Maryam Babangida
Update: Maryam Babangida is alive
Unconfirmed reports say Maryam Babangida, Nigeria’s former First Lady is dead. The fomer chairperson of the Better Life for Rural Women during her husband’s years in office, had been hospitalised for ovarian cancer at the UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center in Los Angeles.
Mrs. Babaginda’s condition worsened about six months ago after she attended the wedding of Umaru Yar’Adua’s daughter, Nafisat, who married the 54 -year old governor of Bauchi State.
General Babangida, the retired ex-dictator was granted a US visa on compassionate grounds to be at the bedside of his wife, till her death.
Her cancer had reached an advanced stage. Update: Checks made by Elombah.com seems to suggest that Mrs Maryam Babangida is still alive. Our source in the United States called earlier this morning with the news of her demise.
Prior to publication we discovered the news was already making the rounds in Newsrooms and on the internet. However, a family source says, “She is still alive but her health deteriorated sharply and her condition is really precarious. she might go any time”
Maryam Babangida, former First Lady of Nigeria and Chairperson for the Better Life for Rural Woman, remains the toast of Nigerian women even in her advanced years. She is one of the most glamorous and most photographed first ladies in Nigeria’s history.
Full of zest, she became a recurring decimal in top-rate state and social functions within and outside Nigeria.
Mrs. Babangida as wife of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who was the nation’s president between 1985 and 1993 was the first wife of a Nigerian president to make the position of a first lady a powerful one.
She started the office of the first lady and added glamour to it.
Latest Update:
The family of former Military President Ibrahim Babangida says Maryam Babangida is alive. The family made the clarification in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja in reaction to a rumour making rounds that the former First Lady is dead.
The statement, signed by Ibrahim Ismail, Special Assistant to the former president, described the rumour as “untrue, cruel and malicious. “The IBB family wishes to assure Nigerians and well wishers all over the world that the matriarch of the family Hajiya Maryam Babangida is alive and not dead.
“We wish to state unequivocally that the rumour which says she passed on at a Hospital oversea was a calculated attempt to create mischief.
“Albeit, the power to give life or take life belongs to Allah. As people of faith, the Babangida family believe that at the appointed time, every soul shall revert to its creator, it said.
“We would like to use this medium to thank all the people who have communicated with the family to ascertain the true position of Hajiya, it added
www.elombah.com