Who Becomes Nigeria’s First Lady: Patience Or Aisha?

Although the Nigerian constitution does not recognize the office of the First Lady which is a title for the spouse of the head of state or president of Nigeria, the office has remained one of the most funded and staffed since independence and the First Lady is addressed by the title Her Excellency.

Our beloved country has enjoyed the presence of several first ladies since independence when the late Maryam Babangida, wife of Nigeria’s military president from 1985 to 1993, General Ibrahim Babagida, began the (First Lady) trend. As first lady, she launched many programmes to improve the lives of women. The “Maryam Phenomenon” became a celebrity and “an icon of beauty, fashion and style,” a position she retained after her husband’s fall from power.

When her husband became Head of State in 1985, Maryam Babangida moved into Dodan Barracks in Lagos. She was said to have arranged for considerable renovations to make the rooms more suitable for formal receptions. As First Lady of Nigeria between 1985 and 1993, she turned the ceremonial post into a champion for women’s rural development. She founded the Better Life Programme for Rural Women in 1987, which launched co-operatives, cottage industries, farms and gardens, shops and markets, women’s centres and social welfare programmes. The Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development was established in 1993 for research, training, and to mobilise women towards self-emancipation.

She also established a glamorous persona. Talking about the opening of the seven-day Better Life Fair in 1990, one journalist said “She was like a Roman empress on a throne, regal and resplendent in a stone-studded flowing outfit that defied description…” Women responded to her as a role model, and her appeal lasted long after her husband fell from power.