Commentary on the life and times of Maryam Babangida

The Life and Times of Maryam Babangida


Mrs Maryam Babangida can arguably be described as an icon whose impact on the nation cannot be easily quantified. That she led a good life and left indelible footprints on the sands of time cannot be contested. In her Sixty One year sojourn on this earth, Mrs Maryam Babangida meant many things to many people. The announcement of her death has therefore been rightly met with an overwhelming outpouring of condolences from every strata of the society, both the low and the mighty. It is ironic that the personality which has touched the lives of millions of Nigerians and the world at large started on a very simple note. Mrs Maryam Babangida was born on November 1st 1948. She had what many would call a fairly humble beginning in her home town, Asaba in the present Delta state, where she received part of her early education before moving up north to Kaduna. Here she attended the prestigious Queen Amina College. The greatness which she would later attain was no doubt conceived in this college where she distinguished herself in all strata of the school. Mrs Babangida went on to graduate as a secretary at the federal training college kaduna and later obtained a certificate in secretary ship from the Laselle University, Chicago. USA. In September 1969, with two months to her 21st birthday, young Maryam took another giant step in the journey of life when she got married to Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, then a young Major in the Nigerian Army, who had to take a break from the battles of the then Nigerian Civil War. It was quintessential Maryam because at the time such cross cultural marriages were an exception rather than the norm. Here she was a young lady from the then Mid Western state of Nigeria, in the present Delta state, getting married to another Nigerian from the then North Western State, in the present Niger State. Hajiya Maryam then began the task of raising a home with the inimitable Major who will later have a great impact on the affairs of this great nation. The marriage was blessed with four children- Two boys, Mohammed and Aminu and Two girls, Aisha and Halima. Perhaps it was in 1983 that the nation began its love affair with Maryam when she assumed the mantle of President of the Nigerian Army Officers Wives Association, NAOWA.
It was during her twenty month stewardship of this organisation that the leadership qualities of Mrs Babangida were brought to the fore. Maryam moved to the next step in the pedestal of her life when in August 1985 she became the first lady of the federal republic of Nigeria. It is without any doubt and equivocation the beginning of Eight years of glamour, colour, elegance, enterprise and adoration in the body politic of the nation. The office of the first lady which had hitherto been an unheralded appendage of the President was given a new lease of life. Maryam handled the office of the first lady with poise and gait comparable to most of her renowned peers in the world and in the process brought respectability to that office. She made the care of the underprivileged and the oppressed in the society her cardinal programme and this resulted in the establishment of the Better life for rural women programme in 1987. This programme was a pace setter in the efforts to better the lives of the underprivileged in the society. The programme focused on providing job opportunities for thousands of youths and women in the country, the care of the disabled, widows, and orphans.
Over ten thousand cooperative societies were established through the scheme. Despite criticisms from some quarters, the programme received international recognition when in 1988; Maryam was bestowed with the Harlem Women’s International Recognition Award in New York. Perhaps the greatest attestation to her tenacity and vision is the National Centre for Women Development in the central area of Abuja. In spite of the fact that the better life programme did not live beyond her term in office. Its sprit kept metarmophosising in various names and styles. It is a tribute to her unconquering spirit that she did not allow what befell her projects to overwhelm her. Maryam was a woman with strong family values which she brought to bear in raising four upright and disciplined children. She also founded and ran an educational institution, the El Amin International School in Minna. The passing away of Maryam Babangida is no doubt a sad loss for the Babangida Family, the entire nation and the world al large. Adieu this great mobiliser of women, an icon, a real mother and a model for Nigerian and African woman. May her soul rest in peace.

Recorded live from FRCN