Some years ago, I was at my cousin’s place when I ran into an old calendar in her father’s study. I was amazed that a 1988 calendar could be so well kept. The calendar had the pictures of Maryam Babangida and her husband, General Ibrahim Babangida displayed conspicuously on it. The photographs were taken when they were both still in office. I was struck by Maryam’s charm and natural beauty. She was natural with her powder and lip gloss unlike what we now see on the faces of many of our today’s first ladies.
Trust me, I decided to cut her photograph from the calendar which I hung in my room in school. A couple of weeks later, I was forced by a friend to remove it from the wall. His reason was; it’s not the kind of picture one should hang on the wall, considering the atrocities the husband committed while in office. It is unfortunate this is the kind of mindset most people have about this former first family while their reign lasted – and to think of this about Maryam, in spite of her efforts to alleviate the poverty of rural women while in office is sad.
Whatever, it is tragic that Maryam Babangida, wife of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, one-time military President of Nigeria had to succumb to the cold hands of death in such a painful manner, but the truth remains the legacies she left behind would remain alive in the memory and minds of the many that she impacted while alive.
Her death brought back for many, fond memories of the years when the glamorous former first lady dashed across the length and breadth of the country, mobilising and empowering other women through her pet project, Better Life for Rural Women. She was the first person to glamorise the office of the first lady and she succeeded in setting the standard for her successors who have not been able to equal her fit.
Then, many criticisms trailed her efforts and the panache she brought to bear in her office as the first lady. Some argued that the office of the first lady is not recognised by the Constitution while some others said wives of the first citizens of the nation could impact women and children positively irrespective of their offices.
I was never close to her, but some people have described her as a humble person.
Someone once said that her humility was evident in her relationship with all who came in contact with her when was president of Nigerian Army Officers' Wives Association (NAOWA) between 1984 and 1985. No doubt, she was a change agent and she affected the lives of both urban and rural women. Ever since she berthed her Better Life project, I don’t think any other first lady has risen up to the challenge of mobilising and empowering rural women the way this woman did! It doesn’t matter though that many of them are still illiterates and unenlightened about critical issues that affect their lives.
The family attempted to hide the news of her ailment. But trust newsmen, the soft sell magazines were on top of the story and her emaciating figure was a telltale sign of the nature of her sickness - cancer. At a point, the family denied she was suffering from ovarian cancer. It didn’t matter that the more the family tried to conceal it, the more photojournalists splashed her photographs on the pages of magazines and newspapers. Anyone who saw the photographs would know the once elegant Maryam was fast slipping away. Her glamorous looks were gone, even though she fought so hard to conceal that fact. She was emaciating by the day.
Without mincing words, I honestly admired her for her efforts at empowering rural women. She championed the cause of women and tried to find solutions to the social issues that affected and concerned them. She was never tired of advancing the cause of women. Even once out of power, and in spite of her failing health she never faltered in the cause she believed in. Not too long ago, she came up with a more elaborate version of her Better Life for Rural Women programme; this time, at the continental level. She started mobilising wives of leaders of other African countries as the springboard for a campaign to mobilise and empower women across the continent.
From her humble beginning, Babangida must have seen the social issues confronting women as a monumental challenge confronting the country and the continent and resolved to tackle it frontally. She did the much she could, which, clearly, was not enough. Whatever, the amiable woman has done her bit and her very best which posterity can never deny her. However, the family must pick up the baton so that the race can continue by instituting a foundation in her honour.
I advocate that the dream must not die, because a literate, healthy and politically active women population would translate to a positively transformed continent. All women leaders, at every level, must run with the vision - from the local governments to the states, from the states to the federal and from there to the continental level, because the problems of women in Nigeria are similar to the problems of women in virtually every other country in the continent.
