Uju Ohaneye is so far the only female presidential aspirant among the 25 who are presently in the race for bear the flag of the All Progress Congress (APC).

In this interview with Politics Editor, Jude Opara, Ohaneye spoke on her motivation and the challenges ahead.

Just recently you submitted your nomination forms for the presidential ticket of the APC. What are you doing here today in a hospital?

After submitting my forms as a presidential aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), I decided to come here and give my thanksgiving to God.

How many patients have you been able to visit and intervene in their matter?

I have visited a number of people but there is one particular case of a man that was involved in an accident and nobody knows where he is from, nobody knows his whereabouts. He is at the male trauma section of the National Hospital here and he has been here for a while and even got infected with chickenpox while they were trying to treat him. They have finished treating him of the chickenpox, he has been living off the nurses and doctors and humanitarians that come here to deposit money. The doctors say they had to treat the chickenpox before carrying out the surgery, so now that he is ready for the surgery, we have deposited the sum of N50,000 for that. The N45,000 we deposited earlier was used in treating him of the chickenpox.

There is another peculiar case of a boy who has a hole in his heart, he has been here for a while, he is living with the aid of the equipment they fixed to his heart, his bill is N179,000 they can’t let him go home until he pays the money and he is supposed to undergo a surgery costing N470,000 which he is still expected to pay. Somebody who could not pay N179,000, how can he be able to pay N470,000? Now if we leave him here and he goes home without the surgery, he may die! So what we have done is to pay for them to release him to go home and we also deposited money for them to do the surgery on the 16th of this month. So on the 17th, we have to come back here to offset the entire bill and luckily, my friend here Mrs. Onyia decided to assist him with the sum of N200,000. 

Talking politics, you are one of those who obtained the APC nomination forms. Who is sponsoring you, who helped you to pay the N30 million for the form?

My husband! My husband is the man behind all these; I don’t have anybody except my husband and my children. My husband decided to support me, he has always been supporting me, he told me, ‘look I will always give you the opportunity to shine as much as God wants you to shine’ and that is what he is doing. I told him I want to do this, so he paid, and I am happy the money was paid by my husband and that shows he is supports my dream and he has been solidly behind me, so the money was paid by me and my family. 

People are on the field campaigning, for instance Vice President Yemi Osinbajo in the last two or three days has visited more than four states and you are here, so how many of the states have you been to because this is a presidential race and there are over 7,000 delegates that are going to converge on Abuja, so how are you campaigning?

I will tell you I have started this campaign long ago. Most of these states they are going to now because of election, I have been there severally and donated materials and equipment. I donated and equipped health centres, I donated and equipped skills acquisition centres, I have been empowering them for a while and some of them, even if I don’t go, they will strongly stand behind me. I have people, some of these vulnerable people are human beings and they are also part of the delegates. You saw what happened when I went to submit my forms, you saw the people with me, nobody is super rich but their presence there made the difference, so I have travelled round to the places I needed to travel to, there are places I don’t need to go to before getting their support because I have been showing my presence there for over a decade. 

Why do you want to become the president of Nigerian?

I want to become the president of Nigeria because for a while I have been touching lives all over the country and I don’t want to be limited to a particular region. If I become a governor, I will be limited to my state; if I become a senator, I will be limited to my constituency and those that voted for me but if I am the president, I can touch the lives of all Nigerians, I will have the power to change things for those less privileged I have been working for.

I want to do that because as the president, whatever decision I take, it will touch the entire country. I don’t even want to be a senator because to me it is a very dull job, I want activities, and I work more under stress, so I have the capacity and ability to be able to rule the country. 

The women folks will always say the men are marginalizing them, now, you are one of them and probably so far the only woman to have picked the nomination forms in the APC, what are you telling your fellow women?

I am pleading with them to know that there is one thing we have to note as women: all these men that have been ruling and are still having plans to continue to rule were all delivered by women. These bandits we are talking about are women’s children, the armed robbers and kidnappers are people’s children and they were all delivered by women. So I am pleading with our women to try and protect and prevent our children from joining banditry and kidnapping or any source of crime even the infamous “Yahoo Yahoo.”

Let us all come out and stand firmly for a woman to take charge, even it is not me, let it be another woman. Let us come because if the country is better it is in the interest of our children and if it continues to degenerate, it is also our loss. We as mothers must guide our children to belong and take part in the governance of the country where they belong. That is why I am pleading with my fellow women to come out and let these men know that time has come for them to step aside because we are not satisfied, they should step aside, let women came on board and that is one of the reasons I am running. 

You have been visiting hospitals, what do see considering the fact that most of our leaders have been jetting out for medical treatment, what is your opinion on the health sector and how to hope to tackle it if you become the president?

If I become the president, there are three major things I am going to tackle within six months and people will begin to feel their impact: education, health and road infrastructure. These are the three main areas of concern. I we will use cement, stone and sand that we all have in abundance in the country to fix our roads. The roads must not be tarred before they can be good and motorable. I will also indigenize the road constructions so that the indigenes in a location will have something to contribute in building and maintaining of the roads. We have seen villagers breaking stones, such stones can be used to build the roads, they will be paid and that is also a way of empowering them.

Talking about the hospitals, I will equip them and pay the doctors better. Most of the well-to-do citizens will be able to pay their bills and the doctors will be well paid. Imagine if all these people always going for medical trip abroad were to be treated here at home, that money would have remained here and the hospitals will be better equipped. So the system will run in such a way that the super rich will indirectly pay the bills of the less privileged because when they are treated and they pay well, from there the bill of the poor will be subsidized. 

If you eventually pick the APC ticket, will you choose a man or woman as your running mate?

I will choose a man, and I will also advice a male candidate to choose a woman, the opposite sexes function better.