By Nkasiobi Oluikpe Correspondent, Lagos
Bucknor Akerele
Even though she has gone against the mantra that it is a man’s world, one thing this down-to-earth septuagenarian believes is that family comes first in every endeavour. Regardless of the returns that come with such endeavours, or the prestige or authority from one’s calling, for this woman of many parts, the family must not be compromised.
Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, journalist, businesswoman, politician, environmentalist, former deputy governor of Lagos State and a member of the just concluded National Conference in Abuja, was born in Lagos on April 30, 1939. She started her education at CMS Girls’ School, Lagos, and later went to Kingsley Girls’ School, England. She earned her law degree at Gray’s Inn, London; and got a diploma in journalism from Regent Street Polytechnic, now University of South Bank, London.
She began her career in journalism as a freelancer with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 1962 and moved on to edit the Drum magazine. She also worked as an announcer with the Voice of Nigeria (English service) and later as senior producer in 1964. Bucknor-Akerele made a foray into advertising when she worked as a client service manager with Graham and Gillies Advertising West Africa Limited before setting up her own private advertising outfit, Akerele Advertising Limited in 1972.
She once served as the vice president of the Association of Advertising Practitioners of Nigerian (AAPN).
She is the daughter of the man in whose house, in London, the Egbe Omo Oduduwa, which became the Action Group (AG), was formed. Though her father, the first president of Egbe Omo Oduduwa, was a medical doctor and her mother a nurse, she decided to toe the path of her grandfather, who was a lawyer.
Her father was also into politics had wanted his sister the first female doctor in West Africa, to go into politics, but she died prematurely.
So, having lost his sister, he turned his attention to his daughter, discussing politics with her in the house and encouraging her to go into politics.
However, the young woman had other things on her mind, the most important of which was the upbringing of children. She maintained that politics was not a part-time profession; she was not ready to sacrifice her young family for politics.
So, despite her affluent background and encouragement from her father, she insisted that her children must be old enough to take care of themselves before she could go into politics.
Once she took the plunge, she didn’t have any cause to look back; neither does she have any cause to regret any of her actions. This is why at over 70 she is still waxing strong in a profession that she has passionately upheld in the spirit of integrity, uprightness and service to her fatherland.
Even when military persecution arose against politicians and civil rights activists, as a member of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), she remained undaunted in her principles, expending her energy and resources on the cause she believed in.
During the Third Republic, she was elected into the Senate and appointed chairman, Senate Committee on Information. Also, during the turbulent military era and the transition to civilian rule, she joined the struggle for the actualisation of democracy and was fully involved in the activities of the NADECO and she was a founding member of the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
In 1999, Bucknor-Akerele was elected as the running mate to former governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on the platform of the AD. She resigned from that position on December 16, 2002.
Over the years, through her ups and downs as a politician and national figure, Bucknor-Akerele has been unwavering; a virtue that her party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) finds indispensable and she has been a pillar of the party since she joined it. She says nothing is as satisfying as having people come up to her to say that they are pleased at the way she has upheld her dignity.
Given her training as a lawyer in one of the most prestigious institutions in the United Kingdom, it was a bit amiss that she never practiced law. But Bucknor-Akerele said, “It was not that I did not want to practice it actually, it was just fate at that time. I was freelancing for the British Broadcasting Corporation and I was recruited for VON. That was how in the end I never really went into law practice. When I left VON, I worked as a client service manager in an advertising agency. After that, I started my own agency.
“Law is something that is very useful. You find out that a lot of lawyers are not practicing nowadays. They are either into business or other sorts of things because it is a very basic education.”
Moreover, she still consults legally for people, occasionally.
With Bucknor-Akerele’s close relationship with her father, she could be regarded as a compendium of Nigerian politics. She explained the difference between politics then and now: “Then, people went into politics as service to the people. Particularly the AG, they wanted a better life for Nigerians. But now people go into politics because they want to make money. That is the difference. Most politicians you see nowadays talk about service but they are not really interested in service. They are only interested in what they can make out of it.”
It would have been expected that with her experience, especially at the Government House in Lagos State, Bucknor-Akerele would be disappointed and regret ever accepting the offer to be deputy governor, but she is not one given to regrets: “I don’t believe in undoing things because I believe that whatever happened to one is destined by God and is part of life’s experience and, therefore, one should not attempt to undo things that happened, even if they are bad. It is all part of life’s experience.”
Even though she is a prominent person, this politician has a very ‘tame’ social life; though she still makes out time to go to parties, she is not a party freak and would rather take care of her garden, read books and exercise her body.
As a child, she grew up under the care of her grandmother, whom she described as very kind, loving and generous. And despite her mother being hale and hearty, her grandmother decided to take charge of her upbringing.
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