Meet Lami Ahmed , a woman of many paths; an avid golfer, Philantropist and business woman. She was recently appointed a board member of NNPC representing North Central. She spoke to Verity News on her vision for the corporation and her charity work
You have just been elevated to a very high position as a board member of the NNPC, how do you feel about it?
Thank you. Considering where I am coming from, I feel that it is a great privilege that I’m called at this moment to serve the nation. I had served in various capacities, and even also served representing Nigeria as a council chairperson for an NGO, International Association of Lions Club, in which I represented Nigeria with other countries of over 200 and geographical locations of the world, and I did my best. But to have been called to serve as a member of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, is a great privilege and I believe it’s a call to serve and put in my best; a call to join other well-meaning board members to chat ways, to contribute our quota into making the corporation a desire for everyone because we are looking at best practices comparing ourselves, the corporation that is, with other contemporary corporations in other countries.
So, we believe that coming together as a team, we the management of the corporation will be able to carry the corporation’s activities to greater height.
Does your appointment have anything to do with your management of Conoil?
Well, my background has always been in the oil sector.
How do you mean?
I have worked all my life with National Oil; which later became Conoil. And as one of the staff, I have worked in various capacities to the extent that when I left Conoil, because of my track record I was given the opportunity to run one of their best filling stations, and that I was managing for Conoil until I became a member of the board which of course is very tasking, and I had to ask the management of Conoil to consider allowing another person to run the filling station, while I concentrate on my new schedules. I am a developer and I know that working with the NNPC would take a lot of time, and I want to give it my best shot.
You are going to represent six states of the North-Central, and you are from Kogi State. How do you intend to carry them along.
Yes, I have received a lot of brief. My appointment is to represent the North-Central geopolitical zone, which comprises about seven states including the FCT. So, now that we have just been inaugurated and working, it is my desire that it gives me an opportunity to touch base with all these states; part of the intention is to get in touch with the state governors, and also let them know that I’m on the board to represent them, and find that we can interact to ensure that I represent the best interest of the zone.
You were once Lady Captain of IBB Golf Club. Was it within that period that your contact with the NNPC started or the appointment just came, because a lot of people are saying you didn’t play politics or you are not qualified for the position?
Well, let me say that everyone is a political animal, and therefore, politics in itself is not when one becomes a state governor or president or you hold a political appointment that you align with a government that is winning or the ideals of a government.
So, people who may be thinking that I’m not politically visible doesn’t mean that I don’t exhibit my political right appropriately. But in addition to that, I have seen this government as a government that goes after merit and relevance to whatever they want to do. So, nationally, I have held several positions, and I have always given my best whenever I am called to serve.
When I was the Lady Captain (of the IBB Golf Club), I brought a lot of changes that touched people’s lives; I brought fundamental ways of doing things that even cut across bringing other countries to participate in the activities that we did, and today, my past with the IBB Golf Country Club, is there to be reckoned with and people make reference to the time that I was there. And even now that I am out of the place, I’m still relevant in giving my support to subsequent Lady Captains of the club.
So, nationally and globally, I believe that this opportunity is for me to contribute to the development of the nation.
It can be said that you are a woman of many paths, a woman of substance, and you have been touching lives. You are also involved in NGO activities. With this position which can be said to be a crowning of a glorious career, is it right to say that with this new job which is seen as a high-profile job, how will it now up the ante for you and people who have over time depended on you?
Thank you very much. I went into charity work at a very tender age. I have been a member of the International Association of the Lions Club for over 30 years, and these 30 years have carried me across the world. I have been exposed to the way things are done in some other parts of the world, particularly when it comes to human rights, care for the less-privileged, the poor, the children and women; generally the vulnerable people. So, having done this, let me mention that the International Association of Lions Club, was founded in 1917 by an American called Melvin Jones. Right now, the association is about 103 years running. So, I was opportune early enough to be introduced to such an association. That stirred the desire in me to see the huge gap between what is being done outside and what obtains in Nigeria.
Therefore, in 2001, I came up with an NGO called LiftUp Care Foundation, because I believe that we needed to lift up the vulnerable people. So, we have really touched lives; we have monumental impacts in the lives of little children, especially orphans in Kogi State and Abuja. We have partnered with organizations that have even given us grants such as the USAID, who sponsored the Christian Relief Services (CRS) and other NGOs that saw the work we are doing. Even in Kogi State, we have partnered with the Ministry of Women Affairs to carry out several activities in such a way that we have impacted so many lives.
We have trained several women; training them on income-generating activities that relatively put food on their tables. Right now, we are training women on some agricultural projects; things that they can do knowing that women don’t have access to land, but there are so many things they can do in front of their homes and backyards that can bring immediate food to them.
At this level that I am, let me say that the organization has never stopped (in its mandate). Let me also state that Lift Up Care Foundation is in consultative status with the United Nations. So, we can’t but to continue to impact on the lives of people, and that is what we are going to do.
At the level I am now, it cannot stop me except to increase. It is a fully functioning organization that has a management structure that whether I am busy or not, the project managers, the project teams are there and constantly working. So, we are impacting, we are not going to stop and we are going to do more!