Mrs Olufunke Agagu is the wife of Olusegun Agagu the former governor of Ondo state who also served as Minister of Aviation and Minister of Power and Steel. The renowned educationist who will become a septuagenarian on April 1 spoke to Effects about what it feels like to be seventy, life as a former First Lady, husband’s death and many more sundry issues.
How does it feel to be seventy years old?
I feel great and I am grateful to God. It is a privilege to attain the age of seventy and I know there are so many people who would have attained this but they are no more. It is a big favour from God that I am still alive.
But you don’t look your age, what have you been doing?
Nothing. I have heard many people say that I don’t look seventy but this Papa God has been very kind to me. I want to thank him for my youthful look and for allowing me to attain this biblical age. I pray that he will be kind to me to even live much longer.
Do you have any beauty secret routine?
I don’t have any secret routine. I am a bad eater and I eat all the wrong foods. When I was growing up I ate a lot of chocolates and in fact, it was so bad that my grandmother warned me against it because she feared it would affect me in future. I ate a lot of sweets and chocolates. Although I worry a lot I always manage to maintain peace within me. I think that is a special gift from God and I am easily contented too. If I have money everybody will know and if I don’t have, I don’t grudge. I am a happy go lucky person and you can never tell whether I am passing through any stress because I try to be happy all the time.
What would you have wished for your 70th birthday?
My husband. I would have wished that he was alive because he had always loved to be seventy and he would always say that maybe after seventy that God would take him but he wasn’t even up to seventy when he left us.
How much do you miss him?
Ha! I can’t say. I miss him in every way. He was everything to me. He was my brother, mentor, father, hero, husband and lover. He was my father because I lost my father when he was 61years old, I won’t say that was too early. We were 7 and at that time my father died maybe about three of us had just finished school. So he also played the father role very well.
I am aware that you were your husband’s dance partner when he was alive, what was it like dancing with him then?
I love to dance. I love music and he was like that too. Even before we started dating, each time we met at parties, you will want to dance with somebody who knows the art and who can compliment you. We loved to dance together and everybody knew that we both loved dancing. And to the very last minute, we were forever dancing. Once he hit the floor you would have to beg him to leave.
How did you meet your husband?
We met in school. We were schoolmates at the University of Ibadan. He was in sciences and I was in the faculty of arts. In those days it was really very easy to mix and we attended parties together. We will always meet the same set of people at parties then because some people liked parties while some didn’t. So we were always meeting at one party or the other and somehow we got friendly and the friendship started.
What got you attracted to him?
He was gentle, easy going, very kind and very brilliant. He was also fantastically humorous.
How did you pull through the tragedies that happened after your husband’s demise?
The only tragedy I had was my husband’s death and then the plane crash. When he died I thought my life had come to an end but the outpour of love, encomiums from people from all walks of life made me pull through. These included the high, mighty and the low. They were talking and saying beautiful things about him and that comforted us.It was like people were falling over themselves to come and pay condolence visits. Then the plane crash happened and when it happened I saw the hand of God in that. The Lord saved my two sons. Initially, they didn’t tell me what happened they just said there was a delay. They said they needed to change planes and that it will take a while. But the way people were talking in hushed tones, I knew there was more to it. As soon as I got to the hotel they said we should wait while they went to arrange for another plane. In my room, I knelt down just like Jeremiah did, I complained to God and I said his words that say; “afflictions will not arise a second time”. I told God that whatever was going on, that I had absolute trust in him and that I know that he was going to intervene. But I was just making noise because the thing had happened almost two hours before I knelt down and the Lord had already done it. Finally, they came and told me that both of my sons survived and of course I knelt down again and thanked God.
Although that sort of comforted me but I know that if I don’t show appreciation to God that means I am not a child of God. For God to have done that, it was not because I am a good person or that I deserved what the Lord has done for me. But I would be an ingrate if I kept crying. So, that kind of comforted me and I didn’t look back and I held unto his promise which says, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” those were God’s words to widows, fatherless and of course to everybody too.
Fortunately, I had to go away after my husband’s death. My baby was pregnant at that time with her second child and she had planned to travel. She was about going to the US to stay with some friends but then I had siblings in the US and so we decided that I would go with her. So she changed her plans instead of going to stay with her friends, we decided to go stay with my siblings. She recorded gospel music and I also did the same when we were leaving. Every morning we would stay in our different rooms and listen to the words of the songs and it helped us. It ministered to us greatly and sometimes I would get emotional. I am an Anglican by birth and I have remained one and so some of our hymns also ministered to me deeply. These things helped me greatly maybe it was because I wasn’t at home because when I was here I received lots of visitors, well-meaning people came and we had so many people who stood with us throughout. Weeks after my husband’s death, it was very emotional whenever these people visited and the weeping would always bring back a flush of memories. But in the US there weren’t so many visitors and there you couldn’t say so much on the phone because you didn’t want to stay on the phone for hours on end. So, I think it helped in the healing process and it made it a little faster. Also, His grace was abundant for me and the children. I don’t know what I have done to deserve these much love from Papa God but he has been very awesome.
What was the last moment with him like?
We had just come back from the US the previous day; we were away for holidays and for a wedding. We went with some of our children and their spouses. The next morning when we woke up, I asked him if he wanted breakfast and he said it would be better for us to have brunch.He told me he had a meeting for 1 pm, I asked him what he would like, and he said eba. I gave the instructions to the cook and my daughter had earlier dropped her little baby on her way to the office because they didn’t travel with us. So, I took my granddaughter out to Ebeano to get some things. I can’t remember what we went to buy but we were held down by traffic. By the time we came back, he had already finished brunch and he told me he couldn’t wait. We saw him to the door and I said “have a good meeting’, I locked the door behind him and he never came back again. That was it.
What are the things you remember about your husband?
I learnt a lot from him. He forgives easily and he forgave everybody. He never held any grudge against anybody. Without trying to be blasphemous I always say that he was Jesus Christ incarnated. He taught me patience. I do tell him I don’t want his kind of patience. He was selfless and he would give everything out and deny me. He would rather deny me and give out help to whoever needed it. He was an amazing person. He was a good man and I don’t know how else to describe him. He tried to help as many people that came his way while denying himself. When we were leaving Abuja, I didn’t want to leave because Abuja was beautiful. He was the minister of power and I would ask him what are you going to do in that little state. But he told me, I want to go back and help my people. He said when we go back, we are not going there to make money we are going there to help our people. He emphasized the fact that we were not going to make money but that we were going to reach out to others and work. I remember a selfless man, a forgiving spirit, a patient man, a loving man. He shielded me away from the wickedness of this world. He would always say, don’t tell my wife. Even though when my father was terminally ill he told them not to tell me because he was always trying to protect me. He shielded all of us and he would not tell me the pains he was passing through as a politician. I didn’t know half of what was happening to him politically.
What was life like as a First Lady?
I was there to support him, to help the women and the children. I tried to educate the women. I wanted them to know that they could do better than just going to rallies to clap and dance. That they could stand up for themselves too and do better things with their lives. We had these monthly meetings which we called “gbebi ro’. During my time it was an avenue to let the women know what the government was doing as it concerns them and their children. Also, we let them know how they could benefit from government policies. We gave them talks on their health, we informed them about government programmes and we even tried to take them around. We travelled around so they could see what was available in their various local governments so that those in that local government could tap from it.
When you left the State House how did you feel?
I felt we were cheated.I felt the world is an unfair place. But if that is the judgment what would one do? We moved on.
Would you let your children participate in politics?
No, I think we have had our bits. The children are part of me and so let somebody else try. We will be political because this is our country and we don’t have any other place. We support any government that is doing well. My husband was a governor in that state, he tried. He was responsible for making Ondo state an oil-producing state because of his geological background.