Hajiya Ramatu Ali Ohioma (1958-2025): Exit of a courageous and versatile female journalist

This week recorded some deaths, including that of a journalist, Hajia Ramatu Ali Ohioma and former Comptroller General of the Nigeria Custom Service, Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha. Hajiya Ramatu Ali Ohioma, who shocked friends and family members with the surreptitious way she left Mother Earth on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, was an uncommon female journalist. Ranked […]

This week recorded some deaths, including that of a journalist, Hajia Ramatu Ali Ohioma and former Comptroller General of the Nigeria Custom Service, Ahmed Aliyu Mustapha.

Hajiya Ramatu Ali Ohioma, who shocked friends and family members with the surreptitious way she left Mother Earth on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, was an uncommon female journalist. Ranked among the second-generation journalists of northern extraction, Hajiya Ramatu shattered glass doors and windows in the profession to abridge what may be considered a distinction between male and female roles in the newsroom. Her colleagues at the New Nigerian Newspaper in Kaduna cannot forget the active roles she played in both the editorial and business departments of the famous newspaper.

Hajiya Ramatu enlisted in journalism by choice, not by chance. After she graduated from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, in 1983, she secured a comfortable job at the Benue State House of Assembly as a clerk. But her passion for journalism and writing was too strong to endure the drudgery of moving files from one desk to another. She studied English Language and Literature at a time when the two courses prepared graduates for positions in the newsroom. In no time, she abandoned her job at the legislature in Benue State and took up an appointment at the New Nigerian Newspaper in Kaduna in 1985.

She began her journalism career as a proofreader, but quickly advanced to become a Sub-Editor, News Editor, Women’s Editor, Marketing Manager, and Associate Editor. Between these roles, Hajiya Ramatu was posted to Maiduguri in Borno State in 1990 as the state correspondent, from where she regularly made the front page of the authoritative newspaper with her exclusive and human-interest stories. Writing about her experience as the state correspondent, Ramatu reminisces thus: “Those who came to my office at Maiduguri found it difficult to believe a woman could be a state correspondent. Some men who came to see the reporter turned back in annoyance on setting eyes on me. In their conservative environment and chauvinist mindset, such jobs are for the male fold. But I weathered the storm and carried out my assignments effectively as the only female among male reporters touring local government areas in the governor’s entourage. Then the workaholic Brigadier-General Buba Marwa was the military governor, and the rural tours to far-flung desert areas in harsh weather conditions associated with the state were frequent.”

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Hajiya Ohioma would later be posted to Jos, Plateau State, as a Bureau Chief, in charge of the Plateau, Benue, and Kogi states. For over three years, she supervised the work of reporters in the three North-Central States and, on several occasions, travelled to locations to carry out in-depth reporting for the New Nigerian Newspapers. At a point in her career as Women Editor, Hajiya Ramatu carried out extensive research into the reproductive rights condition of women in Kaduna State. The report revealed the difficulties pregnant women were exposed to due to gender norms in society. She wrote thus: “The women disclosed that [when in labour] they had to wait for their husbands to arrive and take them to the hospital since there were no traditional birth attendants in the localities.”

One unique impact Hajiya Ramatu left on the New Nigerian Newspaper was her consistency in writing a column every Tuesday. She was once a member of the editorial board of the Daily Trust. Contrary to the assumption that women columnists must confine themselves to issues such as fashion, modelling, reproductive health, and entertainment, Hajiya Ramatu delved into complex issues and commented intelligently on them regularly for about a decade. She wrote about the economy, politics, policies, health, education, foreign affairs, personalities, history, science, women’s issues, and children’s rights. The articles have been compiled into a book titled “Issues and People” by Ramatu Ali Ohioma, published by Kraft Books Limited, Ibadan, in 2011.

The Executive Editor of Newswatch magazine, Mr Yakubu Mohammed, who wrote the foreword for Issues and People, commended the work. He wrote, “Like all good writers, her views on matters concerning education, politics, and even the economy are analytical and thoughtful, and they were presented in such a simple manner that a reader from any background, be it a university don or school pupil, will gain something.

For Hajiya Ramatu, death came like a thief in the night. My last encounter with her showed that she was very healthy. In the previous year, she had been preoccupied with the research for her doctoral thesis in the Department of Political Science at Nasarawa State University. She channelled her energy into the tedious project, reading academic papers, writing and presenting seminar papers, and conducting interviews for her PhD thesis. In July 2025, Hajiya Ramatu and I drove around Abuja to scout for a publisher for a book she has been working on. She did not show signs of any serious illness that would lead to her demise. Death is truly a mystery.

Born on December 29, 1958, Hajiya Ramatu Ohioma is survived by her husband, Chief Abdullahi Ohioma, many children, and siblings. As the saying goes, “Death smiles at us all; all we can do is smile back.”

 

Dr Theophilus Abbah is the Programme Director of the Daily Trust Foundation.