Tag: Aisha Buhari

The temperaments of those that have played the role of First Ladies since the return to civil rule in 1999 till date have been markedly different. Deputy Political Editor RAYMOND MORDI looks at the style of the First Ladies from Obasanjo to Buhari.

Since the time of Maryam Babangida, the late wife of the former military President Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria has always had First Ladies who complemented their husbands. Though the position –– First Lady –– is not officially recognised and their activities are not publicly-funded, all those who occupied that position before now succeeded in carving a niche for themselves, by initiating either a  charity organisation or pet project to uplift vulnerable groups in the society.

Stella Obasanjo

Stella Obasanjo (November 14, 1945 to October 23, 2005) was the First Lady from 1999 until her death in 2005. Prior to her emergence in 1999, all the governors wives and the wife of number two citizens had no other pet projects  apart from the one instituted by the wife of   the Head of State. The   story   changed   when   Mrs. Obasanjo became the First Lady in 1999.  She told the governors’ wives and the wife of the vice president in clear terms that the problems of the society were so enormous and it would be unfair for her to impose a particular project on all the states as was done under the military era.

She, therefore,  urged them to identify any problem that was peculiar to  each  state  and  set  out  ways  of assisting  the needy  in  those  regards,  thereby decentralising the pet project. She identified with the plight of the handicapped and their mothers through her Child Care Trust (CCT).

A private, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, CCT, was established a few months after her husband assumed office as President  to bring succour to physically challenged children. Mrs. Obasanjo’s guiding philosophy,  many believe, was that children are special gifts from God and they need to be appreciated and loved, no matter their physical or mental circumstances.

The late Stella Obasanjo came into the limelight during the campaign to release her husband, who was then charged with treason and jailed by the late Gen Sani Abacha’s junta. She took the campaign for his release to the United Nations (UN) in New York. She was later at the forefront of Obasanjo’s bid to win the presidential election. She travelled with him all over Nigeria, mobilising support among womens’ organisations and the grassroots.

Born in Warri, Delta State,  the late Mrs. Obasanjo was the eldest of the seven children of the first indigenous chairman of Unilever Nigeria, Dr Christopher Abebe. She read English at the Obafemi Awolowo University from 1967 to 1969. Later, she enrolled at the Pitman Institute in London, where she trained as a secretary.

She married Obasanjo in 1976, shortly before he became the military head of state. Stella was not the First Lady during Obasanjo’s first coming. Obasanjo had other wives. But, by the time Obasanjo returned as the civilian President in 1999, Stella was the one in the public eye, following the role she played when her husband was in detention. During that period, she was very influential.

Her death in October 2005 shocked Nigerians. Mrs. Obasanjo, who passed away 22 days to her 60th birthday, had gone to Spain for a cosmetic surgery operation commonly known as “tummy tuck”, but never returned to Nigeria.

Turai Yar’Adua

If any First Lady wielded enormous influence in governance in recent times, Hajia Turai Yar’Adua, the wife of the late President Umaru Yar’Adua was. Dame Patience Jonathan, the wife of the outgoing President Goodluck Jonathan, is another.

Turai Yar’Adua served as the First Lady from 2007 until the death of her husband on May 5, 2010. Turai was the power behind Yar’Adua — in the home, when he was governor and when he became president. Mrs. Yar’Adua’s has a quiet mien and from her appearance alone, one would be hard pressed to imagine her capable of the political manipulations and intrigues that were credited to her in the heydays of the Yar’Adua era. The power structure within the Presidency allowed her to call the shots from behind the scene. She wielded considerable power, way above what one would expect of a mere consort to a governor.

In the Villa, Turai was perceived to be fully in-charge of many of the decisions behind the scene. She was her husband’s closest adviser and during the period he was incapacitated and unable to perform his official duties, she is said to be fully in charge. The late Yar’Adua travelled overseas for medical treatment without handing over to Goodluck Jonathan who was Yar’Adua’s deputy. The late President’s close associates maintained that he could perform his official duties on sick bed, from anywhere in the world. She was said to be the head of the cabal that ran the affairs of the country before the National Assembly was compelled to invoke the ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ and made Jonathan the Acting President.

An incident of many years ago perhaps best dramatises the power that Turai has always wielded in the president’s life and work. A story was told of how, prior to the 1991 governorship elections, a group of Umaru Yar’Adua loyalists visited the influential late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. Their objective was to persuade the retired general to help ensure that his younger brother became the Katsina State Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate. It would have been a simple task for the elder Yar’Adua who was the de facto leader of the party.

But the older Yar’Adua would not support his brother. In fact, he was reported to have given tacit support to his brother’s opponent, Saidu Barda, candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC). When SDP stalwarts went to the retired general to appeal to him to change his mind he reportedly asked them whom they wanted to put in Katsina Government House, Umaru or Turai, his wife?

Easily recognisable by her shawl and make-up, she got married to  the late president in 1975. She attended Government Secondary School, Kankia, in present day Katsina State, and Katsina College of Arts, Science and Technology. For a while she worked as a teacher before retiring and becoming a full time housewife.

Turai Yar’Adua’s pet project revolves around cancer eradication, but apparently, she was more interested in running the affairs of state. The difference between Hajia Turai and Dame Patience is that Hajia Turai was seen, but not heard. This is unlike Dame Patience, also known as Mama Peace, who behaved like an elected political office holder.

Patience Jonathan

As First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan obviously wielded enormous influence in and out of political circles. With her project, “Women for Change Initiative”, she was seeking to make Life better for women in the country and totally restore the dignity of womanhood. She lent her voice to the implementation of the 35 per cent affirmative action for women in President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, thus advocating more women in governance.

She had struggled relentlessly to awaken and empower the Nigerian woman through numerous summits, enlightenment and sensitisation campaigns. It is also to her credit that women were recognised as important stakeholders in the recently conducted general elections and were effectively mobilised for the polls.

Dame Patience is believed to be a pillar of sorts for her. She was actively involved in the electoral campaigns, crisscrossing all parts of the country and wooing the electorate to her husband’s side. She has remained very visible as First Lady.

She launched her Women for Change Initiative, shortly after her husband became President in May 2011. The initiative was aimed at promoting women’s participation in the political sphere, amongst other things. It was one of the promises the Jonathan administration can proud other say it accomplished. There were about 13 women in Jonathan’s Federal Executive council representing about 32 per cent of the 42 member Cabinet, with many others  heading sensitive institutions.

But, her meddlesomeness and overbearing influence were equally part of the reasons her husband lost the March 28 presidential elections. She interfered in the affairs of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in many states and created problems for her husband and the ruling party. For instance, she was said to be responsible for the problem between Jonathan and the outgoing Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and the crisis within the Bayelsa State chapter of the PDP. She also inflamed passions with the kind of words she used against the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard bearer Muhammadu Buhari during the campaigns. The hate campaign she and Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti championed did not help matters for Jonathan.

Mrs. Jonathan’s secret hospitalisation in Germany, following a severe bout of food poisoning, drew a lot of criticisms for the Jonathan administration. She was also involved in the controversy the over 200 girls abducted from Chibok by Boko Haram. She drew the ire of civil society when one of the leaders of the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement was arrested after meeting the First Lady at the presidential villa. Mrs Jonathan was said to have accused the activists of fabricating the abduction story to give the government a bad name.

Many Nigerians derived comic reliefs from jokes built around her alleged grammatical blunders. People made jokes from everything she said or did. Indeed, Dame Patience is regularly mimicked by comedians for her boisterous public appearances, as well as political and financial scandals.  Despite all these, Mrs. Jonathan is never afraid to say her mind.

She was born in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on October 25, 1957. In 1989,  she obtained the National Certificate of Education (NCE) in Mathematics and Biology from Rivers State College of Arts and Science, Port Harcourt. She then proceeded to the University of Port Harcourt, where she studied Biology and Psychology.

Mrs. Jonathan started her career as a teacher at the Stella Maris College, Port Harcourt and Sports Institute Isake. She then moved to the banking sector in 1997, where she established the first community bank in Port Harcourt called the Akpo Community Bank. She served as Marketing Manager of Imiete Community Bank. She returned to the classroom briefly again as a teacher. Eventually she was transferred to the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, where she served until May 29, 1999 when her husband became the deputy governor of the state.

On July 12, 2012, she was appointed as permanent secretary in Bayelsa State by Governor Seriake Dickson, who was helped to his governorship position by her husband. The appointment generated national outrage and ridicule, considering the fact that she had been on leave from the civil service for over 13 years, since her husband became deputy governor in 1999.

Aisha Buhari

Hajiya Aisha Buhari was largely an unknown name to many Nigerians until the 2015 presidential election campaigns. Unlike previous times where she did not openly support her husband’s aspirations to become president, she traversed the length and breadth of  country this time around to garner support for Buhari’s presidential aspirations under the umbrella of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which eventually paid off. In the process, Mrs. Buhari stepped out of the shadows into national limelight.

She has quickly learnt the art of politicking, as she was the arrowhead of the campaign of the APC women’s wing. From donating relieve materials to internally displaced persons (IDPs), to mobilising the women folk to support her husband and even speaking about her plans as First Lady, Mrs Buhari has indeed stepped into her new role.

Though the wife of incoming President is just assuming the role of the First Lady, she has promised Nigerians a different style, from what was witnessed under her predecessor. Already, she has given indications about what to expect from her. For instance, she said during the electioneering campaigns that she would prefer to be called the wife of the President, rather than the First Lady.

Mrs. Buhari believes that since the position of ‘First Lady’ is not recognised by the constitution, there would be no point in her going about parading herself as the First Lady. She is of the view that not being addressed as the First Lady, however, would not stop her from performing her duties and role as the wife of the president of Nigeria. “The wife of the president has some traditional roles, like receiving guests, visiting orphanages, helping the less-privileged people,” she noted, adding that she would also lead the fight for the right of women and malnourished children and other socio-economic ills such as infant mortality rate, kidnapping and girl-child trafficking.

Mrs. Buhari was born into the family of Nigeria’s first Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammadu Ribadu in Adamawa State. She clocked 44 years at the peak of political campaigns in February, having been born February 17, 1971. She got married to Buhari on December 2, 1989.

A graduate of Public Administration from the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, she subsequently trained in beauty therapy and she is an alumnus of the Carlton Institute of London and the Academy Esthetique Beauty, Institute of France, Dubai. Mrs. Buhari is currently a graduate student of International Affairs and Strategic Planning. A devout Moslem, she and her husband are blessed with five children.