MEET THE WOULD-TO-BE WOMEN MINISTERS

On Tuesday, October 13, Senate President Bukola Saraki read the names of the second batch of ministerial nominees.

President Muhammadu Buhari sent the second list on Monday, 12 days after sending the first batch to the Senate president.

Just like the first list of ministerial nominees, only three women made it to the second list which contains 16 names.

They are Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna, Aisha Abubakar and Khadija Buka Abba-Ibrahim.

1. Zainab Ahmed Shamsuna

She hails from Kaduna state and holds a B. Sc degree in Accounting from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and an MBA in Business Administration. She is a member of Association of National Accountants of Nigeria and Fellow, Institute of Certified Company Commercial Accountants of Nigeria among other professional organisations. She was a former managing director of Kaduna Industrial and Finance Company. Shamsuna was appointed as the executive secretary of Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) in 2010. She was acting Chief Finance Officer of the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Ltd (MTEL).

Report has it that she is the daughter of Yahaya Hamza, the foster father of Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state.


2. Aisha Abubakar

Aisha Abubakar
The Sokoto-born Aisha had her secondary school education at Queens College, Lagos, between 1978 –1984. She holds a bachelor’s degree in politics and international studies from the University of Warwick (1987 – 1990), and a master’s degree in development studies, University of Leeds (1990 – 1991), both in England. She was the principal manager II at the African International Bank (1998 – 1999); senior bilateral cooperation officer, African Development Bank, Abidjan, Ivory Coast (1993 – 1997).

She has over 20 years of experience in banking and investment, rural enterprise development and microcredit administration, international development, policy analysis and business support. Before her name was announced by the Senate on Tuesday as a ministerial nominee, she was the director of pension transitional arrangement directorate. She was also the managing director/CEO, Abuja Enterprise Agency, between February 2014 and June 2015.



Aisha is the daughter of Alhaji Abubakar Alhaji, who once served as minister of finance and also high commissioner to the UK, and was at some point one of the most influential Nigerians from the Sokoto caliphate, especially in the military era.

Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim



Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim
Born on January 6, 1967, Ibrahim is one of the wives of a former governor of Yobe state, Senator Bukar Abba-Ibrahim. She attended Headington School, Oxford, Padworth College, and the University of Surrey (BSc Business Studies and Sociology, 1989), all in the UK. She is a current member of the House of Representatives for Damatura/Gujba/Gulani/Tarmuwa in Yobe state, under the platform of the All Progressives Congress.

Khadija was a former commissioner for transport in the Northeast state. She was elected into the House of Representatives thrice.


She is the daughter of the late leader and presidential standard bearer of the defunct Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP), Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim.