Amina Mohammed: 'Leaving Nigeria for UN was most difficult decision of my life'

As friends and colleagues converged on the Oriental Hotel in Lagos on Thursday to congratulate and bid Amina Mohammed farewell, the celebrant looked full of life and drained all at once.

Mohammed is leaving the job as Minister for Environment in Nigeria to take up a role as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Thursday's congratulatory dinner left the pretty Mohammed with bags of emotions so mixed, she told Pulse she was overwhelmed by it all.

"I am really overwhelmed. Because I feel like I really love to work. It feels like an out of body experience", she said of the evening's occasion.

Everyone who took the stage earlier, had eulogised her so much, Mohammed could have been forgiven for blushing as a battery of photo-journalists and Reporters laid in wait for her at the entrance of the hallway.

When Mohammed if she'd be missing her job as Nigeria's environment minister and if she thinks she'd be missed back in Abuja.

"Government is a continuum", she offered. "Everything that we do in government is aimed at building institutions. You are judged by what happens after you leave. I am very convinced that my co-pilot, the minister of State, is going to carry the ministry to greater heights.

"We can do many many things to help fulfill the President's agenda," Mohammed said.

“Choosing between Nigeria and the United Nations was probably one of the most difficult decisions of my life", Mohammed told newsmen.

Amina is however certain that Nigeria is in good hands. She also feels that the land of her birth has a lot to offer the world.

"We have many challenges here too. We all needed to serve in this administration because we need to make a difference..to move from where we are.

And to be called to the global arena is an immense situation and honour. But I’m a humanist. Every day of my work involves communities, involves people. I am going to a different level and hope that I can make the same difference".

Mohammed announced that as she leaves for the UN, she'll be taking Nigeria along with her.

"I am going to the UN with Nigeria, Africa and the world", she said with a characteristic grin.