AISHA BABANGIDA: IN HER MUM’S SHOES

Aisha Babangida is sustaining the gains of the Better Life programme initiated by her mother, writes Suleiman Abubakar

We lost her on the 27th December, 2009 to the cold hands of death; Maryam Babangida, the idyllic, suave and elegant wife of Ibrahim Babangida, former military president. She cut a niche for herself with uncommon panache. Her poise was uniquely vintage. Her aura permeates her humanity, leading men and women to achieve results with her pet project, the Better life for rural women. Maryam Babangida was in a world of her own; simple, delectable, with an attractive gait that spoke volume about her ebony looks and well cultured fashionable composure. Her smile was enough to heal wounds and nurture souls. She was a woman who had her heart for the ordinary folks out there. With a rich presence of mind, Maryam Babangida took the Better life programme from nothingness to global recognition, created a name and a brand, and encouraged women to own their passage in any field of human endeavours.

At death, a huge vacuum seemed to have emerged. Who can sustain all the initiatives of romancing with rural women to improve their lot? Who can sustain the herculean task of mentoring them, nurturing their vocation and ensuring that they are exposed to the rubrics of what can define their humanity? Typical of the Babangidas, they have answer to every knotty scenario. Aisha Babangida, the eldest daughter in the family of four, took the centre-stage, by bracing all odds, in attempting to step into her mother’s big shoes; elegant shoes that are made up of ideas and vigour, by sheer intellect and commitment. At first, she didn’t know where to put her feet down. She spent many hours days after days, to collate her ideas, dug into archives to get the fundamental underpinning of her mum’s initiative, and launched out in a bigger way to reposition a pet project that has touched millions of lives. She rechristened the name to Better Life for the African Rural Woman. For an idea that has become a household name, it needed a little more pluck to sustain the gains.

Recently, in October, Aisha Babangida took rural women down memory lane when she invited some of them to the Women Centre built by her mum, to build synergy and share existential ideas. The stories that were calibrated were as telling as the plights of the African Rural Woman. Speaker after speaker, the challenges of the ordinary woman out there were put into proper perspective to elicit robust appreciation by those who have the capacity to make an impact. Aisha took her turn to interrogate scenarios and unleashed the details of a journey that has lasted 10 years after her mother’s exit. It was a story of breakthroughs in different aspects of human lives. Aside from setting up a micro finance bank that gives soft loans to these women, she has also engaged in building facilities such as schools and hospitals and health centres in several remote villages across Nigeria. Her program encompasses training and teaching women on adult literacy and also vocational training in specialized fields. After completion, she gives them take off grant in order for them to be able to sustain a life of independence.

Two years ago, Aisha Babangida broke the ice by organizing a first-of-its-kind gathering of all former First Ladies including the present one, in a programme she tagged “Mothers of the Nation”. For a long time, it was the first deliberate attempt to appreciate and interrogate activities of First Ladies while their husbands presided over the country. The success of that event underscores the respect and recognition the First Ladies accorded her as the inimitable daughter of the doyenne of First Ladyship, Maryam Babangida. The event, aside from being an eye-opener, brought to the fore, the often difficult situations the First Ladies found themselves especially during Military rule. Soundbites from Mrs. Victoria Gowon, Hajia Ajoke Murtala Mohammed and Professor Mrs. Azikiwe, were as revealing as they were testing times in Nigeria’s political trajectories. The ceremony, which promises to be an annual event, is geared towards ensuring that the roles of First Ladies are taken cognisance of, each time the administration of their husbands come to the fore. Aside ensuring that their husbands enjoy some level of psychological balance, they also manage guests, keep the homefront stable, assist in decision making process and also offering advice where and when necessary.

Aisha Babangida has a profound sense of organisation as a go-getter. She wields together uncommon experiences she had garnered over the years especially mentorship she got from her mum, who opened the floodgate for a better appreciation of women in the affairs of the nation. Her recent intervention to debut the IBB DIALOGUE to mark her father’s birthday and recalibrate all the fond memories of Babangida’s achievements was another landmark event, that captured in lucid details the historical antecedents of the former Military President. Aisha Babangida may not be living in her mother’s era, but she surely understands the enormity of her present responsibility and appears so determined to entrench a culture of documenting events for their historical relevance. Sustaining the ideals of the Better Life Programme will further help to consolidating the gains of yesteryears and driving a new narrative of ensuring better place for the African rural woman, especially at a time when government appears helpless to impact meaningfully into the aspirations of women.

Abubakar wrote from Kaduna,

Sulayabu@yahoo.com