Hajiya Nana Shettima, wife of the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, is a noble woman by all standards. Her love and compassion for orphans and the less privileged in the society earned her the title, Ummul Miskin (Mother of the poor and the needy).
Today is not her birthday. I chose to celebrate her today because of my admiration for how she has carried herself so far since the husband became the vice president. Watching her visit to Osun on Tuesday reminded me of the supportive roles she played as the Borno First Lady from 2011 to 2019.
She belongs to the class of women who use power and influence positively. Her dedication to supporting others and making a positive difference in the world is truly inspiring. As a wife, she is always there for the husband to lend her support when he desires it the most.
This reminds me of a scary incident of September 2014. Shettima, as Borno Governor, had embarked on planned assessment meetings with school authorities in Sudan and the United Kingdom, where 70 students on the state’s sponsorship were undergoing undergraduate studies in medicine and geo-sciences, but he had hardly arrived his first destination when Boko Haram insurgents took over Bama, one of the most populated towns in the state, which is just about 70 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state capital.
There was tension everywhere, as news went round that Maiduguri, the seat of power, too, was about to be overrun by the rampaging insurgents at the time. Shettima cut short his trip and returned to Abuja, where he held strategic meetings on the Bama takeover, including constituting a committee to oversee the distribution of relief materials to victims of the Bama attack.
Done with the meetings, Shettima announced his intention to return to Maiduguri, the next day, a move almost everyone around him, including this writer, kicked against. As someone close to him, I sought a private audience with him, where I tried unsuccessfully to persuade him from returning to Maiduguri the next day. I advised he should stay for a few more days in Abuja to observe and monitor the development before returning to Maiduguri.
But he advanced strong arguments that left me shocked and speechless. He said, among other things, “Mallam Samaila (that’s what he calls me), it is better for me to be killed, serving my people, than for Maiduguri, with several internally-displaced persons, to fall to Boko Haram while I am away. That will amount to cowardice.”
Seeing his courage and determination to return, I prayed with him, and wished him well. By the next day, September 5, a day after he returned to Maiduguri, he addressed the citizens of the state through a state-wide broadcast and thereafter, moved round the city, the same way our security operatives carry out Show of Force, just to keep the spirit of the citizens alive, and to let them know he was not a runaway governor.
Before he left, he had pleaded with the wife to stay back in Abuja and prepare to cater for their kids in case anything happened to him. To our surprise, Hajiya Nana Shettima showed up in Maiduguri a day after the broadcast, apparently to demonstrate her willingness and readiness to go the whole hug with the husband in that emotionally trying time.
Earlier, in the same year, precisely in April, shortly after the Chibok abduction, she traveled to Chibok by road from Maiduguri at a time Boko Haram insurgents were burying mines on the road. That singular action made her the only woman in the corridors of power who had the courage to conquer the fears of landmines and travelled to Chibok by road at the time it was sacrilegious to do so.
While some other women may look forward to inheriting fortunes from their husbands, Hajiya Nana Shettima was ready to die for her husband. She has indeed proved to be a supportive woman.
Born to the family of Customs Officer Alhaji Usman Alkali and Hajiya Maryam Abubakar Albashir on July 22, 1975 in Kano State, the Kanuri-born Hajiya Nana is the third child of her father and the second child of her mother.
Like most kids back then, she began her education at the age of six, in an Islamiyya School in Maiduguri. She combined both the Western and Islamic education when she got enrolled in Lamisula 1 Primary School in Maiduguri in 1982 and obtained her First School Leaving Certificate six years later.
She thereafter proceeded to the Government Girl’s College, Maiduguri, from 1988 to 1993, and from there to the University of Maiduguri in 1997, where she obtained a B.A (Hons) in English Language. She got married to Kashim Shettima in 1998, and the marriage is blessed with three children. They are: Hajara, Amira, and Armir Shettima.
Hajiya Nana Shettima, may Allah’s love, favours, compassion, mercy, and blessings be upon you and your family today and forever. Amin.
