BREAKING: Ex-Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan is dead!

Former Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Jummai Alhassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba, has been declared dead in a hospital abroad, after battling a prolonged illness.

She died in a Cairo hospital, Egypt at the age of 61.

In the January 2011 PDP primaries, Jummai defeated the incumbent senator, former Ambassador Manzo Anthony.

Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba was a Nigerian politician who was born on the in Jalingo, Taraba State. She resigned as the Minister of Women Affairs of Nigeria on July 27, 2018. She was appointed in 2015 to the cabinet of President Muhammadu Buhari after his election.

Alhassan contested the Taraba 2015 governorship election under the Platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) but lost to incumbent Governor Darius Ishaku, who ran under the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Shortly after her loss, President Muhammadu Buhari named her Minister of Women Affairs.

In the 9 April 2011 elections, Aisha Jummai Al-Hassan won 114,131 votes, followed by Jolly Nyame of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) with 92,004 votes.

She was one of four women elected on the PDP ticket, the others being Nkechi Nwaogu (Abia Central), Helen Esuene (Akwa Ibom South) and Nenadi Usman (Kaduna South). Following the election, she was said to have been in competition for the Senate President seat.

Jummai’s elder brother is former Senator Abdulazeez Ibrahim from 1999-2007. While she was alive, she actively supported the Taraba State Football Association.