Leaders are born, not made. Some argue. Yet, we are educated in the development school which elucidates the values of knowledge, conviction and willpower as instruments to shatter barriers and erect structures and institutions that will steer society towards a better order. Ironically, the geography of the way good things happen is akin to the proverbial manner a thief plies his trade; stealthily without a whisper!
Ramatu Tijjani, nee Sidi, was born on June 12,1970, in Wuse, FCT Abuja. Those who believe in clairvoyance could now liken the contemporary political symbolism of the day and month of her birth as foretelling her future robust role in the nation’s democratic usages and processes.
Born into the royal family of late Alhaji Sidi Ali Mamman Bawa Allah of Lokoja, Kogi State, she did not begin life like some lucky ones did. She started its journey, of course unsure of what it would offer as tomorrow lurked. At Dawaki Primary School, Suleja, in 1976, she began the search for the value of life. Six years after in 1982, after obtaining her first school leaving certificate, maiden Ramatu arrived the Federal Government College in Minna, Niger State, a restless pathfinder in earnest pursuit of secondary school education which culminated successfully in 1988.
Two years later in 1990, overwhelmed with the hunger to conquer her environment, she found succor in the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. After a remedial programme, she was to later earn a Bachelor’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning.
Armed with the enduring armour of knowledge and burning with a passion to positively engage humanity, she began a robust work life by serving her compulsory National Youth Service Scheme at the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. After a successful service to her father land, Ramatu joined AZAH intermediaries Nigeria Limited, a civil engineering construction firm, as one of its Managing Directors.
In subsequent years, she embarked on a steady and conscientious pursuit of the proverbial Golden Fleece. To this end, she proceeded to the Nasarawa State University, Keffi, where she added another feather to her academic cap with a Masters Degree in Public Administration. Not resting on her laurels, she’s currently acquiring a PhD in Security and Strategic studies at the institute of governance and development Studies from the same Ivory tower.
In apparent recognition of her compelling erudite disposition, she was later conferred with a Doctor of Public Administration honorary degree by the Prestigious Commonwealth University, London, United Kingdom. Similarly, she earned another Certificate in Leadership Skills from the reputable Abbey College, London, also in the United Kingdom.
A young woman in a hurry but resolute to write her own copy of history. She bowed to the overpowering zeal to serve humanity. In 2004, she was appointed a Special Adviser on Women Affairs, Youth and Social Development to the Chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council. Ramatu was to later cut her teeth, rendering service to man and community at this grassroots anchor of the development chain. She later served as the Focal Person for the Federal Capital Territory (2), anchoring the implementation of the Millennium Development Goal in Nigeria’s Cosmopolitan political capital.
In 2007, she made a bold political career statement, not common with the conservative disposition of women of northern Nigeria extraction like her. She ignored traditional stereotypes, confident of her capacity, resolute in her capability and convinced that it takes courage to succeed. She threw her handbag into the ring of partisan politics. She ran for election to represent Kwali/Kuje/Abaji Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. A greenhorn in politicking and the nuances of electioneering, her foray crashed. Unknown to her, providence had secured another role for her to play. Mother nature had charted a detour enroute her locating a befitting residence on another political turf.
Barely a year later in 2008, she was emerge the first female National Vice Chairman (North Central Zone) of the then leading opposition political party in the country, the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP. A fearless woman in a man’s den, she dared both the lions and the hyenas that bared their fangs in the dark alleys of intricate political conspiracies.
For her, failure would never be a woman if it is not a man. After all, world history has tutored that gender posed no barriers of rivers to cross to breast the tape of accomplishments. Late Golda Meir of Israel had shown it. Late Baroness Margaret Thatcher of England had proved it as well.
In 2010, Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu shook hands again with destiny. She emerged the National Woman Leader of the then conservative All Nigeria People’s Party, ANPP, a Party, whose ideology she had consistently subscribed to until its demise.
Indeed, with a new dawn on the horizon, Hajiya Ramatu Tijjani Aliyu may well be an indelible footprint on the sand of time as an irrepressible Amazon of change.
Source: arinze198