Female presidential candidate, Khadija Okunnu-Lamidi, has
said despite the respect she has for the national leader of the ruling All
Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, she still believes Nigerians are
yearning for a young person with a vibrancy to steer the country out of its
current woes.
This is as she revealed that she’s “somehow related” to
Tinubu who recently declared his ambition to run for the presidency in 2023.
Speaking to BBC Pidgin, Okunnu-Lamidi said, “He’s the national
leader of the APC; he has contributed to national politics and I have great
respect for him. But that doesn’t change the fact that Nigerians are looking
for a young person with vibrancy. Nigerians are looking for a way out of
poverty, they want 24 hours electricity supply, good health care and good roads
which are what I’m here to provide.”
Asked if she has political experience, she said, “Many
people will say they have never heard of my name but I’ve been in politics for
at least 20 years learning. Many people do declare their political ambition
before they are actually ready, which is quite a problem. I’ve learnt the work
and seen how others do it, which I don’t find satisfying, it gives me stomach
ache.
On when she decided to run for office, she said, “It was
shortly after the EndSARS protests in October 2020,” adding that she started
engaging with youths and the late singer, Sound Sultan, towards the goal of
fielding some youths to contest for public office.
She said most of those whom she discussed with were
sceptical about the idea.
“At that point, it occurred to me that if I truly have the
passion, I should be the one to step out and take the risk for us to have a
better Nigeria,” she said.
On how serious she is about her ambition, she said, “As you
can see, my entrance into the race has not been a joke.”
Asked to speak about the political platform she’s running
on, Okunnu-Lamidi said, “I don’t like to talk about party because, for me, it
doesn’t really bring solution. I’ve never seen any party talking about how to
make life better for everybody, it’s just about their own selfish interest.”
Okunnu-Lamidi said Nigeria needs to include women in the
scheme of things to enable the country to experience change which is one of the
driving factors in the world.
“Innovation and change are the driving factors of progress
in the world these days. The whole world is experiencing change. You can’t do
the same thing and expect a different result. The only difference we can add to
what we have been doing is to include women,” she said.
On if women will vote for her, she said, “I’ve never seen a
woman who doesn’t want to support another woman. All the women I’ve known have
been supportive.”
Stating how she intends to tackle insecurity in Nigeria, she
said, “The meetings I hold these days are all about finding solutions to
governance. With security, the thing is that you cannot secure the outer
borders without securing the locality. We’ll first of all start with the
localities, make use of local monitoring units because they are the ones who
will give information and also watch out for their neighbours. This measure
will assist the national security agencies.”
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