Olorunnimbe Mamora A Peaceful Public Servant

At 73, the former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly and two-time senator and former minister, Senator Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora, speaks with the composure of a man at peace with his journey. He looks back on his decades of public service, personal loss and quiet victories in a recent encounter with Vanessa Obioha

 A week after his birthday, I found myself in the private office of Senator Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora.  A miscommunication had cancelled our earlier appointment and we had to reschedule. Before setting out, I called and texted to reconfirm our meeting. When he didn’t respond, I wondered if I had been given an alternative line, as most influential people usually have more than one number.

When I mentioned my efforts to reach him later, he sounded genuinely surprised and apologised that he may have missed it, and that he only answers calls from stored contacts. Unknown contacts usually go through a sort of verification.

“I only have one line.”

That was unusual.

“I don’t think I can handle having two lines.”

Order, it seems, matters to him.

“If I put something here, I don’t want anyone to shift it from there. If it’s moved, I will easily notice,” he said, gesturing around. His office seems to obey the rule too. His awards are neatly arranged on a shelf. Artworks and portraits are strategically placed to draw one’s attention. Even his desk is not clustered. Every notepad, pen and other writing memorabilia are meticulously aligned.

At 73, the former Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly and two-time senator speaks with the composure of a man at peace with his journey. He believes he has lived a fulfilled life.

That conviction comes from his faith. Like his name, Olorunnimbe — which acknowledges the reality of God — he believes his life’s trajectory has been divinely guided.

He recalled seeing God’s hand in the early years of his marriage.

“I have always wanted two children,” he recounted. “We had our first child, a son. I was feeling good,” he smiled. “And in quick succession, we had our second child, a female.”

For a moment, it seemed God had answered his prayers but tragedy struck when 13 months later he lost his daughter.

“I felt so bad about it,” he said, his voice tinged with sadness. To overcome his grief, he gave in to the thought that things without remedy should be without regard.

For the next eight years, Mamora and his wife waited for another child, undergoing medical tests while holding on to hope. Eventually, she conceived and gave birth to twin girls.

In retrospect, Mamora sees it as divine compensation.

“He gave me two for the price of one.”

Today, the girls are married and parents themselves.

In his political career, he acknowledged the God factor, right from his days as a medical student at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University). Having witnessed his father’s role in politics, it was only natural that he would follow a similar path.

Even though he left the university in 1981, it was only in 1999 that he really contested for a political office.  Other involvement in politics was more of membership in political groups like when he joined the National Republic Convention (NRC) as a national delegate in the lead up to the annulled June 12, 1993 election. However, it was during Nigeria’s transition from military to the present democratic dispensation that he contested for the Speaker of Lagos State Assembly under the Alliance for Democracy (AD) party.

“The good thing then is that we were elected five months before we were sworn in.”

Recalling that period, he described it as a very tough one.

“The amount of work that one had to do to become a speaker is even more than what I did to be elected in the House of Assembly,” he joked.

During the turbulent period leading to his emergence as Speaker in 1999, following internal party divisions in the AD,  the atmosphere was chaotic.

“The crisis divided the party, the leaders, everybody. The whole thing snowballed into the election of the speaker,” he said.

On the day of the inauguration, Mamora recalled with gentle laughter,  “Chairs and tables were missiles.”

But in all of that drama, Mamora just sat in his seat calmly.

“I had peace with myself,” he said calmly.

“My belief in God is that He has a purpose even in that experience. People were coming to check on me but I told them that I’m okay. My wife was seated in the gallery. I was more concerned about her safety than mine.”

“I’m a calm person,” he explained further. “I’m peaceful by nature.”

Those who mistake that calmness for weakness, he implied, do so at their own peril.

Those who know him, he insisted, know who he is and respect him for that.

“I know who I am. I don’t need anybody to define me. I have no apology for who I am. Those who know me can speak of me and know what to expect.”

His comportment and other values passed on to him by his parents have always distinguished him from the crowd.

He worried about what he describes as the erosion of values in society — respect, honesty, integrity — virtues, he said, were once foundational.

“We have virtually destroyed our values,” he said. “It’s a collective responsibility because the values didn’t erode in just one day. The question is what do you do to correct that in your own little space?”

Mamora believes that it is a systemic issue, “where we have left those things that we ought to have done undone and have done those things we ought not to have done, and it now becomes a norm.”

“Everything has been corrupted. Love of money, the get-rich-quick attitude, people want to get rich without working, all of these things have messed up society.”

What bothers him most is that “it doesn’t seem to me that we are making adequate efforts to reverse the situation.”

But he remains optimistic that the decline is reversible.

“There is nothing learned that cannot be unlearned. It’s just a matter of determination and there has to be, call it a national consensus, that we must do things differently. And then you start from leadership because for me, it’s leadership that has the duty to chart a course for the people. And that leadership starts from home.”

If there is disorder in the home, he argues, the larger society inevitably reflects it.

Mamora’s public life extended beyond the Lagos State House of Assembly. He served in the Senate for two terms, representing Lagos East Senatorial District from 2003 to 2011. He was a Minister of State for Health from 2019 to 2022, and then Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation from 2022 to 2023.

Legislature, he admitted, remains closest to his heart. According to him, it is the fulcrum around which democracy revolves.

“If I had my way, all my public life would be in the legislature,” describing it as the institution where democracy finds its clearest meaning through representation.  Legislature has its perks for Mamora. They include no tenure limit and the only place, as he puts it, where he can air his views or opinions without being guarded.

“If you don’t have good governance, it’s because the legislature is bad,” he added, stating that the legislature should be more meticulous in passing laws, particularly the budget.

“If the legislature knows what it is doing, that budget will be properly scrutinised, and it won’t just be a question of fulfilling all righteousness.”

But it’s not all about politics for Mamora. He occasionally sings in the choir and occasionally puts on his apron and whips something up in the kitchen. He wouldn’t call himself an artist or an art collector but he appreciates beautiful works of art and nature.

Even at 73, Mamora is conscious of the ephemeral nature of life.

“Tomorrow is not guaranteed, that’s why every day should be celebrated. I thank God that I’m still standing today. It’s by His grace.”