Sitting with Zahra was such a joy, her personality shines through like the sun and everything about her is sweet and ladylike. She was dressed in her abaya and looked tall and lean like a gazelle. This was probably one of my longest interviews because even off the record, we had so much to talk about. She had just had a hydro facial and asked someone to bring me a natural juice concoction of carrots and some other great healthy ingredients. We agreed to do an interview and she invited me to the presidential villa where we sat in a room called The Blue Room.
Having known each other for a while, we jumped straight into conversation about so many different things and the issue of the rumours surrounding her came up. The night before, someone had told me that Zahra had some people sent out of a boutique. Zahra clarified that she was not even in Nigeria at the time the event supposedly occurred. “I was in Guildford when I heard all these things coming through and I was surprised. I was in Selfridges when someone stopped me to ask if the story was true- I was not there. I was in my sitting room in Guildford”
With that out of the way, we got straight into the interview-
So, how would you describe yourself?
That’s a very difficult question. Whenever people ask me to describe myself, I say I am just normal. I try to be nice; I am an easy going person.
I see that you and an ambassador for a charity organisation, how did that happen?
After uni, I was trying to settle down and my mom would have meetings with people. I was always interested in charity work. I kept saying that if anyone needed my help, they could just let me know since I am not doing much at the moment. And Kiki, who is the founder of ACE, gave my mom’s friend a good presentation of what they do at ACE. So she said, “Oh Zahra I have someone for you, she could just come and give you a presentation too.” Right after the presentation, I was impressed so I decided to volunteer for one of their outreaches and after that she asked me to be their ambassador and I felt why not.
What are some of the things you spend time doing?
I read a lot of different things and sometimes books that will help me relate with people better because I have to interact with a lot more people now
Who inspires you and what motivates you?
My mom inspires me. Whenever she is ready to do something, (she is such a fiery woman) she just gets up and gets it done and it is always for a good cause. Even my interest in charity work, I know it’s something I get from her. Since we were kids, she encouraged us to give to the less privileged and we enjoyed doing that. And.. My motivation is our position. We know that we are here to help Nigerians, it is not about us and even way before getting into this position, the less privileged have always been my motivation.
A while ago, a fake twitter account was created to appear to be you and many people believed it was you. The account made some controversial statements. How do you feel about someone impersonating you online?
I don’t feel good at all because the first question that comes to your mind is ‘why would someone want to be me?’ And why would you want to taint someone’s image? I knew many people would be tricked into thinking it was me, that bothered me and when the fake controversial comments came out about me talking about a president, I was hurt because this wasn’t an insult to my family only, it was to the whole of Nigeria because it is just like saying members of the first family don’t have a proper upbringing. Why would I insult a president? Why would I insult any person in general? It’s just not right. So I asked them to come up with that press release because that was the only way it would get out to people as soon as possible. That was not me and I wouldn’t do such a thing.
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