A teenager’s impression of Maryam Babangida

As it were, Amina’s book is not your conventional biography. Rendered in between the reported speech and the first person singular points of view, the author tells her story in a manner that the reader clearly discovers that Amina saw in the late First Lady a role model. For instance, in the initial chapter, tagged […]

As it were, Amina’s book is not your conventional biography. Rendered in between the reported speech and the first person singular points of view, the author tells her story in a manner that the reader clearly discovers that Amina saw in the late First Lady a role model.

For instance, in the initial chapter, tagged Profiling Maryam, the author wrote: “I was told that she listened, watched or read news items and stories about celebrated women and men in business, politics, religion, the military, government, entertainment and volunteer work. I was told that she chose her friends and had no qualms in cutting off from whoever presented any form of threat to what she has described as the vision hidden behind her ‘super bright’ eyes.” (Page 4)

Admitting that ‘she was told’ what she wrote about Maryam Babangida is a device by the author to distinguish between her personal interactions with the woman and hearsay – as a teenager writing the profile of  a woman who could be her mother. And in the second chapter entitled Maryam the Mother, Amina revealed the kind of emotion that motivated her to write the book.

She said, “She (Maryam) saw every El-Aminite as her special child and would always go out of her way, including standing up to one’s biological parents, to smother us with love and generous care as she deemed fit. She became a godmother to many homes of El-Aminites because of the passion with which we went home to talk about her and how, I suspect, we exasperated our parents when we compared their ‘maltreatment’ of us with how Mummy Maryam always right treated us. “ (Page 17)

In this way, young Amina gave the reader an insight into the various parts of the late First Lady’s life. The 12 chapters look variously at Profiling Maryam; Maryam the Mother; Maryam the Educationist; Maryam the Prayerful; Maryam the Organiser; The Fashionista; Maryam the Trouble Shooter; Maryam in Sickness; Mariamisms; Testimomaryams; and Interviews. The chapters are made lively with photographs which are allowed to breathe in colour.

After reading through this book, those who had not had a close relationship with the late Maryam Babangida would realise why she shone even unto death. On the other hand, those who had a close contact with her would be pleasantly reminded of what the late First Lady represented.

In a foreword written by Hajiya Zuwaira Gambo, the pioneer administrative secretary of Better Life Programme for the African Rural Woman, she said, “Amina captured in every sense of the word the person, the institution and the legend we all love and will continue to admire. The  presentation is done in such a manner that whether you knew Maryam or not, you will definitely come to understand and appreciate her. As a student of El-Amin International School, the writer, like her colleagues, saw late Dr (Mrs) Maryam Babangida as a mother, mentor and role model; an opinion the majority of the people who knew her held and continue to hold even after her death.”

Amina wrote this book at the age of 17 while in her final year at El-Amin International School, Minna. Her ambition was to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics in the United States. As a writer, this attempt and profiling the late Maryam Babangida is a very good start.