Okunnu-Lamidi declares interest in 2023 presidency, pledges better Nigeria

A female entrepreneur and youth development advocate, Khadijah Okunnu-Lamidi, yesterday, declared interest in running for the office of the President in the 2023 general elections.

Speaking at a media conference in Lagos, Okunnu-Lamidi, a social impact practitioner and player in the Nigerian media and advertising space, disclosed that her motivation in vying for the Presidency stems from her desire to make Nigeria work for its diverse populace, while also harnessing the undoubted power of its teeming youths to unleash the nation’s latent potential as a force to be reckoned with globally.

While noting that 2023 is a defining moment for the country, Okunnu-Lamidi restated her confidence in playing a leading role in writing a new history and restoring hope for Nigeria.

She said: ‘‘I do not come to this lightly or out of vanity or frivolity. I come to this with humility and with responsibility and with the burden of a generation to whom the future of Nigeria belongs.

‘‘Nigerians of our generation believe in the promise of an equitable and just political union which consolidates the diverse strengths of our people and which harnesses the vast untapped resources of our great nation for the common good. Nigerians of our gender believe that we are heirs to the same promise and that our contribution to the character, stability, peace and progress of Nigeria deserves recognition and reward.

‘‘The challenge of the Presidency is to make Nigeria work for all of its diverse peoples. It is the most powerful office in the land, but it is a place of service, responsibility and duty, and not a place of arrogance or show. Nigeria is not working for us.”

The entrepreneur contended that youths under the age of 30, who represent about 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population, have borne the most impact of bad governance, adding that the young people account for 13.9 million of the unemployment figures, which stood at 21.7 million in the second quarter of 2020.

Further, she disclosed that “life expectancy at birth in Nigeria, which stood at 60.87 years in 2021, is one of the lowest in Africa and in the world,” noting that “the infant mortality rate hovers at 57.701 deaths per 1000 live births.”

“A President for all Nigerians must have integrity, competence, a 21st Century vision, energy, empathy and compassion for all our people and more so, for the weak, the dispossessed and the disenfranchised,” she stated.