Hailmary Aipoh is a woman of many parts. The Abuja business woman is also the FCT woman leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC). She shares with Yetunde Oladeinde her humble beginnings, initial challenges and the turning point in her life.
YOU are a woman of many parts. How did all these start for you?
I read Agriculture in the University and I later worked in the Ministry of Agriculture as an extension officer in the FCT at the beginning of my career.
I like to play with food and that is what took me to the catering business. Apart from, this I am into importation and I do a number of supplies. The journey into the catering business started when I was young and I always enjoyed organising events for friends and family members. I was also the leader of the protocol unit of my church, the Living Faith Church.
God is a master strategist and a master arranger. At a point, a man of God just called me and said that they had been to my place and found the food and environment to be great. So any time a pastor is visiting, I was put in charge of the arrangements and that was how it all started. So, I started cooking for men of God and whenever Bishop David Oyedepo came to town, I was the one cooking for him. Then one day, Bishop Oyedepo said I should think of making the cooking commercial and I told him then that I was still in paid employment.
I began to give the idea a thought and resigned after 10 years. It was at this point that I realised that there was money in business unlike the peanuts that you get on the job. I got referrals for weddings, birthdays as well as worked with organisations like the United Nations as well as cooking for board meetings. Gradually, I became an established caterer and had all the utensils that you can think of. I had trained personnel, chefs, waiters and waitresses.
Is it true that catering is one of the easiest businesses to establish and run?
When I hear people say this, I laugh. You need to have the technical knowhow; it is not just about cooking alone. You must know how to manage the workers and have to be there. If you want to excel, you must have the basic knowledge because workers can disappoint you. There was a time that I had a contract for an event for the United Nations for finger foods for tea breaks between 8 and 9am. I slept off and at about 9pm the previous day, something just said move to the restaurant. When I got there, lo and behold, the two chefs were not there. I had to remove my clothes that night and began to do the job to meet the deadline. If I didn’t know how to do it, how would I have coped? What would I tell those who gave me the job? You must know the rudiments of the business to excel. I like entertainment, everything concerning parties like mascots, rentals as well as kitchen utensils which I ship in from Dubai.
How do you combine your busy schedule?
It is the grace of God. When you have the grace of God, it makes things easy. When I look back and compared what it was like when I started and now, I marvel. I give God the glory. Can you believe that it was actually another pastor who gave me money to start the business? He just said: “Madam, I think you are wasting away, go into the business.” I hesitated at that point and he gave me N5,000 to start the business and I turned it around. In any business that you do, it is important to be disciplined when it comes to funds. When people ask me for the secret to my success, I tell them that I did not eat my future. At the beginning, I kept all my money for business. I kept a low profile and did not buy clothes. I had a distributorship with Coca-cola and God gave me the strength. I was a jack of all trades, master of all.
Did you get into politics through catering?
No, I didn’t. Funny enough, I have never done that for them. I usually tell people that I play with food and it may not really occur to them that I am into catering. My journey into politics started one day after attending a service where Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo ministered at KICC. He came in from London to talk to us and he said that the government is upon our shoulders.
He added that we keep complaining but we need to ask ourselves how we can grow the politics of the nation. When the righteous are in place the people rejoice. He informed that it was better for the children of God to have and leave a legacy for posterity. If God’s people are not in governance then we should not expect miracles. Stressing the need to have a good political class and a turnaround, Ashimolowo admonished us to think about the matter.
How do you affect people and how do you affect the nation? I like to touch lives as well as love to see transformations that are positive in the society. So, I started thinking about the message and how to make a change. It was at that point that I had an eye opener; I said to myself, this message is for you. I got provoked and that was a turning point in my life.
In the past, the thing that caught our attention was the argument that politics was for useless people, for illiterates or women who were not responsible. If we are children of God, we should not shy away from politics. While I was doing the self examination, I told myself that if I wanted to affect people I could not do this through food or the other businesses that I was into. So that was how it all started for me in the political arena.
At what point did you get into mainstream politics?
I started doing my research in the background to understand the new terrain that I was about to launch myself into. Then one day, we were in a business meeting where a male colleague said he was going to the ACN secretariat in Abuja to register and I went with him. It is a process and I had to start from the grassroots in 2008. Currently, I am the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) woman leader for APC in Abuja. As you know, Abuja is the host and I am here to build the capacity of our women.
What are some of the strategies that you think would take women in politics to the next level?
Many women look at politics as dirty. Politics is not dirty but we have dirty players. We are having a reorientation for our women now. This is not the era for women to sit on the fence, we need to take our place and help to rebuild the nation. Luckily, APC women leaders are women to be reckoned with; women who have something upstairs and they know what they want. In Abuja, we want to be a force to reckon with. Those who didn’t go to school, we advise them to go back to school. It is important to build a critical mass of women and be able to support ourselves. We should be able to leave legacies for the future. We should be women of purpose, women of influence and affect lives positively.
If we go into your wardrobe, what are we likely to find?
Interestingly, I design my clothes myself. I am a very creative person and I always tell my tailors to do things the way I want. I like to dress well; I like good clothes and accessories. When I travel, I shop for clothes that are unique and exclusive. I also like to wear the African fabrics and I have a number of them in my collection. Here, I admire a number of our designers, especially Adeola Sagoe.
