By Akinwale Kasali
Her death couldn’t have shocked Nigerians more terribly than it did. The news was rude, unbelievably so. It was numbing, especially to Tarabans and the Political Nigerian class.
Former Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan, popular as Mama Taraba, is dead. And her State, which she loved very much has been thrown into deep mourning.
Nobody knew she was ill. Perhaps, only her family and inner circle. But no wonder, it has been silence from her corner since the sad situation Nigeria has found itself in, especially, security-wise. She had been quiet.
Al-Hassan was a woman of courage, fearless, and of colour. In politics, which she embraced with her heart, she walked where Angels feared to walk.
A disciple of former Vice President, Abubakar Atiku, she decamped to the APC from the PDP, along with him.
Her political reward was her appointment as the Minister for Women Affairs during the first tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.
But as Buhari’s Minister, she revolted against him, saying she would never support the President for a second term in office. He said the President had said he would do a one term only. Her loyalty was with Atiku. If Atiku declared interest in the Presidency, she said, she would work for Atiku.
Buhari surprised many by not firing her. He bidded his time, knowing she had an interest in being the Governor of Taraba State.
They let her pick the Governorship form, and humiliated her by disqualifying her. Buhari of course, accepted her resignation on July 27, 2018.
For a woman who, almost, became the first elected Governor of a State, her disqualification was surprising, but not quite. That was her reward for disloyalty as a Minister.
She contested, for a second time, under the UDP, but was this time, widely defeated
by the incumbent Governor.
But, she had, since, after those political misfortunes, gone back to her original party, the PDP. On leaving the UDP, she sent the party packing from one of her properties which she gave them to use, retrieving most of the office equipment she gave them, including carpets.
Those of her inner circle say to had been sick for some time and had been frequenting hospitals.
Born on September 15, 1959, Mama Taraba died Friday afternoon of a yet to be disclosed illness.
