She is one woman blessed with a lot of Beauty, Brains & Brawn. She is not only pretty. She is very brilliant and deep in her thinking. She feels it is time for fresh minds with great ideas to come out and run for Presidency come 2019. Dr. Elishama Rosemary Ideh has declared for the presidency. She made the declaration in Abuja on Thursday 31st May, 2018 at the NICON Luxury Hotel, Abuja.
For those who still can’t catch the drift lets quickly tell you a little about Dr. Elishama Rosemary Ideh, who was born in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital in 1964. Her father was an officer in the Nigerian Police, while her mother was a businesswoman. Both parents hailed from the community of Ewohinmi in Oregon Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria.
She had her early education at the legendary Mayflower Primary School in Ikenne, Ogun State, and at the Federal Government Girls School (FGGC), Onitsha, Anambra State. She thereafter left for the United States, where she enrolled at Bowie State College in Maryland for a degree course in Mass Communications.
On her return to Nigeria, she ventured into the challenging but exciting world of real estate. Armed with her American experience, her sagacity and innovative business acumen were soon rewarded with outstanding success. She focused her trade on low income traders and market people who ordinarily could not afford shops in upscale or medium-income locations.
For example, she built low-cost shopping complexes for the disadvantaged in the Ogba business axis in Ikeja LGA of Lagos State, as well as upgrading part of the Ogba Retail Market into an ultra-modern business hub, a development which has gone a long way to enhance the economic capacity of market people (especially women) in that locality. This engagement with low income women and families in the area of affordable space – and economic empowerment – was the seed that has over the years grown into the philanthropic movement for which she is known today. She later ventured into the Oil and Gas business, achieving further success in this very challenging sector as well. But even in the midst of this high-flying business profile, Dr. Ideh had by this time come to realize that her true calling was more in the socio-spiritual sphere – an area in which she could more fully invest in people and help them actualize their potentials, restore their humanity and dignity, and set them on the path to their God-ordained destinies. It was then that she resolved to become a change agent and a positive force in society, to impact lives, and to help transform her community as well as both her physical and sociological environments.
In her quest to actualize her burden for social mobilization and empowerment, she founded Christ The Ever-Present Ministry (CTEM) and the Elishama Ideh Ministries. Both are faith-based humanitarian organizations formed to support, strengthen and rehabilitate lives – especially among vulnerable groups such as widows, orphans and the destitute.
Of particular interest to Dr. Ideh is the plight of ‘area boys’, especially in the Lagos catchment area – a group of otherwise virile and able-bodied young men condemned by chronic unemployment and poverty to a menial existence, a socio-economic underclass whose activities have bred a dangerous street (one might even say, underworld) sub-culture that increasingly threatens the peace and security of the populace. The quest to rehabilitate ‘area boys’ and restore their dignity and humanity has, over time, taken on the dimensions of a crusade, to which Dr. Ideh has applied herself with characteristic passion.
Her activities through these organizations have been instrumental to the creation of numerous opportunities in the areas of education, skill acquisition and vocational training and entrepreneurship for vulnerable groups, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods in Lagos and other cities and communities across Nigeria. Her organizations have also provided mentoring, counseling, shelter and business support for countless individuals and families in these areas. Their engagements with area boys in various locations in Lagos and beyond have also yielded tremendous fruits. Not only have many of these young men been helped materially to enable them renounce the life of the street – with money, jobs as well as educational, business and career opportunities; they have been reoriented into a new consciousness of their divinely-ordained purpose in life, and have found a new sense of direction.
Long before the current hue and cry over Codeine and Tramadol addiction amongst young people in the country (and the general concern about drug abuse) became fashionable. CTEM and the Elishama Ideh Ministries have been working silently for years with vulnerable groups to counter – and reverse – the effects of drug addiction and abuse in our country, which has seen many beneficiaries, especially young people, recover and take back their lives.
This vital role by Dr. Ideh in social reengineering and the repairing of broken lives, hopes and dreams has not gone unnoticed by relevant stakeholders in the physical and spiritual betterment of society. She was honored with the award of an honorary Doctor of Mission degree by the Freedom Bible College of Holmes School of the Bible in the United States, as well as a Certificate from the International Executive Leadership Course (1-CEU 120) of the University of Sounkd Doctrine, also in the USA.
Over the years, as her profile metamorphosed into that of a veritable voice for the voiceless, her concern for suffering humanity and her passion for empowerment has grown into a deeper concern for the state of her country as a whole, and a passionate desire for far-reaching and fundamental change in her nation. The contract of obligations, responsibilities and rights between the government and the people, and especially the role of government providing for the people’s welfare and security, is one she feels has not been properly consummated – hence the need for the awakening of a new consciousness on the part of all stakeholders in the Nigerian enterprise in the quest for national rebirth.
To this end, Dr. Elishama Ideh set up the Partnership For A New Nigeria (PFANN) a social advocacy group aimed at promoting this rebirth by restructuring both the polity and it’s institutions on one hand, and restructuring the attitude of Nigerians (leaders and led alike) towards building a culture of patriotism and a stronger sense of civic duty on the other, not just to the society and the nation, but to our neighbors as well – especially to the less-privileged.
Known by her teeming admirers simply as Elishama, Dr. Ideh is a simple, down to earth and graceful woman – a combination of attributes which complements her boundless energy, her razor-sharp intelligence, her audacity in the face of formidable odds, her passion for people, her unflinching focus on what really matters, and her love for her country, a patriotism which sees all Nigerians, whatever their background, as members of one national family and one commonwealth.
Elishama sees a Nigeria whose colorful and dynamic cultural diversity is a potent source of strength and a catalyst for greatness. She envisions a strong socio-political entity built on strong institutions in which the citizenry invest their confidence, strong institutions which engender in the people a strong sense of patriotism, in our journey towards Nigeria’s evolution into a united, just and prosperous nation.
Elishama sees her public stewardship as a natural extension of her spiritual service to her Creator and Source. Her work is a vital aspect of her worship, and her service to her fellowmen is an extension of her service to God. She seeks to spread hope among Nigerians, based on her belief in the Nigerian enterprise, and in the capacity of the Nigerian youth to achieve great things, given the right environment and the right opportunities for self actualization and national greatness.
As her legacy, Dr. Elishama Ideh seeks to bequeath to future generations a nation, and a society whose wealth (both material and social) is built on the principle of SHARED values, SHARED vision, SHARED responsibility, and SHARED benefits. Last week, she spoke to City People Publisher, SEYE KEHINDE about her ambition.
Congratulations on your bold move to join the presidential race. What inspired you?
One of the major reasons I am contesting for the post of the president is that the greatest problem in Nigeria today is Poverty. The Poverty Level is very high and in the World Clock Poverty Record, 12 Nigerians fall into extreme, not just ordinary poverty , which means every second a Nigerian is falling to poverty. 61% of Nigerians right now are below the poverty line and if you have to a Rough calculation that’s about 122 million, so how many are we in Nigeria that about 122 million are living below poverty line.
So for me this became a serious burden and concern as a citizen of this great nation , we are more than than this and we are better than this. With the case resources we have as a nation, with all of our mineral and natural resources that we have as a nation, Nigeria should not be at this level, almost all of our citizen are in poverty, over half are already in extreme poverty. Knowing fully well that 60% of the worlds natural resources are in Africa, and over 50% are in Nigeria , yet we only contribute to 3% of the global economy.
And since the group of People I advocate for through the work I have been doing in the social-spiritual sphere constitute mostly of the people that are in this poverty line whom I have become a voice for advocating for their situation. That has made me a leader in the public service for 2 decades which qualifies me now to lead this nation and get Her out of this degrading and glaring situations because we are so blessed but our past leaders have been to use our resources and the blessings that we have in the land for the betterment of the people.
To answer your question, there is no better way to be in public service than what I have been doing in 20 years Once we are out of this poverty line and Nigerians begins to prosper again.
Do you think a woman stands the chance of winning the presidency now in Nigeria?
Yes, absolutely, because the soul of Nigeria is crying out for help now and it’s not by mistake that Almighty God and everyone that lives on the surface of the earth recognizes the fact that nature is called a mother , nations is referred to as a SHE, institutions , organization, parastatals, and everything on earth is being referred to as a She which simply means everything on earth is being held together by the presence of a woman.
That is why when you hear about the creatures of animals are extinct it simply means they have remove the presence of a female so there is not reproduction for the existence of that animal. So when and environment is going into decay, look very well, the presence of the woman have Been removed and that environment is about to die.
Nigeria is crying out for help right now and the presence of a woman is needed to salvage Her, because if you call an environment as a woman that means that environment has a child. So our child is crying out for help and She needs a woman to salvage Her. A woman needs to go in to bring sanity, nurturing , healing , hope , compassion , understanding into the situation.
The presence state of Nigeria cannot survive , Nigeria needs a quick rebirth and it’s a woman that can give birth to this new Nigeria. Are you aware that It’s a woman that discovered Nigeria? Flora Shaw and she handed it over to the men. Since we need a new Nigeria, we need a woman to give birth to it. That is why I am in this race to give birth to a new Nigeria where everything works.
Why go for Presidency? Why not go for Senate or House of Reps?
In that office, most of them don’t have the experience , People like us are the ones in public service. Public service means going to the environment to impact the lives of the people directly, going to their localities finding out what is happening to them in various sectors like health , housing, food , clothing, educational amongst others so that you can effect a change – that’s I public service , and this I have been doing sacrificially without the government funds because that is the assignment that has been given by my creator because we are supposed to love our neigbours as ourselves .
So going in for Senate to House of reps would limit me to just sitting in the office and thinking of how to collect public funds and amass wealth that belongs to all of us.
Do you have a church you run?
No. It might interest you to know that I have never run a church ; the normal church as you people call it. The only church i run is when I spend my time with every category of the less privileged, the poor, area boys, drug addict, people living With disabilities,street girls, people under the bridge , orphans , widows etc to rehabilitate them, empower them and give them hope for a good life and to be better citizens of our great county Nigeria . A higher number of them ended up on the streets because Of our level of poverty which ratio I explained Earlier and the absence of a social security scheme to support them and also we don’t have an enabling environment for them to thrive.
Tell us about your plans and programmes?
My programmes are too large to elaborate in the magazine so I will encourage our followers to visit our executive website (www.elishamaideh.com) to read all they need to know about our manifesto.
On which party platform are you contesting the Presidency?
On the platform of Alliance For A New Nigeria (ANN)
