I was the first best female actress in the history of Nigeria when NTA started movie competition, which put NTA Kaduna in second place. I think it was from there that all these Nigerian movies started. I was the first female international broadcaster and news editor to read Hausa news in the Voice of America (VOA). I was honoured in Washington DC on 29th January, 2009 in a grand ceremony because of that feat. I felt great for another country to remember me. Actually, I never knew I was the first.
I was given the VOA appointment in 1976, immediately after finishing my secondary school and not long ago I started working with the NTA, but I rejected it. Then I wasn’t married. I decided to get married first before going to the US. It was in 1980 that I took the VOA job. I thought there were some other people before I came, but there was not. That was how God wanted it. I worked in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), London. I and our royal father in Funtua, Alhaji Mainasara Idris started the programme, Dan Arewa in London, then both of us were students. The programme was about getting people to settle when they arrive in London from Nigeria.
After my studies in London, I was offered a job at the BBC television but I had to reject it because I wanted to come back to the country and share what I had learnt from overseas. When I came back, it was not easy. There was a lot of envy and things were made very difficult for me. I was surprised, because I was young and talented and I was stuffed with a lot of ideas. I designed a logo for the Kaduna Trade Fair at 14. I remembered that I was 14 years-old when I designed the concept of the first International Trade Fair, Kaduna. That was also the same time that I started working with the NTA. They are still using that concept up till today. I designed the logo and created and brought those Fulani women. In fact, I did everything free. People like Alhaji Garba Bawa have been encouraging.
In BCNN, we worked in both
