In the bustling landscape of British politics and academia, Adedamola Aminu stands out as a formidable force, blending his passion for community development, education, and leadership with a distinguished career trajectory. From his tenure as the Mayor of Lambeth to his role as the President of Nigerian Academics, Aminu’s journey is marked by a commitment to excellence and service. He is the first Nigerian-born Mayor of Lambeth, and as the President of the Nigerian Academics in the UK, he has championed initiatives to promote research excellence, academic collaboration, and knowledge sharing among Nigerian scholars. AFRICAN VOICE reports.
Why did you relocate to the UK?
I came to the UK to further my education.
How long did it take you to settle in the UK and what were the challenges? What was your first job in the UK and what is your current vocation?
It took me about fifteen years to finally settle down. When I was a student, it was not easy as a student because I have to sponsor my education myself, it was difficult to work and study at the same time. I did various jobs to survive such as Cleaning, Porter in an hotel, working as restaurant/banqueting waiter in hotels. After my education, I became a lecturer and I lectured at various Colleges of Higher and Further Education for over fifteen years. Currently I am a management consultant providing training and consultancy for various organisations both in UK and Nigeria. My spouse and I run and manage two companies, one is Care Agency, and the other is AA Management Training and Consultancy Ltd. We are employer of labour.
For how long have you been living in the UK?
38 years
What made you decide not to return to your country of origin?
Getting married and having children made it difficult to return to Nigeria as I want them to have a better education and opportunities. Now that the children have grown up, I am frequent to Nigeria and looking forward to spending more time in Nigeria.
What is the one thing you missed about home?
Family and our ways of life, we are very accommodative and supportive of each other. Never a boring moment in Nigeria.
What are the changes you would want to see in your country of origin?
Government to make security priority, provide constant electricity, business cannot thrive without electricity, good road, Good governance.
What has been your proudest contribution to the British society?
When I was elected to be a Councillor, I was elected in 2006 and served for 12 years. Also, when I became the Deputy Mayor, after the tenure of the previous one, I took over as the Mayor of the Borough. Funny enough, I was the first Nigerian to become the Mayor of London Borough of Lambeth. It was a good experience that wherever you live you must be part of the system. I was also a founding member of Association of British Nigerian Councillors UK and Patron after serving for Nine years as the chair.
Other achievement that I am proud of is about the book I authored: Nigerian-British politicians in United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland. The book of profiles is a concise, yet insightful compilation of individuals who have been identified to showcases our contribution to British political system. Having achieved success in our chosen careers, professional of all hues and shades getting involved in politics to impact positively in our community.
Are you optimistic on the political situation in your country of origin?
I am a bit optimistic about Nigeria, we need to have hope that things will get better. The current President Tinubu administration have good policies but the way they are implementing it is wrong. President Tinubu is a strategic person who knows what he want to do but for people around him, I am not sure some of them want better things for Nigerians as I said earlier their policy implementation is not thought through properly to consider effects on people for example the removal of petrol subsidy and recent proposal to increase electricity tariffs might be a good idea but people don’t have regular supply of electricity as of now, before you can think of increasing tariffs you have to make sure you fix the infrastructure to supply regular electricity and people we be willing to pay more to use the service. Government can also encourage the use of solar energy by helping people to reduce the cost of installing solar inverter at home.
If you have to change anything in your country of origin, what would that be?
To have good government who cares for its citizens and reduce the cost of governance. I would like to reduce corruption because I don’t think corruption can be totally eradicated in any country. Government should also think through their policies well and carry out Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) of their policies before implementing it not the other way round so that that it will not put more stress on people.
What do you most admire in your country of origin? And what do dislike most?
What I admire most is our culture, food, and ways of life, never a boring moment when you are in Nigeria.
What I dislike most is lawlessness by few people, not paying staff salaries on time, lack of security, and the rate of corruption is too high.
11. What is your opinion on the mass migration out of Africa (Japa Syndrome) and what do you think will improve the economy of your country of origin?
It’s not a good idea but I can understand why people are willing to Japa, due to lack of opportunities back home and lack of infrastructures that will attract business and investment into Nigeria. If our government create enabling environment, investors and people from the diaspora will be willing to come back home and invest.
How can those in the diaspora help to improve the image of your country of origin?
Over the years Nigerian in Diaspora have been doing well improving the image of Nigeria in many areas such as Education, Health/Medicine, Politics, Engineering, Civil Service etc. we have a lot of Nigerians doing well in the sectors I mentioned that have a lot to contribute to Nigeria. Diaspora have tried to engage either in areas of training, workshop, partnership, or collaboration to do things together. We are doing well in a foreign land, how come Nigeria is not using the pool of talents they have in the Diaspora either in the UK , America, Europe or any part of the world. We have Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM). For me, NIDCOM, I don’t understand their role. We have distinguished Nigerian Nurses, Doctors, Engineers, Architects, Academics, Politicians who are doing well. Nigeria is not ready to engage these individuals or groups.
In some cases, the Diasporas are not asking for the government to pay for everything they want to do, but if the Diaspora’s said okay, meet us halfway – maybe to pay for our flights or few days hotel/accommodation to stay to implement few things to work together. Just pay for accommodation and flight, because they are coming to use their knowledge to better things in Nigeria.
Are they ready to do that? No. We have been talking of Diaspora voting for many years, this is 2024 and nothing has happened. You need our money, but when it comes to having a say in the affairs of our country they knock us off. All the Senators and House of Reps members, they keep on postponing things and nothing happened. If they really value the contribution of the Diaspora they need to engage us more.
And they need to look out for the key stakeholders within the Nigeria Diaspora who have excelled. These are the people you need to bring back home and if they don’t want to come back home find a middle way where they can work together to make changes and get things better in Nigeria. Not until that is done, I don’t think we are moving forward.
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