Iman Sulaiman-Ibrahim is a new generation multi-award winning business executive par excellence with core expertise in IT, Human Capital Management/Development, Strategic Marketing and Strategic Communication for over a decade, often referred to as “The peoples Magnet”.
Iman is a certified and experienced SAP HCM (IT) Consultant. She also wears several hats as a certified mentor, coach, trainer, motivational speaker, business adviser, strategist and a business developer.
She’s had a successful career record in disruptive leadership and also building many leaders in direct sales and relationship marketing. Iman holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the university of Abuja Nigeria, MA in Management and also an MBA from Webster University, St Louis, Missouri USA.
She is a member of several professional bodies. She is also a politician who is passionate about standing for what’s possible for women and building wealthy families from the core.
She is a member of Nasarawa State Economic and investment Advisory board and she was SSA Strategic communication and Strategic partnership to the Minister of state for Education up until when she was appointed by President Buhari on December 1st 2020 to head the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Person (NAPTIP) as the DG.
Childhood memories and influence till date
Growing up for me was very secured and very stable. I can never take that for granted and I’m very grateful to God for that single opportunity. It was a close bond and the first lesson as children was love. There was a lot of love given to us as children. There was a lot of love between our parents, and that was what we were nurtured with. So, growing up, we were taught the lesson of love and that’s what I have to give.
Secondly is the lesson, nurturing and building relationships for life. So, whatever relationship I have, I always keep the door open and I don’t joke with my relationships at all. They’ve gotten me so far. I learnt a lot of other lessons like service. My parents were people of service. They gave love, their resources and time to people, not just their children. They were parents to everybody. This the foundation of my childhood and upbringing. So, this is what I pass on.
My story
I’ve always been people-driven. I like to listen to people and proffer solutions and solve problems. So, I thought of sociology because it would help me understand people better and I am glad I made that choice because it has made me to look at people differently and judge people from that angle of strength and not their weaknesses. That’s why no matter what you do to me, I always look at one good thing you’ve done for me and I never forget it because I know that people are full of strengths and weakness, but we must always judge people from an angle of strength. That’s what Sociology did for me.
Then, I went into human resources because they drive organisations and countries, but are not well looked after and I felt that I could make a difference in my own way when I go into HR. When I went into HR, I realised that I didn’t have the patience to deal with people. People were different. I wanted to work with people but with the computers, hence, SAPHCM. I wanted to certify in IT but also in HR to be able to help people in an organisation from that end. I worked in corporate UK, but I didn’t like it, it was so rigid and it took all my time and everybody who knows me know that I like to balance my priorities. I love to put God first, my family before my career. My work life in the corporate UK took away all my time and so it was very brief. Uncouth
The Mary Kay Leap
I came across a business opportunity that allowed me to not only work on myself but also to balance my priorities and also empower other people. So, I went into my Mary Kay business and grew as a person. That was where I overcame my shyness, I overcame my stage fright. I was a very shy person and an introvert. During my Mary Kay journey, (I always called it my training field and my character formation years) I developed patience with people because I knew it was not about me. For someone who couldn’t ask for money, I began to teach people how to ask for money the right way.
Then life happened in early 2015. My son had a major surgery and that was a turning point for me. The kind of care he got was beyond gratitude. He made a turn-around. People said all sorts that he was never going to walk again, but within a period of 10 days, my son that was paralysed could walk. The kind of attention he got just because I pay my taxes…that was what compelled me into politics.
Mary Kay changed me internally, externally and eternally. I will never be the same person. When I went for the first Mary Kay event, the reason why I joined the company was because I love the product. I have four sisters and together with my mum, we love to use good products and Mary Kay happens to be top on the list.
I decided to go for the Mary Kay event to learn more about the product because I love to do things properly. I went to this programme and saw women from every cadre in life, they were all smart and despite my two master’s degrees since the age of 21, I was shy. But these women, some of them will come up and say, ‘I was a cleaner but now I earn this figure as income and I am empowered and empowering others’. I felt this was a big deal and that was the day I decided to run my Mary Kay business fully because I knew that these women had something I didn’t have and if I run my business properly, I would be able to overcome a lot of my weaknesses that will set me apart for greatness.
At Mary Kay, it took me one year to become a director. It took another year or two to become a top director because there was nothing I didn’t earn at Mary Kay. I produced leaders and empowered women in corporate UK who wanted balance and more from life. I encouraged them to pursue their dreams. It was the most fulfilling time in my life because every day you go out and run your business, tick many boxes and actualise your dreams in a way that is beyond words. So, for me, it was an opportunity of a lifetime.
There is no company that trains like Mary Kay in the world. In a year, we go through full Harvard standard trainings every year and we get trainings every month as directors, and executive directors and you also get to train your team every Monday. While you work on yourself, you’re helping other people become better in what they do. For me, that is empowering.
Women empowerment
There is one thing we need to hold on to, a woman naturally is empowered but life happens and when life happens, sometimes, you forget yourself; your belief level gets a little shaky. What a woman wants is for you to believe in her. When you believe in her, she finds the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ on her own. But the mistake we make is when we try to empower people, sometimes, we don’t get it right because we don’t empower them in such a way that they would recognise internally. So, a woman is naturally empowered and she would figure it out. All you have to do is believe in her, assist her and see her soar.
In working with women, I realise that women know exactly what they want; all they need is that enabling environment. When we enable communities, systems and structures, women would rise. Sometimes, you have to listen to them, listening to women is enough for a woman to rise, give them that attention, they need it.
Read also: Women In Business: Kofo Akinkugbe
Girl-child education
I feel that education is key for every individual. You must keep learning to be able to increase your capacity, your earnings and understanding of yourself, the people around you and policies. You must keep learning. Girl-child education is extremely key because we’re the ones who raise generations. You find that homes where the mothers are educated are more stable because the mothers are the ones who have the time to do homework and even look at the details in the child’s life. The dads mostly are in the forefront trying to make a living for the family.
I’ve worked with the minister for education closely and I’ve realised that the perception for girl-child education in the north is not what it is. There is a perception that the northerners are against the girl-child education and this is not necessarily true.
I have an NGO and through it, I’ve realised that that is the plea of every mother in the north. They want education because they realise that education can transform their lives and that of their children, the community and everybody that their children will come in contact with. We need to look at the problem. The problem is not that people are anti-education, yes, we have some elements in the society that try to discourage it for their own benefit, but every ‘sound’ parent wants their children to be learned, they want them to be educated and they want them to give value back to society.
So, we have to begin to ask ourselves, what is education? Because our inability to focus on vocational education and skills will keep dragging us back as a country. Not everybody can go for the white-collar jobs, it is limited, but everybody can have a skill and can key into nation-building by developing their skills. That’s where the government, private sector and our partners should put a lot of energy, into developing skills.
Sojourn to politics
I’ve always had the flare and intentions to go into politics, but not necessarily in this country. but that was when I realised that I had put a lot in UK and it was time for me to go back and put something in my own country. That was a moment of decision. I made a covenant with God that if He saved my son I would come back to Nigeria and devote my whole life to nation-building.
Advise to women interested in politics
First of all, my advice to women is that you don’t have to be an aspirant or a candidate for you to be in politics. You can belong to politics on different levels and still add value. We have to establish that because people think that for you to be a politician, you have to go and contest and contesting is rough. But tell me what is not rough in this life? It depends on how you approach it.
So, I’ll like to encourage every woman to belong to any political party of your choice. If you don’t want to, then you can cheer the women out there and stick with them. We run a democratic process of government and when it is democracy, we need inputs from everybody. We have to have every stakeholder represented on that table to be able to make decisions and have a balanced approach to problem solving.
There is a reason we don’t have enough companies that make underwears and sanitary towels. It’s because we don’t have female representation, otherwise it would be a priority. We use sanitary towels every month, but we still import them. If we have enough women in policy-making, we would make it mandatory for us to have an industry that caters for women and children. Yes, I encourage women to go into politics. It is rough but you have to play it. To go into politics you don’t need anything other than the will power and total believe in God. And if you do it right, with a clean mind, and you align with the right people, help will come and favour will come from God. Have the right ideals and the right values. That is what I sold during my campaign.
Being DG of NAPTIP
NAPTIP is the agency of government that fights against human trafficking and any form of violence and abuse on persons. Our responsibilities are to be able to fight trafficking, to prevent it, to protect the victims, prosecute the offenders, create policies that will prevent the menace, and we partner with the right agencies through bilateral agreements.
When I was made the DG, a lot came to mind. I’ve never dreamt of being in an agency like this. But when I was given this responsibility to, I realised that it aligns with all the goals of my NGO. A lot came to my mind when I was given this responsibility. But for me, it is key that we come from that preventive angle and back it up with policies so that people will not be at that place of being vulnerable and contemplating leaving their country for another country
I am not against legal migration. Some people just want to travel to gain more experience in a filed or have a feel of a different country. But when you have to migrate for greener pastures, it’s about time we have to promote the fact that the grass is greener from where we are standing and it is up to us if it ought to be. So, not just discouraging people from going but enabling the system and structure for them to believe more in their country, stay back and make it happen.
What kind of programmes will you be introducing as DG?
As an agency, we’re geared towards preventive measures, so there are a lot of youth-driven disruptive programmes that are going to come up and they will be driven by excellence. It’s going to be impactful and well calculated. We are partnering with iCreate to train the youths, empower them and then mentor them through the initial phase of their businesses. I know that iCreate partners with companies like Siemens, Bosch and other multinational organisations. So, I’m counting on his expertise and experience in mentoring people with skills and transfer them into a setting whereby they can be able to produce and duplicate themselves many times.
Significance of partnerships at NAPTIP
At NAPTIP, one of our pillars is partnership. Despite being a paramilitary agency, we’re also an intelligence agency, so we collaborate with all the intelligence outfits out there like the Nigerian Police, DIA, SSS, NIA for intelligence, in fact, all the security teams in the country because we’re also an intelligence agency. So, we partner with them closely for intelligence.
Though at NAPTIP, we don’t have national presence but we are working on it. Presently, we have about nine commands and some liaison offices across the country. So, we’re working on expanding our presence and working with other international intelligence agencies in various countries that we have bilateral agreements with. We also partner with a lot of embassies, signing agreements to ensure that our citizens who have made a mistake and trying to correct it are safe.
Everybody in this country is an anti-human trafficking ambassador, so if you have suggestions, strategies, concept notes, and projects for us to do to help us in this fight against human trafficking, kindly approach us as an agency. We’re very active with our email because that’s one of our main sources of intelligence. Just send us your proposals and we’ll be able to accommodate them as we plan. The agency email is [email protected]
To every young person out there
I would like them to believe in themselves and in this country. I know it is difficult. After undergoing a decade and a half of bad governance and a lot of exploitation from our own, it’s difficult to believe in the country but I want them to believe more than ever because this government is committed. I knew the marching orders that I got when I got this mandate. It was for coordinative measures to ensure that our people are less vulnerable. I know that this will happen, but we have to do it together.
I want people to be on alert because all these people offering you heaven and earth, you have to look at their circumstances. I’ve never seen anyone who is a victim of human trafficking come back as a billionaire. Kidnapping is the biggest crime globally as of today. It’s cross-border crime and it keeps evolving. Now we have the organ trafficking which is huge and unbelievable.
So, I’ll like to appeal to my fellow sisters and the youths generally, as far as living is concerned, this country has a lot of initiatives. I know that sometimes we find ourselves in a place of negativity, and it’s difficult to believe in the programmes but I’ll encourage us to put all hands on deck and our heads together for us to look beyond where we are right now.
During the pandemic, we had the highest record of abuse cases during the lockdown. Some people are going through a lot of emotional trauma so they need a lot of help, different levels of help and we should all come together to help our own.
Final words
We have to increase our believe in our nation. I know we’ve gone through a lot, but it doesn’t pay us to become negative. We have to have a positive outlook and believe in the future of this country. For anti-human trafficking, we have just begun this fight, and it is a fight that we must win. So, I invite you to be partners and ambassadors in this fight. Individually, we should have our own plan towards rebuilding this nation.
