Pascal Arogorn Ibe
Former Minister of Women Affairs of Nigeria, Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba is dead.
Her media aide, Bala Maina, confirmed the incident to Channels Television via the telephone on Friday.
The ex-minister was said to have passed away at an undisclosed hospital in Cairo, Egypt.
She was 61 years old.
Al-Hassan was appointed the Minister of Women Affairs by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
She, however, resigned her position on July 27, 2018 and thereafter dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) for the United Democratic Party (UDP) where she emerged as the party’s governorship candidate in the 2019 general elections in Taraba State.
The ex-Minister however lost to the incumbent, Governor Darius Ishaku who ran for a second term in office under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Prior to her ministerial appointment, Al-Hassan was a former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria representing the Taraba North Senatorial District under the PDP.
Governor of Taraba State, Arc Darius Dickson Ishaku reacted to Alhassan’s death on Friday.
He said he received the news with deep shock.
Gov Ishaku described Aisha Alhassan as a woman of great courage, noting that her death was a personal loss for him.
He said he and Alhassan had enjoyed a robust political relationship and had kept in touch even while both of them contested for the same seat of Governor of Taraba State from different political platforms in 2015 and 2019.
A press statement by the Governor’s media aide Bala Dan-Abu described Alhassan as an asset, one which death has robbed Taraba State and Nigeria of.
He added that as minister of Women Affairs, Alhassan contributed immensely towards social and political emancipation of women.
He urged her family to take solace in the fact that Alhassan lived a life of service to humanity and prayed God to grant her soul eternal rest.
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