HE’S one of the fortunate Nigerians who have been able to make inroads into British politics. Adedamola Aminu served as the Mayor of Lambeth Borough before he was elected a councillor, representing Tulse Hill Brixton, in the same Lambeth Council. Signifi­cantly, the former lecturer and management consultant is on his third term in office as councillor having won elections in 2006, 2010 and 2014. He visited Nigeria recently and spoke with Effects.

Excerpts:

How did you get into British politics?

Having lived in the UK for many years, I realized that if you live in a society, whatever policy they intro­duce will affect you as a resident of that community. I said to myself that I would not sit down while they made policies that would affect my health, education, social services, even on how much council taxes we pay; how much rent we pay. These are the things local councils are responsible for in the UK. They make decisions that have major impact on people’s lives. Would I sit back doing nothing or I get involved so that I would be able to influence such policies. I was elected as a councilor in 2006, so I have been there for 10 years. Within that period, I was a deputy cabinet member for education and social services for three years. I left that position to become deputy Mayor, then Mayor. After that, I was reelected as the deputy cabinet member for enterprise, responsible for businesses, growth and enterprise.

I’m also a trainer, a lecturer, and I run a management training company where I train people on leadership and management skills. I’m the President of Nigeria Academics in the UK and Chairman of British Nigeria Councilors in the UK.

Most Nigerians complain that it’s difficult to make it in the UK, Do you have any godfather?

I don’t have any godfather but if you are focused, determined and know what you want, with prayers you’ll get it. I remember when I was a mayor; I went to the city of Westminster to see the Mayor. My first job on arrival in the UK was as a cleaner in that council. I was doing my cleaning job, between 5-7pm. When I visited the place as a Mayor of another Borough, and met security guards downstairs, then I began to reflect. The number 1 citizen of my local authority having a meeting with the Mayor of West Minster. Many years before then, I was cleaning the building. I turned to the security guards and told them that many years before then, I was a cleaner in the same building. So, I ad­vise people not to give up on what they are doing. It would not determine your fate neither will it mean the end of your career. Whatever your hands find to do, do it temporarily and move on and do other things.

If you’re in Nigeria, would you have gone into politics?

No, because I would not be given the chance to be involved. Having been able to do that in the UK and held various positions within the council and my role as the chairman of British-Nigerian Councilors in the UK and President of Nigerian academics you have so much experience. If Nigeria needs me and when the time comes. It’s my coun­try and I’ll be willing to come.

What’s your take on the President Mu­hammadu Buhari-led government?

The current administration is trying its best to make things better. Like I see, it’s going to be difficult to achieve their manifesto because there is no correlation between what the centre is doing and what the states are doing. Not until there is a synergy between the two, that is when they can say this is what they have achieved. Even the ways parties are funded in this country have to change.

Most Nigerians envy people liv­ing abroad and you are telling us you wouldn’t mind coming back home, why?

Those of us that were born and raised in Nigeria would say, oh I don’t want to go back home even when you could see American, British, Japanese, Chinese coming to our country to do things. Why are we running away from our country? We complain about lack of electricity, good roads whereas, these foreigners are using the same roads, living in the same community as we are. They don’t manufacture their electricity everybody uses generating sets. So, why are we complaining. They are using the same roads and are doing businesses and they are making it. The challenges that we have here is that we believe that the white man is superior to us. We need to change people’s mindset that the white foreigners are superior, I’m a lecturer there, I have trained black and white people. If I can do it there, why can’t I do it in Nigeria? Why should I bring a white person? If I say I want to train your staff, sometimes, they tell me to make sure I bring a white person with me. Are you telling me that I’m not more qualified than that white person?

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We have the best of talents in the diaspora. I’m one of the few lucky ones, I’m able to achieve as much as I have. Not many people have been able to do the same because there are racial discrimina­tions there. There’s a limit to how far you can go. People don’t quickly realize that. In Nigeria, there’s no discrimi­nation. Here you can achieve anything, you can become anything you want to become nobody will discriminate against you. That is why it’s good to come home. If you spend 100 years abroad, they will still treat you as a black man. Look at most of their immigration policies, they are against commonwealth citizens.

While in the UK, what do you miss about Nige­ria?

When you have parents, cousins, brothers here, you’ll always miss them because over there, it’s very lonely and isolated. There, you would just work, work, work, and pay bills and you have to deny yourself so many things to save money. Before you get the money, they’ve removed so much taxes. Before you get little change, VAT is also there. Before you think of eating, you must think of bills first. If you don’t pay your bills, you will be on the streets. But here, you can never be stranded even If you don’t have a place, you will get someone to supports you. I said that because having achieved the things I have done in the UK, people ask me when would I return to Nigeria to help the country. I would reply that I was willing to come back home to serve in whatever capacity that I could. The question is, would I get the chance?

In all these, what has life taught you?

You need to work hard. You need to be humble because life is a stage and we all play our parts. You should also do whatever you can to help your fellow human beings. Posi­tion is nothing to me; I’m always myself, no matter what title, no matter what position, I like to be myself.

People are complaining about the state of the economy, what’s your take on that?

I know that things are really difficult at the moment. We need to give the current administration time. It clocked one year, a few days ago and if we look at the damage that has been done over the years, it’s not some­thing you can repair in a year. Look at the current administration, they now have one joint account and they are trying to recover all the looted funds back into the treasury. By the time they recover all the money we’ll have money to invest on infrastructure, so we shouldn’t expect a miracle to happen over­night.

In Nigeria, politicians are very rich, In the UK, are politicians also rich?

In fact, you don’t touch money. Even as a cabinet member, you don’t touch money, everything you do are on paper. Maybe the budget for my local authority is 250 million pounds, (I’m just using that as an example, it’s more than that), we have officers, a finance director who knows how much we spend on education, health, etc. and we’ll allocate that money to different departments. The director of that department has that budget, but before he can spend the money, the cabinet members of that department must sign the cheque and specify what he’s spending the money on. And he will sign the paper. As a politician, we don’t touch any money, we only approve. The cabi­net member gives the bank the authorization to transfer the money to the contractors. A lot of things are done through bank transfers. We handle only petty cash if need be.

How do you relax?

There are many social parties in London to which and I’m often invited. That is one way I relax. On some Fridays and Saturdays when I don’t really have any event, I visit uncle Tunji Oyelana’s restaurant, Emukuy in Camberwell. He used to be a lecturer in Nigeria

What’s your favorite drink?

I like Nigerian beer (Guinness) the UK Guin­ness is too watery and the quality is not as good as the Nigerian one. I take maximum of two.