Erelu Aisha Babangida, the beautiful first daughter of former military Head-Of-State, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (retd) and his late wife, Maryam, is now 50 years old.
Aisha, who is known to live a conservative life, had a low key birthday because of the global pandemic, COVID:19.
She celebrated with family and friends on Monday May 25, 2020 in Minna the Niger State capital.
An achiever who has decided to demonstrate the history of working within philanthropy and helping underserved communities throughout Nigeria, she is the Chairman of the Better Life Program for the African Rural Woman. Her late mum worked previously as the chairman and founder.
Aisha’s first married Basheer Nalabo Garba, a relative of the Abachas, in 2003, only for them to separate three years later. Undeterred by that bitter experience, and determined to emulate the happy marriage of her father and late mother, Aisha again ventured into matrimony, this time in the perilous pond of polygamy. She married then Zamfara governor Aliyu Shinkafi as his third wife. By the time it dawned on her that the more is not always merrier in marriage, she had already packed her bags and rejoined the singles club.
Scarred by those experiences, Aisha put the brakes to further thoughts of marriage. Never again, she vowed would she be wholly tethered to a man’s apron strings. She reinvented herself with a vengeance, becoming the entrepreneur and people’s advocate she was always meant to be.
She resuscitated the Better Life for the African Rural Women programme which had been left moribund after her mother’s demise. She weeded the organization of the wealth-sapping leeches solely there to feed off the Babangidas and transformed the organization into a committed champion of the rural African woman. She is focused on empowering the African Woman and preparing the next generation of female leaders. Aisha loves uplifting lives with adult literacy programmes, skills acquisition and financial literacy which are all offered through the program
While others like to focus their activism on the mainstream, cerebral Aisha prefers to focus on the road less travelled and the people less represented. Little wonder she launched Egwafin Microfinance Bank. An offspring of her dreams of financial inclusion for all, the Abuja-based bank is a popular source of funding and financing to lower income classes.
Aisha is the founder of Tasnim Foundation, a charity based organisation providing scholarship to young girls in rural areas to encourage the girl child education. They also provide medical equipment and some medications to hospitals in order to improve public health. Through the program, Aisha Babangida provides succour for displaced citizens. As part of her mission to expose children to more education opportunities, the foundation is building small schools in rural areas and rehabilitating orphanages.
Aisha earlier in the year, hosted past First Ladies and the present First Lady of Nigeria, Her Excellency, Aisha Buhari, to mark the 10th anniversary of the demise of her mum, former First Lady, Maryam Babangida