Aisha Alhassan


Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba is a Nigerian politician who was born on the 16 September 1959 in Jalingo, Taraba State. She resigned as the Minister of Women Affairs of Nigeria on July 27th, 2018. She was appointed in 2015 to the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari after his election. She was previously a Senator, representing Taraba North senatorial district of Taraba State, Nigeria which she won under the platform of the People's Democratic Party. She later decamped to the main opposition party All Progressive Congress and became the gubernatorial candidate of the party in Taraba State for the 2015 general elections. She was defeated in the election re-run held on 25 April 2015, but on 7 November 2015 tribunal removes Taraba Governor, Darius Ishaku,
declares Aisha Alhassan of the All Progressives Congress winner of April 11, 2015 poll, this was later reversed by the Appeal and Supreme Courts of Nigeria.

Early life and career

Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan is a Fulani. A lawyer by training, she became the first female to be appointed Taraba State Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice. The first woman to be appointed as Secretary FCT judicial council and later appointed the Chief Registrar of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on 17 December 2003. After she retired from service she went into business.

Political career

Senate

In the January 2011 PDP primaries, Jummai defeated the incumbent senator, former Ambassador Manzo Anthony.
In the 9 April 2011 elections, Jummai won 114,131 votes, followed by Jolly Nyame of the Action Congress of Nigeria with 92,004 votes.
She was one of four women elected on the PDP ticket, the others being Nkechi Nwaogu, Helen Esuene and Nenadi Usman.
Following the election, she was said to have been in competition for the Senate President seat.

Gubernatorial candidacy

Alhassan contested the 2015 elections under the Platform of the All Progressive Congress. She lost to the candidate of the People's Democratic Party Darius Ishaku.
In November 2015, she was declared the winner of April 2015 Taraba state gubernatorial election, and became the first woman in Nigeria to become a Governor. This judgement was later reversed by the Appeal Court, who stated that APC did not have jurisdiction over the primaries of PDP.
She recently resigned from her Federal appointment and decamped to UDP after she was screened out by the ruling party APC from contesting for the Governorship Seat. She was unanimously declared as the candidate for March 2019 Taraba State gubernatorial election under UDP, after the other candidate stepped down in her bid. She later announced her defection back to PDP after the governorship election, which was won again by Darius Ishaku of Peoples Democratic Party, as the Governor of Taraba State.
She is widely known as "Mama Taraba", because of her increased influence in the politics of her state.

Personal life

Aisha Jummai's elder brother is former Senator Abdulazeez Ibrahim from 1999-2007. She actively supports the Taraba State Football Association.