I love the adrenaline that comes with exams, says Musawa, Fulani woman with six degrees, aiming for 10

Hannatu Musawa, a lawyer and Newspaper Columnist is the Deputy Spokesperson of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Presidential Campaign Council, PCC. She holds a degree in law from the University of Buckingham, UK, and took a Postgraduate Masters Degree in the Legal Aspects of Marine Affairs from the University of Cardiff, Wales. She also has a Postgraduate Masters Degree in Oil and Gas Law from the University of Aberdeen. She is completing a Doctorate, which she has been doing part time.

From 2003, she has been an active political activist. She fully participated in the political activities of the opposition during the 2003 and 2007 Nigerian elections. She has been one of the lawyers on the legal team of then General Muhammadu Buhari.

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With six degrees in her kitty, Hannatu is on the verge of getting her seventh degree and says her aim is to acquire 10 degrees.

 In this interview, she speaks on how northern women have converted their socio-cultural challenges to political strength, how father’s can shape their daughters and her uncanny interest in politics.

You are a lawyer, columnist, politician and women rights advocate. What drives your interests? 

I am from Katsina state. My father is Alhaji Musa Musawa, a seasoned politician in the northern part of the country. He is of the Aminu Kano school of political thought and was part of the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) back in Kano. Mallam Aminu Kano was my godfather so obviously growing up I saw my father in this kind of role as a radical and then seeing Aminu Kano, of course you grow up with this mindset, the sort of way that he thinks. 

My father was a great feminist. Even though we are from Katsina which is a conservative part of the country it was always a matter of, as a woman you have that opportunity or you can do whatever a man can do. My father was also in the foreign service so he was posted to different parts of the world so because of the stability that was needed for the family, he took us to the UK when I was five years old with my siblings and we went to school there.

I started my legal career quite early but even with that I always felt there was something missing and I felt it wasn’t enough. I really wanted to do something more. In 1999 when the fourth republic (started) I had interest in this new found democracy. I have always seen my father from early age, of course we had military rule so I always had interest.

It was in 2002 when President Muhammadu Buhari declared himself as an aspirant and because I had grown up also with Muhammadu Buhari as another father, we all were from Katsina but I sort of grew up in Kaduna. Even though I was in the UK we were always coming to Kaduna. So I knew him, I knew his children; they were my very close friends, his wife was my mother as well. When I was getting married he was one of the fathers who gave me out.

So, I joined his political movement in late 2002 and there were very few of us women from the north; Sadiya Umar Farouk who is the current Humanitarian Affairs Minister was one of the leaders.

Along the way in 2011 or 2010, I got a call from the inner caucus of President Buhari and they said to me that the new party, CPC why can’t you come and contest? I said no, I am not really interested in contesting but they said you keep on writing your columns, every day, you are trying to fight for the masses or whatever you are fighting for but if you are in the National Assembly, especially as a lawyer then you will be in a better position to really fight, making laws that will be beneficial to the causes I was fighting for.

So this is what I really did, I came in 2010, I contested for the House of Representatives, it was a very tedious exercise and somewhat along the way I found myself gravitating to ACN to Bola Tinubu’s party. Even though I knew about Bola Tinubu but that was the first time I really took more of an interest in Bola Tinubu. Being part CPC to ACN, this whole image, whole efforts what Bola Tinubu has done in Lagos and a sort of innovation that he has brought was very attractive to me. I was very glad even though I didn’t win that election, we now got together in 2014 and with Buhari and Tinubu it was natural for me to be part of that particular movement.

In northern Nigeria, women are perceived not to be active in politics. What are you doing to bring northern women out of their cocoons?

I think, the most important thing is participation because if you look,  for example, the emergence of someone like Sadiya Umar Farouk as a minister, the effect that has on many young women in rural, Ruga areas that understood she was only there because she was educated. I remember when she was nominated as minister, there was complete turn around within our communities. Everybody now want their children, their girls not to aspire to early teenage marriage but to aspire to education. 

Even though it has been a little slow, the development of women in our country but now you can see with the emergence of the likes of Binani in Adamawa, that is going to have a profound effect, break those sort of barriers that have been hindering the emergence of women. For example in Katsina, I remember when I came out for National Assembly some people were astounded that how can we have a woman in the House of Representatives. 

That sort of barrier is being slowly broken by the likes of Sadiya, the likes of Binani. Now people are seeing, of course by the likes of even in Kaduna, Hadiza who is the deputy governor even in the most conservative parts are saying  may be this woman is a good choice because of her capacity and she is not limited now because of that. I think things are changing, I wish they had changed a lot earlier because there are so many women out there who have capacity.

But, this is a revolution and I think we are going in the right direction and now the number of women who have tickets to the House of Representatives we hope that we are able to, and for us if Binani can be successful it will make a great statement. This is from the north, this is a Fulani woman from the north and if it can be done, I think there is no part of Nigeria that… as far as she was able to clinch that ticket, I think it is a statement. Isn’t it? As far as she was able to clinch that ticket from men.

What will you say are the major challenges militating against northern female politicians? You have been inspired a lot by your father, if you were to present a charter of demands to the northern menfolk, what will you be demanding on behalf of women?

The first think, I think the main challenge is perception. You know sometimes, I think there is a certain perception of women in the public eyes especially from the northern part that is not too positive. So a lot of us have to go out of our way to fight and prove that perception wrong. 

I am someone who always sees that as a northern politician, I have always seen the positive and I will tell you what the positive is. The positive is because it is such a conservative part of the country. If you go into, like the rural areas, the men can’t enter into the houses. That gives us an edge. We are able to go and campaign to the women and when you go into the house that is where you meet the women and youths and stuff like that. 

Even when I contested, I used that to my advantage. So there are areas that appear disadvantageous but that particular aspect is an advantage. For example, in my community that is what we are using to sell the message of Asiwaju and going into the houses where men can’t go to tell them this is the action plan of this man. So there are positives and negatives.

What I would want from the men is to be able to judge each person on their own merits. To be able to give every woman an opportunity to prove herself and her capacity and not just to look at us that you are a woman, you are this way or that way. Sometimes it even works to our advantage because you are a woman they treat you with kid gloves. But I don’t think it should be, they should judge each of us based on our individual capacity and I wish if they will be able to do that. And not even thinking about women progressing because it is not every woman that should progress. It should be the kind of character the person has, the kind of capacity that they have and the pedigree, the kind of integrity that they have. I will urge the male folks to be able to look at each of us and assess us based on our individual merits.

We hear you have acquired so many degrees. How many do you have?

I have a lot of degrees. I have almost seven degrees. I love to read. I am writing six books, I just finished two, another two books coming up in a few months, and another two by mid of this year. I love reading because it shapes you and it gives you a more academic sense of understanding different modes. I like creative works. So, I hope in the future to be able to create and write more books and I hope in addition to calling myself a lawyer I will be known as one of the greatest Nigerians. I am in the process of getting the seventh (degree) and I am hoping to get the 10th. 

What do you intend to do with these degrees?

I don’t know! Honestly, I just love education. When I go to school and I am being taught something, that is one of my happiest times, I am always happy being in the class. I just love to learn and know things, to just study. And funny enough, I love exams. 

-vanguard news