CityScoop NG recently sat down with Hon. Princess Surah Animashaun, the Executive Chairperson of Epe Local Government, Lagos at her office in Epe. She opened up to us in a relaxed interview session about her efforts so far, towards making life better for her people. She recalled the several achievements that have recorded by her administration (since she got into office in July 2021), the challenges faced and why she cannot break the covenant that binds her to etch her name boldly in gold on Epeland’s marble of history. A true blue blood Epe Princess, Hon. Animashaun also took us inside some other intimate details that keep her beautiful world going. Excerpts below..
QUESTION: Can you share with us a summary of what your administration has done for the people of Epe Local Government so far?
First, let me give you a brief detail about happenings that surrounded my emergence. In the history of Epe Division, a woman has never become the council chairman. It was a tough experience but as God would have it, it happened and I give God the glory for emerging the first woman to do so in the whole division. Since I came into office, my vision, mission, determination and zeal have been that I will not disappoint this community. I will not disappoint my God and I will not disappoint my father as well -being the daughter of the paramount ruler of Epeland. I promised never to disappoint the people that supported me into office, especially the women of Epeland. That has been the bedrock of everything I have done so far. In Epe as a whole , we have more of women. The working population in Epe are mostly women. They are the ones doing the petty jobs. You know we are fish farmers in Epe and in the fish farming business, we have more of women than men. Even if it’s majorly the men who go to source fishes, it is still the women that do the selling. I discovered the women work harder, even than men -except for those who work with the government or in private sector outside the town. I’m talking about the women who reside in Epe . So, I started with women. I put it upon myself to encourage them more. After the women, then I shifted attention to the youths. Gone are the days when we were faced with the menace of cultism in Epe. Since my emergence, I can boldly say that it is now a thing of the past. I created youth empowerment projects to ensure that our youths are not idle .
We started with turning waste to wealth. We gathered the youths into groups. We wrote to the Lagos State Waste Management Board to get access for controlling the major dump site at Epe and got approval. We started the waste-to-wealth project there and we got groups of interested youths and trained them. And from used car tyres, pet bottles, coconut shells, etc. we made fantastic household items that can be used for interiors, furniture, kitchen utensil, lamp holders and more. We produced a whole lot and there is a ready market for the products. We were the toast of all at the World Tourism Day in the first year of my administration. People were marveled at the products we displayed. I became chairman in July, the World Tourism Day was in September, and we achieved the feat within that period. That was how some of the youths started the business on their own, making some money for themselves and I supported them, while some resumed work here at the local government secretariat. With several intervention projects like that, we have brought a lot of youths out of the streets. Though we still have to contend with some that are heady and are not ready to work. So, this how I was able yo impact the lives of our youth. I have always been a tourism person and I know the big potentials available in the industry. I was already into hospitality business before I got into office, so it was easy. I was a former Supervisor on environment and tourism for the local government before I became chairman. And for the four years I spent in office, I won the best clean local government award in the state. That continues even till date. 
Then, talking about he health sector; despite having many primary health centres in the local government, most of them were not well established and not up to standard. And to mitigate the rise in case child and maternal mortality, I did a survey, went round to check why we don’t have enough doctors, because I know Lagos State government is making a whole lot of provisions for the health sector. I discovered that there are not enough accommodation for doctors to stay. And most of them stay outside Epe. For that reason, we don’t have much doctors and nurses around. So, I took it upon myself to build a 20-room Doctors Quarters, which is almost completed as we talk. Meanwhile, before we started the construction project, we had refurbished (to a reasonable taste) one of our abandoned buildings here inside the local government complex for the doctors to manage. The plan is after the completion of the quarters for the primary health care centre, we will also give some doctors of the General Hospital accommodation. We also renovated some Primary Healthcare Centres. We had just two that were in good condition, so we refurbished another one, the Apapa Health Care Centre. In the early days of our administration, we needed funds and suppors to achieve these things. I wrote a letter to the Nigerian Army because we have a good relationship with all the security agencies here in Epe. And with the help of HRH Oba Kamoroudeen Ishola Animashaun, the Oloja of Epeland, we got support from the Nigerian Army (at that time with General Buratai as the COAS). As fate would have it, he retired, so it was the new COAS, General Lagbaja that came for the commissioning last year. They gave us a well- equipped medical centre with an ambulance. We have also been helping less privileged indigenes who are reffered to hospital like LASUTH for serious cases like surgery to offset their bills. We have a good relationship with the hospitals as regard paying the bills. As long as we give the hospital go ahead, they attend to the patients and discharge them because they know we are credit worthy in our local government. We have been doing this since I emerged as the Chairperson. Even here in Epe, I visit the General Hospital to check patients and clear bills of people that are unable to pay. I do this every month despite my busy schedule. And at times they call from the hospital to confirm whether to charge some patients’ bills to the local government account. Every month there is always medical bills to pay at the health centres or General hospital. Also, my administration acquired another ambulance for the council and we have done free 100 health insurance for the aged, with more to still to benefit. 
In the educational sector, we have also done a lot. I built a new primary school and also renovated some. We have 14 primary schools and some of them are in riverine areas. We have upland and riverine communities here in Epe. So we make sure our riverine communities too are well taken care off. Though we have challenges moving things down there or giving them good structures because of the waterways, but with the help of the state government, I think we are getting there. They have been also been assisting in getting them a Healthcare Centre.and provided them a jetty. We built 6 plank mini-jetties in the wards we have there; C1 and D1. We make sure they get palliatives. Even before the government started giving out massive palliatives across the state, we have been doing ours quarterly because poverty in those communities is on the high side. What the state government brings does not really go round, we we also reach out to NGO’s for support. Sometimes we do cash or food palliative, just to ensure we reach out to them. We also partner with some NGO in America that give clothes, shoes and all that. It is ually a very massive one where over 2000 indigenes as beneficiaries. We are having another one soon. We also constructed a market in a community there, called Aiyetoro.
2 months after I came in there was cholera outbreak at a place in the local government called Erepoto. It was caused by lack of potable water. So, for like one year we had a trick truck that supplied them water everyday, from the local government purse. As things improved, we readjusted to every two days, then later to every 3 days . While this is going on, we were on getting them a borehole that will not be contaminated by water from the sea .The situation there is dire, they drink from the same water where they do their waste. So, while we build an industrial borehole for them we also do 20 toilets; 10 for females and 10 for the males.
In the area of infrastructure, we are currently constructing 6 roads, which is part of the 114 roads project initiated by the Government across the state. We also constructed a customary court inside the local government complex. When I got into office, there was no court and we had different cases coming to the local government. That has now been addressed. We also did a face lift of most of the buildings inside the local government complex like the chamber where the Obas have their meetings. We are currently constructing a complex which will house our vocational training centre. We have partnered with the Lagos State Government and Nigeria Insitute of Hospitality and Tourism for the vocational training centre. It is a monotechnic, we hope our people will benefit a lot from. In April, we were given slots to send 60 youths for training at Tour Guides. They were all issued professional certificates after the training. They Minister for Tourism was here and the Director General for Hospitality and Tourism was also in attendance during the training. We plan to have a mini museum as well. We have done many solar streetlights and procured electric transformer for some areas in the local government.
We have done much more in terms of empowerment for our women. My administration is about taking people out of the streets and touching people’s lives positively. We have been paying the schools fees for indigent children both at the primary/secondary level and even in higher institutions. We also give scholarships, pay for JAMB, WAEC exam registrations and all that. The local government administration has some kids we are sponsoring in theatre school. At last year’s World Tourism Day, they produced a stage play called “Beere Arolu” which will be going to Neflix soon. It is a very big stage play where I acted as Beere Arolu . We are trying to make Tourism as part of our IGR because that is where we are very rich in potentials, we have a good culture. We have two festivals. During the festivals, we have alot of people trooping into Epe, which normally boosts the economy of Epe town. We want to encourage more people to visit and that is why we trained some of our children as Tour Guides. We have also empowered several farmers; both men and women, as well as other professionals too.
Question: How are you able to achieve all these? Is it that you have really expanded the IGR capacity of the local government?
Yes, we have upgraded our IGR capacity. But at the sane time, we have to put a human face to it. I don’t want too much burdens on my people in the name of revenue collection. That is why we have been focusing on getting more people to come in for our Tourism so we can make more revenues from external bodies like the private sector.
Question: You are approaching the last lap of your tenure, are you looking at a going for a 2nd term in office? And how would you rate your chances?
Well, I will say by His grace. Because even this term I’m serving, the chances didn’t look bright at the start, but Grace and the love from my people got me here. Same grace is still very much in abundance and by that grace ,I will emerge again because I still have so much to do for my people.
Question :How did you politics start for you?
I started through Tourism. I am member of Tourism 100 Club, I have the Nigerian Tourism Specialist Certificate and I am also a Ffellow of the Nigeria Institute of Hospitality and Tourism. I was deeply into tourism before my emergence, so it is what really impacted my life and spurred me to have that urge in me that I can do better and I can drive Epe to certain level. I have been inviting Tourists to Epe for a long time even before my emergence, so I had a dream of how good I want the place to be since then. 
Question: What would you say are the major challenges you have had to face along the line?
Of course, people want to play politics in everything. Also, the kind of orientation my people have here, being an indigenous community , is difficult. They criticise a lot and not easily convinced. But I found my ways around those things. For instance, the youths, I try to carry them along. I told them if there is anything going on in the local government that is not cool with them, we can talk about. I created a communication system with them and today, we get along. We have a relationship. I make sure they have access to me, we relate . They are my ears and voice at the same time. Apart from that we have a dual community, the Eko Epe and the Ijebus , and we having to balance between these people is so tough, but God has been good. Although, we still have some people who are not cool with the fact that I am woman. You know some people don’t believe in a woman being a leader.
Question: What is your take on the ongoing debate about getting total autonomy for the local governments?
It is a good move. Anything that will make local government administrations perform better is welcome. Even now, that we don’t have autonomy, everyone is on us. They believe we have a lot, which is not true. Here we have over 400 non pensionable personnels, we have staffs, appointees. Baales and Obas -all to cater for. Infrastructure too is very important. So the burden is heavy.
Question: So how have you been coping ?
I plan. I refuse to get loan, even though I go overboard sometimes, but it has been God. It has not been as easy as people think.
Question: How do you manage all your responsibilities together, both in public and private life? 
It is important I play these roles and it is important one does not affect the other. But sincerely, balancing it is what I don’t know but God has been my strength.