Speeches
Her Excellency wife of the Executive Governor of Borno State Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff was born on the 22 June 1964 into the family of the Late renowned Agriculturalists Dr Mohammet Lawan and Hajja Halima Lawan.
Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff attended the Shehu Garbai Primary School, the then Government Girls Secondary School, Maiduguri and the Ramat Polytechnic Maiduguri between the early seventies to early eighties. Having majored in Business Management, Her Excellency did a stint with the BRTV but later resigned to devote her time completely to her husband and children.
Her sterling qualities stands her out wherever she goes and is an exhibition of what and how human beings should relate to each other. She opitomises beauty, brains and brawn. She is hardworking, kind and compassionate, resilient, a dogged fighter and a firm believer of what her husband is and stands for.
She believes that women are an integral part of nationhood and nation building without which no nation can progress. And thus to her, their economic empowerment is the first step towards getting them fully involved in policy or decision making one would say governance.
While her husband engages in the business of governance for the people of his state, she singled out women and children to impact their lives positively. Her reason was informed by the firm conviction that if the woman and her child are happy the father is fulfilled. This is moreso when one looks at the impact of poverty, insecurity, hunger, war, famine and diseases on women and children who are always worst hit.
She singled them out and in every sense of the word for the past four years she has consistently impacted their lives positively in the areas of health, social welfare and education among others.
A few landmarks include the Fatima Ali Sheriff VVF Complex renovated, constructed and fully equipped by her, the Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff Free Maternal Health Care Centre, which has reduced the high incidence of maternal deaths to the barest minimum as women have access to free maternal services right from conception to delivery , up to 6 weeks after delivery.
Water was made available to women in the rural areas as she singled out remote areas in the state and sunk boreholes; free drugs for deworming children were provided, while the mobilisation and sensitisation of our people were carried out by her being in the forefront of the fight against Polio myliatis and HIV/AIDS. Being the chairman of BOSACA she has not relented in fighting against stigmatisation and the spread through campaigns. Indigent sick people of the state be it women, children, youths and even men have benefited from her kind gesture. Mrs Sheriff has also distributed loans worth over N 65 million to women in the state to make them self reliant, while skills acquisition materials and poverty alleviation materials were distributed to assist our women.
And here is the big one for which we are all gathered here today. She has proved to be one of the greatest mobilisers of our times. Her exploits can best be likened to that of Queen Amina of Zazzau. Queen Amina was in the battlefield fighting the enemies of her people while Her Excellency is in the battle trenches of Borno politics selling the candidacy of her husband Senator Dr. Ali Modu Sheriff whom she strongly believes needed to continue with the good work he started four years ago.
The approach she adopted in the battle arena of politics was three pronged, all encapsulated in information dissemination. No wonder many attributed her success in political mobilisation to her great skills in communication. They include:
- Printing: She is the publisher of the Beacon Magazine and where information are disseminated. The electronic and print media was also utilised to the fullest.
- Seminars and Workshops, Conferences, Talk shows e.t.c. are also used to pass information.
- Inter personal communication; meeting the people at their door steps and talking to them on one to one basis.
To effectively carryout her strategy for the mass mobilisation of women to participate actively in politics, a political retreat for women from the grassroots and all other stakeholders was organised by Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff where women were enlightened on the need to register for parties of their choice, seek elective positions, register and cast their votes. Wives of council chairmen were also directed to organise same at the local government levels.
All these have proved very effective going by the large turn out of women whose numbers were in most cases more than men’s that came for the April 2007 polls. Infact in the political calculations of Borno, for one to be a winner in any election in Borno particularly the Gubernatorial, you must win the heart beat of Borno hands down - talking about MMC and Jere. With the belief and confidence in her political prowess and her mastery of communication skills, her husband decided to handover MMC and Jere to her to campaign and fight the battle to the finish. She set up the Fatima Ali Sheriff Support Group for SAS 2007 and for two months day in day out, be it at night, morning, under the scorching hot sun the group spearheaded by her went all out to meet the people on their doorsteps. Among members of these group there was neither complaints nor bickering as everyone went out with a singleness of purpose and with one accord to sell SAS for re-election. When the polls started rolling in at the INEC collation centre, the battle was over. MMC and Jere were won with a landslide victory while other local governments followed suit. The Jinx has been broken. In fact the success was attributed to a large extent to Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff’s campaign efforts. Hear His Excellency; “My wife has really changed the face of politics in Borno State… if I would handover Jere and MMC which are two of the largest Local Government Areas in the state to my wife it shows the level of confidence I have in her ability to support me and get the desired results. Because of her drive to bring every woman on the side of her husband by ensuring that every woman in Borno State is politically aware, we have no reason why additional women would not play key roles in government”. It is instructive to note that never in the history of voting in Borno have women turned out en masse to cast their votes for a candidate. From Abadam to Kaga, Kukawa to Hawul, Shani to Mobbar, Konduga to Bayo the story was all the same.
The clincher - To her credit, we have eighty seven female councillors, 3 Vice Chairmen, 1 chairman, 3 commissioners, 4 Special Advisers, 3 SSAs, 3 GMs, Permanent Secretaries, Permanent Commissioners in the Civil Service and Local Government Service Commission, Ministerial Secretaries you name it. Believe you me never in the history of governance in Borno or any other state of the federation has women had it so good.
The credit goes directly to the political dexterity of Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff who in her wisdom worked tirelessly day and night to mobilise women. Hence one can confidently say without any fear of contradiction that it is only through the effective courage and love for the womenfolk that Her Excellency was able to win the heart of the Governor Ali Modu Sheriff’s administration to consider women for such Political positions. Borno women have indeed arrived. The credit goes to Mrs Sheriff. It is worthy of note also that Mrs Fatima Sheriff have received many awards which include the 2005 “Women of Achievement Award” by the American Biographical Institute for her outstanding contributions to humanity and steering leadership qualities, the “African Heroine Award” (TAHA) by Vision African Magazine for her numerous achievements on the area of social welfare, the “African Meritious Services Award for Good Conduct” by the African International Magazine, WOTCLEF award for her contributions to the success of the International Conference on the African Woman and Gender Development was honoured with a plaque by the Borno Women’s League in recognition of her contributions to the welfare of women and children in Borno State.
Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff was also selected as one of the twenty outstanding wives in Nigeria for the year 2005 by the Vanguard Media Ltd during the celebration of that year’s Mother’s day.
She was similarly given the West African Patriotic Leadership Award for being an embodiment of discipline, steadfastness, hard work, courage, integrity and farsightedness. The award is also in recognition of her immeasurable contributions to stability, social, economic and political development of Nigeria and Africa by the African Voice Magazine.
She has also been admitted as patron of the African International Cultural Foundation aimed at the propagation of African culture and other ideals of the Black Race. Other nominations from the international community include an Honorary Fellow of the America Biographical Institute, 2006 Edition of Great Women of the 21st century of the American Biographical Institute while the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge England nominated Mrs Sheriff for its Degree of Excellence 2006.
She receives a Distinguished Merit Award from the Institute of Corporate Executives of Nigeria and a n award for her support to the National Council for Women Societies (NCWS) and deep concern for the needy, champion of Humanitarian Service Award by National Association of Patent and Proprietary Medicine Dealers as well as an award by the Sanda Kyarimi primary School for her immunization campaigns among many others.
Since her assumption of duty as the First Lady of Borno State, Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff has been appointed in various capacities. She is presently the National Patron Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) and Patron of many Non-Governmental Organisations in the state including the National Council for Women Societies (NCWS), Federation of Muslim Women’s Association of Nigeria (FOMWAN), Women Rights Advancement Protection Alternative (WRAPA), Female Medical Doctors’ Association, female Legislators’, Legislators’ Wives and female Legislative Staff Association, Grand Matron Da’awah Irshad Women Organisation, Chief Matron and member Nigeria Peace Corps, member National Women Peace Envoy and State Chief Social mobilizer for NPI, State Women Trafficking and child labour foundation (WOTCLEF) among others.
Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Her Excellency, wife of the Executive Governor of Borno State, Mrs Fatima Ali Sheriff for the award of the Great Political Achiever of year 2007 and her investiture as Grand Ambassador of Nigerian Students.
