Masha Allah, baarakAllah (A heartwarming tale)

I trudged into 2015 with the hangover of those tragedies, hoping that they will not be repeated in the new year and praying hard that the architects of our nation’s collective nightmare will be exposed and prosecuted within it. But just four days into the year, I spotted a silver lining; the beautiful and inspiring […]

I trudged into 2015 with the hangover of those tragedies, hoping that they will not be repeated in the new year and praying hard that the architects of our nation’s collective nightmare will be exposed and prosecuted within it. But just four days into the year, I spotted a silver lining; the beautiful and inspiring story of the Sa’idu Bala sisters. This heartwarming tale of four female siblings, beating all odds to study and become medical doctors, is a gloom-clearer any day.
And my heart was lifted immediately by it.
I am not exaggerating when I say it is the best Tambari magazine cover I have read since the pull-out was introduced, in Sunday Trust, several years ago. What made this story unique is the fact that this is a rare achievement anywhere in the world. No, it wouldn’t be the first time that more than one daughter gets to practice the noble profession of medicine, from the same family, in Northern Nigeria. We have the two Mairami sisters from Borno, the two Zayyan sisters from Katsina, the two Ibrahim Dan‘agundi sisters from Kano and the two Babangida Aliyu sisters from Niger, among others. But a record four sisters is something I’ve never encountered before last Tambari’s cover.
By their own admission they had their father’s maximum support and encouragement to study medicine. So the odds they surmounted were not so much the usual parental pressure to get married early, but making the required exam grades, remaining educationally focused and rising above societal expectations to diligently pursue their professional aspirations without letting that affect them.
I mean when you were born in Jakara Ward, in the heart of the ancient city of Kano, four to five decades ago, the priority was not to pursue western education to any great length. For boys it was to join the ancient commercial pursuits for which the area was well-known, and for girls the priority was grooming themselves to become the beautiful brides of such men. That both father and daughters defied such norms and contributed so well to boosting the nation’s medical personnel is a great feat indeed.
In his interview with Aminiya newspaper of yesterday, Alhaji Saidu Bala also corroborated that he defied societal norms by choosing the path he did for his daughters. He disclosed that his own mother was against him allowing his daughters to go so far without marriage and the people around him were amazed that he not only allowed his daughters western education but that he took them to St. Loius Secondary school, which was then a Catholic-owned institution.
Alhaji Sa’idu also told Aminiya that he was inspired to send his daughters to school by his close associates Professor Shehu Galadanci and Dr. Hassan Gwarzo, whose own daughters were all in pursuit of western education at the time. Additionally, he admitted that some of the hiccups he encountered in life due to lack of western education, made him vow to see that all his children were well educated.
Born in 1928 at Makwarari quarters, also in the ancient city, Alhaji Saidu had taught in a western-type school, the School for Arabic Studies Kano. He did not receive any formal training in western education as a young boy though, he became literate in the Roman script after he enrolled in an adult education programme in 1955.
Before then he was an Islamic scholar, who was well versed in the knowledge of the Holy Qur’an and Arabic. He was also a businessman and a politician, whose activism dated right back to the days of NEPU in the First Republic.
To us journalists, the only way to counter negative publicity is always to promote the positive. At a time when this part of the country is making daily headlines for all the wrong reasons, a story like that of Alhaji Sa’idu Bala’s daughters should be told again and again in order to inspire others and to counter the negative view of women’s treatment associated with Northern Nigeria.
According to Sir Ahmadu Bello, the first Premier of the defunct Northern region, ‘It used to be generally considered as improper for one to blow one’s own trumpet. But the fact has emerged and been demonstrated time and again that nowadays if you do not blow your own trumpet, nobody will blow it for you – for the simple reason that they are too busy blowing theirs.’ He said these momentous words when inaugurating the New Nigerian newspaper on the 1st of January 1966.
And for this reason, I dare to say we should celebrate the Sa’idu Bala Sisters, whose story isn’t just a source of personal pride to their family or Kano state, but is a redeeming feature for the old North, which today suffers from so much negative coverage. As some of us might have read last week, Dr, Sa’adatu is the eldest of them.
A mother of three and a grandmother to two, Sa’adatu, is a public health expert with special emphasis on HIV/AIDS management. Born in 1965, Sa’adatu did her first medical degree at the University of Sokoto, now Usman Danfodio University, and is currently doing her Ph.D in Public Health at a South African University in Western Cape. She heads the Kano state Agency for the control of AIDS, SACA.
She is followed by Dr Rakiya Sa’idu Bala who is a senior lecturer at the University of Illorin Teaching Hospital. Rakiya had her first degree at Universities of Sokoto and Maiduguri and did her master’s at the University of Liverpool, England. A mother of four, Rakiya is married to the Emir of Shonga Dr. H N Yahaya, a fellow medical doctor from Kwara state. She is currently undergoing training in Gynaecology oncology and pursuing a Ph D in Gynaecology from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
The next doctor in this family of amazing achievers is Dr Hadiza Sa’idu Bala. A cardiologist who works at the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital in Kano, Hadiza is also a lecturer at the Bayero University, where she teaches medical students at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. She has been married to her cousin, an accountant, for the last 18 years and they have children. A favorite with her students, Dr. Hadiza was recently honoured with a plaque by the Medical Students Association, as the lecturer whose classes they enjoyed most.
Next in line is Dr Aisha Sa’idu Bala. The youngest and last of the four daughters (their remaining five siblings are male) Aisha is a radiologist at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. She studied medicine at the Bayero University Kano and graduated in 2004. She told Tambari that she decided to study radiology because there were too few females in that field though there are certain investigations that are best carried out by a female. Aisha is a married mother of two.
I do not need to say more to have you agree that these ladies have done their nation proud. Even more is their Octogenarian father who defied all societal expectations in order to let his girls achieve their dreams. If there is an award out there for ‘father of the decade’ (the year seems too small for what he managed to accomplish) I would nominate him for it. But since there isn’t, I can only hope that many more fathers will arise like him, who will give their daughters all the support they need to become role models in our society.