An unforgettable hour with late Shagari’s wife, daughters

Since the death of former President Shehu Shagari, his wives and daughters have been very quiet. So, when Daily Trust Saturday met one of his wives and some of the daughters, it
was an unforgetable encounter indeed.

Hajiya Hauwa Shagari said she got married to the former president at a very early age based on Fulani tradition but could not remember the number of years they spent together.

She said Shagari already had two wives when they got  married the wives, especially the first, treated her like their own child.

“She was very kind to me and guided me in discharging my duties as a wife without jealousy. That was how we lived together peacefully,” she said.

She said Shagari was very kind to every member of his family, and always avoided anything that would offend any of his wives.

“I can’t remember having any quarrel with him, neither did he do anything to offend me. He was the nicest husband that any woman would wish to have. He treated us justly and the same,” she said.

Hauwa described Shagari or Malam as he was fondly called by members of his family, as humble, good mannered and religious, always praying to Allah to forgive his shortcomings and reward his good deeds with Jannatul Firdaus.

“Malam advised us to be patient and stand on our own and maintain relationships,” she said.

She added amid tears that she would continue to remember him because of the good times they had  together.

Late Shagari’s daughter, Hajiya Hauwa Kulluwa, was  among those who stayed with him until his last moments at the National Hospital, Abuja.

She said, “I was always with him during the day to feed him before going home at night. I was also lucky to be around when he was dying while I was reciting Ayatul Kursiyu and Kalimatul Shahada and at the same time rubbing cold water on his face. Alhamdulillah, he uttered the Shahadat and died.”

She described her father as a special person because he died peacefully.

“I had seen people dying but I had never seen such a peaceful death. Before he died he was breathing heavily because he suffered from a pneumonia-like disease, but this stopped, including other pains at the last moment of his life and he died peacefully.”

She described her late father as soft-minded, and that was why he left her under the care of his youngest sister in the village.

Kuluwa, who is called Yar’magaji (daughter of his eldest brother who sent him to school) by her father, said she was the 10th in the family and the first of his daughters to obtain first and second degrees and took after him in the teaching profession.

She recalled how she was scolded by her father when house keeping money was used for her clothes during their stay in Dodan Barracks.

“He was very annoyed and scolded me for that. He even queried the house keeper. He warned us that if we wanted anything we should go to him to give us money from his pocket,” she said.

According to her, the former president never bought a car or secured a job for any of his children.

“He was just a reserved person who always wanted his children to stand on their own.”

Kuluwa who is married to a former Minister of Water Resources, Mukhtari Shagari, disclosed her plan to keep the legacy of her father alive, especially the Shagari Institute which he initiated and the Islamiyya School he built.

She described her father as a philanthropist and promised to continue with some of the good things he did. She prayed Allah to grant him Jannatul Fisdaus.

Another of the former president’s daughters, Zuwaira, said her father was very kind to his daughters and always advised them to be patient in their matrimonial homes.

“When his daughter was getting married, he  would get a piece of paper and write all over it ‘patience, patience and patience’ this is what has been keeping many of us in our matrimonial homes because any time I am offended by my husband I bring that paper out and read it.”

Zuwaira who said she lost her mother at the age of nine, recalled how her father refused to remove them from a public school after becoming president.

“He became president when I was in JSS 2 at Government Girls Secondary School, Sokoto, with two of my sisters. One day, we met him and pleaded with him to change our school because we felt it was not fit for daughters of the president, but he said we were not better than the children of other people attending the school,” she said.

She also reccalled how he refused to assist her get a job through his ministers which he said was not in his character.

“There was even a time he warned against buying flight tickets for more than three of his family members who were coming to Sokoto for holidays, she said.”

According to Zuwaira, they were treated like other students in school. She  remembered how one of their senior students, used to bring her dirty plates and insisted that they must be washed by the president’s daughters.

She said they never had the privileges that children of today’s presidents enjoy, adding that they travelled abroad only once when their father was president.

She said the way he advised them to be humble, religious, generous and be on their own without depending on anybody was something she would not forget.

“He forced us to learn to write sentences in Ajami (Arabic letters) because when he was in detention, he sent a letter to his family which he wrote in Arabic and warned that every one of us should read it. That instruction was what made many of us to learn how to write in Arabic.”

She described his death as a great loss not only to the family but to all Nigerians because the vacuum would be very difficult to fill.

Hadiza Mukhtar Shagari, the daughter of a former Minister of Water Resources and one of the granddaughters of the former president, said she would not  forget how they used to  meet him in his farm on weekends during their holidays in Sokoto.

“We would go round the farm, ride horses, come back and surround him and he would tell us stories about his past while we  drank fura,” she said.

Hadiza  said her grandfather was someone they always  looked up to.

“When we were very young we were always told and taught about what he did. So we always knew that he did so many good things in his life and we try to emulate him.”

She said some of the lessons she learned from her late grandfather were his humility, what he stood for and everything he did saying he would remain unforgettable.

She said the last time she saw him was in Abuja in 2018 when he was travelling to Germany and that they drank tea together and took photographs.