I last spoke with her on October 31, 2020 during the launching of a biography written in honour of her late father, Alhaji Abubakar Ibrahim, OON (Sarkin Aiyukan Muri. That day Hajiya Jummai Alhassan (Maman Taraba) was bubbling with life. Though I knew she had been in and out of hospital for sometime, I thought she was well until I heard the news of her death.
‘Hajja’, as I used to call her, was born on Friday 16th September,1959 at Jalingo,Taraba State and died on another Friday 7th May, 2021, at Cairo, Egypt on 25th Ramadan at 2 A.M. of that Friday which was one of Ramadan’s odd nights in the last 10 revered days of the holy month, a period the Muslim Umma intensity worship and prayers in expectation of Lailatul Qadr, the night of majesty. What a day to be born and a day to die in a month whose beginning, the prophet said is mercy, it’s middle forgiveness and it’s end emancipation from the hell fire. A glorious beginning and a glorious end.
On the day she died, in the 5 minutes talk usually delivered by Uztaz Sadiq Abubakar in Annur mosque during Taraweeh prayer, Uztaz Abubakar Sadiq actually mentioned her name and prayed Allah to admit her in Aljanna. Being 25th of Ramadan, the mosque was full to capacity and most of the congregation were outside, a lot of who answered “Ameen”.
In the same mosque that night, I was told by someone who sat by my side that late Senator Aisha Jummai was one of the people who anonymously delivered tonnes of cartons of drinking water to Annur mosque for worshipers during Taraweeh and Tahajjud. Only Allah can tell how much reward she would receive for this.
In life, late Hajja was an amazing woman. She was compassionate and generous. In her politics she was blunt and frank, often to a fault, but contented. “Mu bar wa Allah Honourable” was her catch phrase to me anytime I complained to her about injustice meted to her or when she was betrayed by someone.
Yet Hajja was a risk taker, and as a woman, she was daring. She was resourceful as well as boisterous and industrious. Northern Nigeria hasn’t got many women like her, for she had achieved so many firsts in her life.
Among her firsts, was being the only person, I know, who completed secondary school in only four and a half years in Saint Faith College (now GSS Kawo, Kaduna from January, 1973 – June, 1977) from where she was admitted for preliminary studies at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria where she trained as a lawyer. Though a Preliminary studies student, Hajja contested for and won the position of Vice President of the Students Union Government (SUG) at the age of 18; a position reserved for women. In 1978 when she indicated interest in the Vice Presidential position, instead of just giving it to her as was the practice, another female student was propped to contest the seat. The female candidate, Elizabeth Wambebe, who was an undergraduate when Hajja was not yet one contested against Hajja. Hajja won.
She became the lone non undergraduate and the only female member of the SUG where she served with Mallam Abdulhamid Imam as President, Comerade Isa Bala Lawan as Secretary General and late Abdulrahman Black, as Assistant Secretary General.
Interestingly during the SUG’s tenure in office, a riot occurred in the university that led to the expulsion of some students including the president, Mallam Abdulhamid Imam. Imam’s expulsion paved way for Hajja to become the Acting President of the ABU Main Campus SUG and completed Mallam Imam’s tenure.
In the conservative Muslim North, Hajja Jummai was outstanding in her chosen profession as a lawyer and when she joined politics, a field taken in our part of the world as exclusive preserve of men, Hajja also scored many firsts.
In the 2011 election which was her debut, Hajja defeated the male sitting Senator at the primary election and at the general election she defeated 3 times former Governor of her state Reverend Joly Nyame, and became the first female senator for Taraba North Senatorial District and the first female senator from the North East of Nigeria (2011-2015).
In the 2015 elections Hajja Jummai defeated many men in the primaries and became the APC Gubernatorial candidate but lost to the incumbent in the general election in controversial circumstances.
I first met Hajja in June, 2014 when she was Senator for Taraba North. The occasion was a meeting of a committee we both served on as members, set up by then newly formed APC, to convince the speaker Adamawa state House of Assembly, now Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, and his group to rescind their decision on impeachment of Governor Murtala Nyako, after they had obtained 17 signatures, sufficient enough to impeach the Governor, on which they had even served the impeachment notice on Gov. Nyako, by publishing same in the pages of Newspapers after attempts to serve him personally failed. Our committee’s meeting venue was at her residence in Maitama, Abuja which she volunteered to the APC at the party’s formative stage. In our almost one month old period of meetings in her residence, in between cups of tea and coffee and plenty to eat, she kept all of us (all male) on our toes. She was a man.
I can vividly recall that the committee was made up of founding members of the APC headed by Sen. Lawal Shuaibu from Zamfara State, with her as Senator from Taraba State, former minister late Alh. Inuwa Abdulkadir from Sokoto state, Engr. Babachir Lawal from Adamawa state (who later became SGF) and my humble self as former speaker and first serving state legislator in the Adamawa state House of Assembly that defectd from the PDP to the APC.
To rescind their decision, the Fintiri group demanded for huge sum of money. This was communicated to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu now president of the country. However just before they were to be paid the money they demanded, I told the meeting that a friend of mine in the Fintiri group, who I will not mention here, had told me in my hotel room at Rockview Classic, that by tomorrow they would be richer by some millions of Naira because Tinubu would be bringing money. My friend told me that they will receive the money, but they would not rescind their decision on going ahead with the impeachment. I quickly passed this information to Sen. Jummai late at night and asked her to confirm from another member of the group whose name and telephone number I gave to her. She invited him alone to her house where he confirmed my story. That was how the matter ended such that apart from the money they received from the presidency bankrolled from Akwa Ibom, to impeach Gov. Nyako, the 17 legislators did not get a kobo from the APC; and of course they impeached Governor Nyako on July 15, 2014.
Hajja thanked me so much for having saved her from embarrassment. Since then, I earned her trust and confidence such that she put my name in several committees as a result of which I attended meetings held towards forming the APC that enabled me rubbed shoulders with big time politicians I hitherto only watched on television.
She was also quite supportive financially when I contested for House of Reps in 2015. So when I won my election, without waiting to celebrate with my supporters in Fufore, I moved my entire campaign team with man vehicles to Taraba State where I campaigned with her in several locations and spoke in many rallies that my face became familiar in Taraba state. Unfortunately she lost the election.
Hajja was a dedicated mother, hardworking and a deligent workaholic. She got married to Prof. Anglo Abdullahi in September, 1979 when she completed her SBS while Prof. Ango was the Deputy Vice Chancellor before he became ABU’s VC in December of that year. With her status as a mother, a wife and a student, she had her first born, a daughter in 1980. She had her second, a boy, in 1983 still as a student and her last child, another girl, in 1988 and yet successfully finished her law degree LL.B, and proceeded to Nigerian Law School in Lagos where se qualified as a lawyer.
Hajja started her working carrier in 1988 as Magistrate Grade II in Kaduna. From 1990-1992 she went to Republic of Fiji Island under the Technical Aid Corps Program of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs on secondment from the Ministry of Justice. At Fiji she was admitted to the Fijian Bar and enrolled as a Barrister and practiced law there. On her return to Nigeria, she transferred her service to the FCT Judiciary as Magistrate Grade I in 1991. Then she was the only female Magistrate in the FCT, Abuja where she rose to become the first female Chief Magistrate in 1996.
Hajja was later moved to Judicial Administration as the first female Deputy Chief Registrar and Director Litigation, High Court of the FCT, Abuja in 1997. She was appointed the first female Attorney General of Taraba State in the same year under the military regime. After her tenure as Attorney General in Taraba State, she returned to FCT in May, 1999 and was appointed the first female Secretary to the FCT Judicial Service Commission in 2002. In 2003, she was appointed first female Chief Registrar of the High Court of the FCT, Abuja from which position she voluntarily retired and joined politics in December, 2009 and became a Senator in 2011 until 2015 when she contested for Governor of Taraba State.
When Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election in 2015, Hajja was appointed Minister of Women Affairs. I was so happy and also lucky because she was Minister, while I was in the House of Representatives and a member of the House Committee on Women Affairs while Hajiya Binta Adamu Bello was her Permanent Secretary. In every women empowerment program in her ministry, women of Fufore/Song federal constituency were included. I submitted several names of women and women groups who got a lot of financial and material support in my constituency.
In all my dealings with Hajja, I realised that she remained humble despite her resources and did not separate from her friends who were less endowed. For instance anytime she visited Yola, she stayed in the residence of her friend Hajja Talatu (Gimbiya Gurin) now wife of Lamdo Beka in Cameroon republic. The house was located in down town Jimeta near the old Hajj Camp at Jambutu federal housing estate. I entreated severally that I could arrange accommodation for her in the Government House, Yola at which time Sen. Muhd Jibrilla Bindo, her Senator colleague was Governor. She consistently refused.
Hajja’s departure from president Buhari’s cabinet and her subsequent return to PDP is beyond me. Suffice it to say however that when her death was announced, the number of telephone calls I received from my constituency especially women who condoled with me, was beyond count.
May Allah grant Hajja’s family the fortitude to bear the loss and may Allah forgive her sins and admit her in Aljanna Firdausi.
Allah jikan ta da Rahama. Allah lamido yaafu mo.
