As an activist, ive played my roles for the survival of this country .
There are some fundamental things that I don’t know that the law school taught me and that I would have missed if I didn’t study law in Nigeria.
One thing that I realized in law school is that an Hausa man gets what Hausa man wants. I don’t care about that. The only thing that borders me is that it is we the southerners that are supporting them for getting what they want.
We think they are not smart.they are smarter than us and they don’t talk lousily.
They think about what they want to do and they make sure that it materialise and put a Southerner as the head of that committee or whatever they want to create and as a person,he that has no power.
For instance,look at the Land use Act,it is a replica of what the Northerners have been using before it was promulgated in 1978.
So they just copy and put it on us. And who was the head of the government then,a Southerner.
I don’t blame them at all. They know what they want and they get it.
Q:With your experience in Nigeria politics so far,what direction do you think this years election will go?
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It’s not going to be another election,the way we have always been doing.
That is what I want people to know. There is a revolution going on in this country that people are not paying attention to. And the revolution is by the youths. Obi just happened to be an opportunist to lead those youths. They are talking about structure. There is a structure there. The youths are the one doing things for him, buying parapenelia,doing posters and all that and so on.I will know on the day of the election when i see the demography of voters.I can see and predict what is going to happen.
Q:In other words,you are saying that his candidature is a serious factor in what is going to happen all over the country ?
Not his candidature,it’s the youths that will determine the outcome of the election.
Q:Do you think the youths all over the country think same way?
The Hausa youths are saying the same thing. One thing is the Northerners are getting education now. I remember the Hausa/Fulani people that were in class with me. Those ladies,they were smart.I was really impressed with most of them. The ones that are read,they read properly.
Q:You have been home for two months now.How would you assess the candidature of Asiwaju Tinubu. ?
He appears to be the main focus even a subject of attack by the two other dominant candidates,Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi? Why is this so?
When it comes to politics,I don’t see anybody who can rival Bola Tinubu in this country.
Another person that I respect in this country is Ibrahim Babangida. Both Tinubu and Babangida,they know what to do and what it is to get whatever they want in this country. I respect Bola Tinubu when it comes to politics.
When I was staying with him,we argue politics ninety nine percent of the time,he is going to win. He will tell me I should keep on speaking Turenchi,this is where they will go.
While people are sleeping Bola Tinubu is thinking of what next to do. He is ten times ahead of his rival.
Q:So how would you rate him in two weeks time?
Without the youths,it will be a landslide for him to win. If the youths should get their PVC cards,it will be close between him and Obi. I don’t think Atiku can go that far in this election.
Q:But El Rufai was saying that the election will be fought between Tinubu and Atiku?
I don’t believe so. The main factor I am so scared of in this election are the youths.If they go out en masse to vote,people will be surprised.
Q:In the light of this,one did not expect a ruling government which is in power for eight years to struggle to win a re election but with the Naira redesign policy which government said their motive is to stop those stockpiling money for election but with the attendant suffering of the masses in the past weeks,do you see government achieving it’s purpose.. no fuel,no money..Is a government that is strategic be implementing this kind of policy at this time and period?
This is the only country that I know where people queue to get fuel, queue to get your money from ATM, queque for everything.
I’ve never been in a country like this. Nigerians are too soft. They are suffering and smiling and that is why the politicians are taken advantage of them. An average Nigeria just want to go to their respective place of work,go home ,eat and everything. They don’t ask for much.
I want to tell you something today. Nigerians are the easiest people to govern as long as you don’t disturb their daily activities and lifelihood.
Q:Now that it has been disrupted especially with disclosure by Asiwaju Tinubu and others,do you see them transmitting this anger on those responsible for this suffering especially in the light of this disclosures by Tinubu and others?
I like what he …(Tinubu) is doing now.He is now coming out to talk against bad governance although some people say he is only doing it for himself. But at least he came out on our side this time and you can see the apparent effect of him raising his voice by all this pronouncement on any issue.
If Bola Tinubu make a comment on any issue,if he sneeze,Nigeria will feel it.God has bless him like that..
Q:Are you saying he is smarter than other politicians?
He is ahead of them. I cannot tell you the secret that I know,the way he functions. I am here to support him.
Q:Do you see this government heeding the call of some people for Interim National Government. Do you see the election going into a run -off. Do you see that surprises may affect the outcome of the election ?
I cannot answer that question because I don’t know the rationale of the thinking faculty of our people but the powers that be can do and undo. Take Abiola for example.
Q:Do you see another annulment happening thirty years after?
Nigerians are all made like that and still is.i don’t want to deceive myself and as I said earlier whatever they throw at us we accept it. We cry and that’s all. We cry,we don’t do anything and they have seen that that is the way it is.
Q:Is it because of the North South dichotomy of the country or what do you think is responsible for the attitude? Especially people in the South West are known for agitating for political reforms unlike the North that always agitate based on religion?
But people in the North too have been calling for our dissolution of the country also but we didn’t follow it up in the south . Some people in the North too have been saying we can go our separate ways especially the younger ones but we didn’t follow it up here. We should have jumped on it in the South.
Q:But was it pronounced?
It was everywhere. The Northern youths of today are very dynamic unlike their parents.
Q:You have practised in the US for decades since you left law school in 1988 before coming down to Law school here. How would you describe practise here compared to the United States.Would you say it is easier to get justice here in Nigeria like it is in the US?.
No. Capital No. The way the judicial system works in Nigeria is pathetic. A case that shouldn’t take more than two, three months will take years because a lawyer will go to court asking for continuance all the time and some time the judge will help the attorney what to do. You are the one that brought the law suit they told you that it is for trial today and you came unprepared. Over there your case will be thrown away.
Q:Is it as a result of our system?
But you’ve been given a day for the trial,it is your duty to do the needful and get all your witnesses to court that day. You have to do all what you can to achieve that.
Q:What of the level of preparednes of the client.?
Well,you threw out the case. Im not going to tell my client to do any pro Bono all the time. You have to pay. There is no justice without payment.
Q:Does that implies why the cost of justice here is expensive?
It is expensive over there too.You have to pay. Even poor people do pay. I think what is different is that our priority here is different.
I won’t be going to my lawyer to say..mo fe san Owo Ile,mo fe san Owo school..I want to pay for house rent,I want to pay for school .No. You were the one that employ that lawyer, you have to pay him or her in order to do a great job for you to win your case.
How is he going to pay his staff.?
Q:Since you started practising here,would you say you have added anything to your experience in the United states?
To be continued tommorrow Thursday
