Mrs. Oluyemi Titilayo Showunmi is one of the Ogun celebrity ladies we hardly talk about. She is one of the INEC female top shots. She joined INEC 21 years ago and she has today risen to the position of Deputy Director of Lagos INEC.
Although she has not always been on the media radar but her husband Segun Showunmi is an ace Public affairs analyst and Social impact expert, who has had experience in governance, policy and civic engagement.
He also has been involved in several publicity campaigns across Nigeria. He served as the spokesperson for the 2019 Presidential Campaign of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the frontline candidate from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
Segun Showunmi is a notable image-maker and served as the Deputy Chief Press Secretary to former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
He is pan-Nigeria, with a talent for eloquently managing the political narrative with an intent to instill discipline in the democratic process.
Come 23rd of March, Oluyemi Showunmi will clock 50 and the stylish woman who looks fabulous and younger than her age is planning to celebrate her golden jubilee with a few friends and close relations at their Abeokuta home. In this interview with BUNMI MUSTAPHA, Oluyemi opens up on life at 50, how she met her husband and her journey into INEC 21 years.
In a few days’ time, you will be clocking 50, how does being 50 make you feel?
Gratitude to God, I am just so grateful, I thank God for the gift of life, I thank God for the challenges of life, I thank God for what I am able to surmount, I thank God that I don’t look what I have been through, and I thank God for everybody who has been around me, particularly, first I will give glory to the almighty God as I have said, I will thank mu husband who has been very supportive, my parents, for the value they instilled in me, and of cause, family friends who have become family members and everybody I have come across in life, colleagues, both juniors and seniors, everyone has been awesome, in the sense that, for everyone I have met, I have learnt something from them, so being fifty in one word for me is edifying, it is sort of enlightenment, but most importantly is about being grateful to God for the gift of life.
What would you say is your greatest achievement at 50?
For me, my greatest achievement is creating experiences with people and making an impact on them or motivating them, to learn more, to do more, and to be the best versions of themselves, am lucky that I work in an environment where I am not doing a strictly nine to five job, so I get to meet a lot of young people, I get to interact with them, I get to relate with them and motivate them, and when I see people with talents and watch them grow, it makes me really happy. Take for instance, when I see people like Boye Best I am always elated, he was at my husband’s 40th birthday and I think that was the launch of his music career, so when I see him today and I know that maybe I can’t afford him but we were part of his success story it makes me happy. I could see potential in people and I could buy into it, living a life of legacy, living a life of inspiring people to grow, that’s my achievements.
Any regrets so far or anything you wished you would have done otherwise?
When I think about it, the regret I would have is, maybe I would have managed some relationships better, maybe be more in control of situations without necessarily showing emotions, and be more constructive about certain things as against been emotional.
Compare to your husband who is an outgoing person, and a public persona being a politician, you, on the other hand, is an indoor person, you only attend functions, our readers will be wondering if this was part of your upbringing, can you let us in into your background?
I was born on the 23rd of March 1971, into the family of the late very Reverend S. A Ogunfowora, and my mom Mrs Ayodele Taiwo Ogunfowora, both my parents were civil servants. My father retired in the Ogun State civil service, he was from the old. The western region and my mother retired as a matron, that incorporated a lot of strong values and home training in me, and you know when you are born from parents that are civil servants, you kind of have a conservative upbringing, so maybe that was the reason you said I am more of an introvert person, but I think I am more of an ambivert, I can do one on one with you and be free when I know you, but when it comes to being an extrovert, I can’t come into the room and suddenly chat people. I would want to thank God for my husband, he has been very extremely supportive and enlightened, he has promoted me in many ways, and I am not just saying this about, him, I think my husband has made me a better person, my greatest critic, the person I fear most to talk about issues with is my husband, because the level at which he would raise it to, I would have to go inward, challenge myself and come up with something I know can be heaper with his intellectual abilities, so am grateful for that, and he is not that kind of person that will lay pressure on you to do things that you don’t necessarily want to do like you know, he goes to his parties, I am his cheerleader, I clap him on, sometimes I go to the parties with him, but he is comfortable with me not wanting to go out, and with the nature of my job again, when you are a civil servant, you have to be behind the scene, you have to implement the policies of the government, you are not supposed to be seen all over the place. So this person I am is the combination of my parents, my background and my job. I have four other siblings, we are a family of five, but when you look at my siblings too, my older brother is a judge, my husband said something that when he first met me, I was always indoors, but when he went to London and met my sister, he said all of my siblings do stay at home so no big deal in mine, but what I do when you say that I stay at home, how do I engage myself, the hobbies I picked up early in life was reading, you know our own generation was nothing compare to now that there is more innovation, you have better programme on the television, the internet, the social media and the rest, but the only thing we had then was rolling tires, skipping, ten ten and playing with sand, so the other thing you could do that would actually occupy you most of the time is reading, so I picked up reading at a very young age, so sometimes when you see that I am indoors, I am actually reading, because reading takes me into different worlds, and it even takes me to different personalities, such that I am able to know people easily, like before I ever travelled out of the country, I was so familiar with some of the things i expected to see in terms of culturisation and westernization and by the time I travelled out, it was as if maybe I have been part of them or I have grown up there, for me knowledge is enlightenment, its edifying, it takes you to places and up till now I still make sure that I read every day, and the internet makes it easy.
Can you let us into your educational background and work experiences?
I Started my primary school education during the western region, I was born in Ibadan, my primary school was at Omolewa Nursery and Primary school in 1975, then we moved to Abeokuta during the creation of the state in 1976, I was later enrolled at St. Benedict Primary School, Ibara, In 1982, I moved to Abeokuta girls grammar school, when I finished in 1987, then in 1987 proceeded in to Ogun State university and finished in 1991, I did my NYSC with INEC, where I work incidentally in Maiduguri, Borno State, then the country was safe, not what we have today, I graduated early, I was twenty by the time I was finishing and my parents were not scared, and it was even a good opportunity for me to even go, I could relate with people from other culture, so when I see what is happening today in the country, it makes me really sad, because the person that actually helped me with my work attitude and work mentality were even some of the people due to ethnic profiling, we are saying, no we cannot do with them, some of the people that actually helped me in life, so I can’t even relate it with what is happening in the country today, the girls I know them, there was no GSM back them but I know their names till date, I can remember Saratu, Jumai was the one that helped me with work, there was also Ruth an d I lived in the same house with all these people. The first time I was admitted in my life was when I went for my service year, I had a bulge infection in the stomach, and these girls took care of me that they were like my sisters, I pray that Nigeria comes out of this and I pray that we actually become one again truly in the sense of being one, such that we can have one nation where people will speak with one voice and we can say that the fact that I am from this place, or the fact that you are from this place does not really matter.
Was it after your youth service you got your INEC job?
Yes, it was actually during my NYSC, and that is why I say, in life, you have to be humble, I have told this story to a lot of people and am glad that am sharing it with you today, the one thing that my dad taught us in life is about been humble, and been humble is not thinking less of yourself, it’s not been totally been absorbed with yourself and thinking you are all that. You know I mentioned Jumai, when I went to serve in Maiduguri, I was a corper, Jumai was a receptionist, I could have been thinking that why would I relate with her, but she was always there with me, anytime I am on break, we have tea together, we took lunch breaks together, she was my good friend, incidentally, the governor of Borno state was Col. Marwa, and so they were coming to open the INEC office and I was told I had to do something, which was like carry a tray such that they can pick the scissors to cut the ribbon, and I was thinking in my head like, is this why I went to the university, to come out and holding trays, but I was like am here already, maybe they picked me because I was the youngest and there were no too many women around, and didn’t complain, and my boss then said, Yoruba girl, when you are coming dress in iro and buba, and am like they are even telling me what to wear, and in that instance, one of our national commissioners, Ambassador Hagazali noticed and said who is that and they told him I am a corper, he now said, ask her weather she would like to be retained at INEC, that was in December, and I was like no I don’t want to be retained, you know I was just partly part of the ceremony, not that I want to be there, so immediately they finished and they were doing the reception, I have left, so he was at the reception he told them to ask me if I wanted to be retained at INEC. On Monday when I got to the office, Jumai told me what the man said, and I said no, that my parents are in civil service, that there is no money in civil service, I do not want to be retained. My mom later called me in march because there was no gsm, they had to look for an opportune time to reach me, and she said, be behaving well at work so that they can retain you, I told her about the offer I had and I already said no, my mom said to me, your father has a company where you have been born on the wrong side of the track, you might not have been educated, so in as much as you are asking for something, you are also thanking God for other things, and of cause for beauty secrets is good to hydrate a lot, it’s good to drink a lot of water, I stopped drinking sugary things, or soda majorly in 2004, it’s not as if I don’t take once in a while, but it’s good to do water, and for everything that we say, there is nothing called seamless or effortless, the things that you call simple are the ones that you put in the most work, the things that you call effortless and people say oh this thing is so simple, for you to create that simplicity, a lot would have gone into it, because when you want to do something and you want it to be elaborate it doesn’t take much more, but when you want to do something that you want people to kind of look at it and wao, and they will look at it the second time and know that a lot of work have gone into this, so for everything that we see, just like, life, work and all a lot of efforts much have gone into it. My beauty routine is very simple, I do a lot of water, I watch what I eat, but everything has to be in moderation, there was a time someone was telling me not to do vegetable oil at all, and I found out that when I was not doing oil, fine I was not getting bigger, but my skin was getting wrinkled and my sister-in-law use to make fun of me that look at you and I even know it, so I look at its like, what is the essence of eating an egg and I’m using water to fry it, so I feel that we should do things in moderation, but water definitely is good, it hydrates the skin, and once the skin is hydrated you are good, and the fruits too, if you can’t eat your fruit, you can juice it, even if it’s just watermelon.
Let’s talk about fashion, you are a very stylish woman, but your style is subtle and unique, can you tell us who you got that from?
Where did it come from, trust me, maybe my mom would have had it in, when she was really young and I was not born, the only way maybe I can say it’s coming from her a bit was those time, the use to have moving wardrobe that they build and moved around, so they moved from Ibadan to Abeokuta, so when we came to Abeokuta we lived around Lantoro area, but when we came to the housing estate, we had built in wardrobe, so we had to move our old wardrobe to the corridor, so it was easy for us to have access, so there I saw my mother’s shoes and sun glasses and I saw that she had a lot of shoes, but I could not relate that to who she was at that time because she was not into makeup, she has never even perm her hair, not even once she has never put on a lip stick in her life, but I saw that she had really nice and classy shoes for whatever she was at a young age. My dad was in civil service, but I think he was some sort of subtleness or maybe fashion sense, but I think it must have come from the book I read, and wanting and seeing some people or being inspired by them, the likes of Erelu Ojora, Maryam Babangida, and wanting to be like them, and in reading, I saw that less was more, that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, so I try to look for pieces that you can never place and it will be nice, and I am not into brands, I am into anything that makes me feel comfortable and affordable, fine is I can afford a label I would, and if I can’t it’s fine, for me fashion is doing or wearing what makes you comfortable, but I feel that a lot of people likes elaborate pieces, but for I like things that are subtle.
Finally, how do you unwind?
I unwind with reading, I don’t know if you call that unwinding, but I enjoy reading articles on twitter a lot, I am not on instagram, but on twitter, even when am at work, sometimes I quickly dabble there, I unwind by reading, watching good movies, and you could say I picked up my fashion and style from the movies I watch too, and I am a family person, I love been with my family, I love my nieces, my nephew, my parents, siblings, I unwind been around people, like when I have guests that I am close to, instead of them to leave in ten minutes they end of spending three hours, we will be engaging each other, because sometimes we take people for granted, sometimes we evolve, not because of anything, and the only way is to have a good memory of whatever you are doing that time, and my husband is a fun person, so he brings in a lot, sometimes we go for dinners, sometimes we travel, I like taking a walk, but because of the security now I hardly take a walk, it is not as if I don’t do the gym, but I actually like taking a walk, generally I am a conservationist, so having a good conversation with people is a way of unwinding for me.
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