Lai Mohammed’s Wife Is Worried Abuja Babes Snatching Her Husband

In this interesting chat while on
courtesy visit to Daily Trust,
Information and culture minister,
Alhaji Lai mohammed detoured from
the usual and answered questions about
family and personal life:
“…the only angle you’d still face
that problem from is your wife.
Your wife would not like to lose
sight of you and she would insist
on coming to Abuja so that no
‘small girl’ will steal me away from
her (laughs). But on a serious note,
while a busy schedule is bound to
affect your family, it’s a sacrifice
you have to make.”
Why do you wear your signature round
glasses?
I can’t say exactly how or when I
began to wear them, because it was a
long time ago. When we were young,
we all pretended to be ‘comrades’,
adherents of Communism and all
that. We looked at Chief [Obafemi]
Awolowo as our mentor, so that’s
probably where the interest in those
spectacles came from. But right from
my days in the university, I have
always been wearing them.
And I think, it is a result of me
having my major political break
under [Bola] Tinubu, so it would
probably explain my leaning
towards the round glasses.
Sometimes we all have mentors we
want to emulate.
It goes without saying that you’re
one of the busiest ministers today,
due to the nature of your portfolio.
That’s been the status quo for you
for a long time. How has that
affected your family life – how much
of your family do you get to see?
I am lucky that most of my kids are
all grown up, so it’s not like fifteen
years ago when I was going abroad
before I became Chief of Staff to
Tinubu. But I know that this – being
this busy – could affect the
relationship between wife, husband
and children.
Let me tell you from the experience I
had in the early 90s, as Co-ordinator
of the Tinubu Campaign
Organisation, later becoming his
Chief of Staff when he became Lagos
State governor. It was a very long
transition, and we would wake up in
the morning, go and campaign and
come back at night when the kids are
asleep, and we would leave again in
the morning when they are still
asleep, before they wake up and get
ready to leave for school. They
wouldn’t see me for quite a while.
That must have taken a toll on your
family life…
Yes. That time, my youngest daughter
went to my brother in-law and asked
him what kind of job he was into
and he said he was an engineer. So
she asked if he could get a similar
job for me and he said no, that I am
a lawyer. That was when she
complained that they don’t see me.
When my brother told me, I felt very
bad.
Those days when I was Chief of Staff,
one day I came back late and I saw a
note on the dining table that read:
‘Daddy, may I please have an
appointment to see you?’ That was
when I knew exactly how bad the
situation was.
How about now, when your children
have all grown up?
It’s true that when you have a
younger family, you miss each other.
However, when you get older, your
children become more independent.
The only angle you’d still face that
problem from is your wife.