Born on the 1st of November, 1948 in Asaba, Delta State, the late Maryam Ndidi Babangida (nee Okogwu) was Nigeria’s First Lady between 1985-1993, and she remains the most flamboyant wife of any Nigerian head of state. More than any of her predecessors, Maryam Babangida radically transformed the role of the First Lady and turned it into an icon of elegance, style and fashion, which she maintained until her death from ovarian cancer on the 27th of December, 2009 at the age of 61 in the United States of America.
Her father, Leonard Nwanonye Okogwu was an Igbo man from Asaba while her mother was Hajiya Asabe Halima Mohammed, a Hausa woman from Niger State. Later, Maryam Babangida went to Kaduna after her primary education in Delta State where she attended the Queen Amina College in Kaduna. Later, she graduated as a Secretary at the Federal Training Centre, Kaduna and later bagged a diploma in secretaryship from the La Salle Extension University in Chicago then a Certificate in Computer Science from the NCR Institute in Lagos State.
On the 6th of September, 1969, she got married to Major Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida who would later emerge as a military president. Their marriage produced four children: Mohammed (M), Aisha (F), Aminu (M) and Halima (F).
Culled from Abiyamo
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