Daily Trust

Hadiza Bala Usman: What has changed?

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Ican remember vividly in 2011 when Congress for Progressiv­e Change (CPC) was formed and many young, vibrant and ambitious politician­s seized the opportunit­y and contested on its platform.

Hajiya Hadiza Bala Usman (Maigoyo as we popularly called her in our villages) was among the young and energetic new faces that appeared that time.

Like any politician she hinged her reasons to contest on her desire to help the people of Musawa/ Matazu Federal constituen­cy of Katsina State.

In particular, she had been lamenting about the deplorable state of women in our rural areas and was able to identify with their grievances and promised to come to their aid as soon as she was elected.

Among the grievances she promised to address were poverty amongst women, low girl-child school enrolment, unemployme­nt among those women who have been to school and many other.

The people of Musawa/Matazu showed her massive support and I believe Maigoyo herself will bear me witness, that women and young people had defied the calls of some radical Ulamas against voting a woman, and voted for her despite the opposition­s.

When Maigoyo was appointed Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, the people of Musawa/Matazu were very happy and their happiness was premised on the fact that a messiah has finally appeared.

To our surprise, the woman we have been praying for to reach higher positions in life so that we, the members of her community can benefit from what she has been promising us, has abandoned us.

We thought the reason she was not doing anything to help the plight of our young women who wanted to flourish like her but have no support and any other rural women empowermen­t, was because of her limited means and influence.

But it appears she developed thick ears that no voice can reach her and remind her of her village people.

Her posture towards us made us to start doubting the authentici­ty of some research conducted on dispositio­n to generosity between males and females. All the researches are pointing to the fact that women are more generous than men but in our community, with respect to her, the opposite is true.

We want remind Hajiya Hadiza that the horrible condition of women in that area of Musawa/ Matazu is still unchanged.

We have girls who want to be medical doctors, lawyers, accountant­s, administra­tors and or read so many other things in schools but cannot afford to go either because of financial constraint­s or because of misinforma­tion.

We still want to remind her about unemployed graduates from the community.

There are also older women who were trooping to come and see the almighty Maigoyo, the daughter of the famous and generous Bala Usman, when she made her grand appearance in 2011.

We want to remind her that her little gestures in the community will mean much to the members of the community and add to the legacy of generosity and openhanded­ness of her father (whose memory will never fade) in the community.

Stay blessed Ma.

Barr. Aminu Yahuza Marabar Musawa, aminuyahuz­a515@gmail.com

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