Maryam’s Death Rumour Spreads

Like a wild fire, rumours of the death of Maryam Babangida, wife of Nigeria’s former military dictator spread early today.

Family sources quickly scuppered the rumour as untrue and unfounded. Checks made by P.M.News debunked the rumours making the rounds on internet and in the newsrooms.

One family friend of the Babangidas told P.M.News, “I spoke with the General late last night when I first heard the rumour. And he said, there was nothing like that.” Another family source told P.M.News, “I called Maryam about 10:30 p.m. last night on her hospital bed. She was very much alive.”

The rumour about the death of the wife of the former military ruler, Ibrahim Babangida, appeared to have started on the internet social network, Facebook, where some loggers announced the lady dead.

Maryam, who was chairperson of the Better Life for Rural Women Programme, during her husband’s regime (1985-1993), is said to be on admission in a foreign hospital, battling cancer.

According to a newspaper report, she is receiving treatment for  ovarian cancer at the UCLA’s Johnsson Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, USA.

The report said the former First Lady’s condition deteriorated some months back and the  cancer was said to have reached an advanced stage a few days ago, prompting her husband to rush to meet her on her sick bed in the US.

Maryam was born in November in  1948 in Asaba, Delta State. She received her early education in this town on the bank of the Niger River, before moving up north to Queen Amina’s College, Kaduna for her secondary education. She went on to graduate as a Secretary at the Federal Training Centre, Kaduna and later obtained a diploma in secretaryship from Laselle University, Chicago, USA as well as a Certificate in Computer Science from the NCR Institute in Lagos.

She married  Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, then a Major, in 1969, when she was 21 years old. The marriage is blessed with four children: 2 boys, Mohammed and Aminu and two girls, Aisha and Halima.

By 1984, when her husband became the Chief of Army Staff , she became the President of the Nigerian Army Officers Wives Association (NAOWA). As first lady, 17 months after, she created the Better Life for Rural Women Programme, a controversial programme conceived to help rural women out of poverty.

When her husband quit office in 1993, Maryam retired to Minna, the Niger State capital to run an elite junior school, Al-Amin International School and a bakery.