Why this article, (Dr.) Mrs. Maryam Babangida: 2 Major Reasons The Anioma People Must Be Grateful To Her?  The purpose is to give honour to whom honour is due.

Who is (Dr.) Mrs. Maryam Babangida?

She was the amiable wife of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, (rtd.), Nigeria’s former Military Head of State, who managed the state of affairs of Nigeria between August 27, 1985 and August 26, 1993. She was born on November 1, 1948, to an Asaba father and a Hausa mother.

This great amazon passed on to glory on 27 December, 2009, when she died from ovarian cancer in a Los Angeles, California hospital. She was aged 61. Her husband was at her side as she died.

She was a very nice woman.   The Daily Times of Nigeria confirmed this when it reported on her death that she was “considered to be one of the greatest women in Africa today”.

Some of the things that she would always be remembered for was the Better Life for Rural Women programme, which she founded in 1987, during the 8-year reign of her husband.

The programme, Better Life For Rural Women, brought about the existence of many co-operatives, cottage industries, farms and gardens, shops and markets, women’s centres and social welfare programs.

Another thing that she would be remembered for was The Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women’s Development which was established in 1993.  The Centre was used for research and training, as well as for the mobilization of women towards their self-emancipation.

To put it in a simple language, she was a vigorous champion of issues relating to women.  She brought glamour to the office of First Lady in Nigeria.

She went as far as reaching out to the first ladies of other African countries, encouraging them to play effective roles that were geared towards improving the lives of their people, and so and so forth.

You can read more about this charming mother of four from the Anioma area of Delta State online, especially at the popular Wikipedia Website.

Did I hear you ask, why should the Anioma people be grateful to her?  There are two major reasons I think they should do so:

Reason No. 1: Her Perceived Influence In The Citing Of The Capital Of Delta State In Asaba

In my article, Why And How Asaba Became The Capital Of Delta State, published on this blog, I stated four factors that may have influenced the citing of the capital of Delta State in Asaba. Below are the four factors:

1. There was a rumour that while AFRC was considering which, between Abraka and Sapele, to be made the capital of Delta State, an insider reminded General Babangida that Abraka should never be considered as the capital of Delta State.  His reason being that Abraka was the hometown of Great Ogboru, the businessman who was alleged to have mater-minded the failed coup of 1990 led by Major Gideon Gwaza Orka;

2. Some political observers believed that it was wise of General Babangida to have made Asaba the capital of Delta State.  Their reason being that it wouldn’t have made any type of sense if the people of Core-Delta (the Urhobos, the Isokos, the Itsekiris, and the Ijaws), who got the state named after their area, also succeeded in having one of their towns as the capital of the state.  Did you get the argument?

Those thinkers concluded that making Asaba the capital of Delta State was another way of placating them for bearing a strange name; a name that does not belong to them;

1. Some people, especially those from the Core-Delta (the Urhobos, the Isokos, the Itsekiris and the Ijaws) believed that General Babangida influenced the choice of Asaba as the capital of Delta State, because his late wife, Dr. (Mrs.) Maryam Babangida was an indigene of Asaba.

2. The last school of thought believed that making Abraka or Sapele the capital of Delta State would have pitched the people of Abraka and Sapele against one another in a brutal brotherly war.

Many Nigerians, especially non-Aniomas, went berserk, after the creation of Delta State, calling General Babangida names for influencing the naming of Asaba as the capital of the state.

Among those critics who asked General Babangida’s head was Prof. Itse Saga, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, whose mother was an Itsekiri, from Delta State, and his father from Edo State.  According to him, “Babangida used the Delta State Capital to pay his bride price to his Anioma in-laws.”

As far as I am concerned that was an arrant nonsense, rubbish and gibberish.  Assuming he was correct in his observation or thinking, since I wasn’t a member of the Armed Forces Ruling Council, AFRC, what is wrong about General Babangida naming Asaba the capital of Delta State.  If not unfounded hatred, is Asaba not a town in Delta State?

Has he forgotten that many government projects in Nigeria, both before and now, are cited in the towns and villages of their originators or in the towns and villages of colleagues, friends and relations of their initiators?

In case he has forgotten, somebody should, please, remind him that the former Bendel State University, BSU, now Ambrose Ali University, AAU, was cited at Ekpoma because that was the hometown of its initiator, Professor Ambrose Ali of blessed memory.

Prof. Saga should, please, spare me some ink and writing-time!

Most of us, including Prof. Sagay, could have done what General Babngida did, even worse, if found in the same situation that General Babangida was when Asaba became that lucky.

Since Prof. Sagay and other bad belle critics like him strongly believed that Asaba became the capital of Delta State because Mrs. Maryam Babangida, the wife of General Babangida, came from Asaba, does it not make sense, therefore, for the Anioma people to celebrate this late sister of theirs?  Of course, yes!  It makes all types of senses for them to do so.

So, join me in celebrating this late amazon.  Long live the soul of Maryam Babangida in heaven!  Long Live the Anioma nation!   Long live Delta State!  Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria!

Anioma kwenu! Anioma kwenu!!  Anioma kwe zue nu oooooooooo!!!

Reason No. 2: The Likely Fate Of The Anioma People Had Asaba Not Been Made The Capital Of Delta State

Like I mentioned earlier, after the creation of Delta State on August 27, 1991, with Asaba as its capital, many critics condemned the decision of General Babangida-led Armed Forces Ruling Council, AFRC, for making Asaba the capital of the state.

One of those critics, Prof. Itse Sagay, along with his colleagues, went to court to ask for the relocation of the capital of Delta State out of Asaba.  That meant that if they had had their way, Asaba wouldn’t have been the capital of Delta State, as it is today.

One of the things that make Prof. Sagay and his utterances laughable is that he didn’t even know how the thought of Delta State came about until it was created.  How would somebody who didn’t make any input to the creation of Delta State be making a noise about the location of its capital?

What I expected from somebody of his repute, after Asaba had been named that capital of Delta State, was for him, a lover of Delta State, to sit down with other stakeholders in Delta State and fashion out how Delta State would be run peacefully and equitably.

Instead of doing just that, he went about making a noise and campaigning for the relocation of the capital of Delta State, from Asaba, to wherever he had in mind, thereby causing bad blood between the Anioma people and other Deltans.

Maybe he wanted to show the world that he was a reputed lawyer.  But I was surprised that with all his degrees in law he was not able to alter the status quo.

What Prof. Sagay failed or refused to do, creating a peaceful atmosphere for progress and peace to thrive in the state, is what Chief James Onanefe Ibori, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, the incumbent Governor of Delta State, and other stakeholders in the state, did comfortably, and are still doing.

Prof. Sagay should not deceive other Nigerians into believing that professors are the most intelligent and sensible people in Nigeria.  They are not.  At all, at all!

Big or higher education, sometimes, does not guarantee one wisdom, but God and how one uses one’s education. Is Is this is why we have millions of common people, with little or no education, who are more sensible, more thoughtful and more purposeful than some so-called professors?

If you put Prof. Sagay’s action against the choice of Asaba as the capital of Delta State and his current utterances about the goings-on in Nigeria, you’ll be forced to conclude that he must be a lover of controversy.

Why did I say so?

Do you remember how he defended or attempted to defend the former Finance Minister, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, who was confirmed to have forged a National Youths Service Discharge Certificate?  If he was not a lover of controversy, how could he have brazenly defended someone, who had already owned up about her involvement in a crime?

Do you also remember how he criticized President Mohammadu Buhari on several occasions in the past, but later accepted the position of the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption, PACAC, from the same PMB he criticized?  Wasn’t that another case of a dog going back to its vomit?

One kam ge kwu, one ka nga ya?   Which will I say and which one will I leave out?

Maybe that was why Senator (Barrister) Peter Nwoboshi, the member representing Delta North Senatorial District at the National Assembly, described him as a “serial confusionist,” and also why some members of All Progressives Congress, APC, described him as a “rogue elephant” who is answerable only to his ego.

If Prof. Sagay and his team of critics had succeeded in taking away the capital of Delta State from Asaba to wherever, as well as having their way in choosing who governs the state, what do you think would have become the fate of the Anioma people as part of Delta State?  I leave you to answer this question.

If you think about this very deeply, you’ll also agree with me that the Anioma people need to show themselves grateful to this late daughter of Zion called Maryam Babangida.  In other words, isn’t this another good reason for the Anioma people to be grateful to Mrs. Maryam Babangida?

Of course, yes!  It is!  As an Anioma indigene, I do this regularly. This also informed my reason to write this article: (Dr.) Mrs. Maryam Babangida : 2 Major Reasons The Anioma People Must Be Grateful To Her.

If you’re an Anioma person like me, could you, please, on this note, join me in giving this late amazon seven thunderous gun salute.

Let’s go!  Gboooooooza. Gboooooooza! Gboooooooza! Gboooooooza! Gboooooooza! Gboooooooza! Gboooooooza!

That done, I want to use this opportunity to thank all those who have done one thing or the other, with a view to immortalizing the late Mrs. Babangida.  Among such people are Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, who has just rehabilitated the abandoned road named after her in Asaba, and those who have instituted an annual lecture in her name.  May the Almighty God reward them accordingly in Jesus name.

Amen!

This article,  (Dr.) Mrs. Maryam Babangida : 2 Major Reasons The Anioma People Must Be Grateful To Her, is one of my own modest ways of immortalizing the great woman.