Source: Leadership
Aisha Jibrin Dukku was a minister between 2007 and 2010 during the administration of late President Umar Musa Yar'Adua. She was Minister of State for Education and belonged to the inner caucus of the president's family. She became one of the first truly conservative Fulani families to attain this position on her on merit.
When the then Governor Danjuma Goje of Gombe State nominated her for the post, he made it clear that he wanted to correct the impression that a typical muslim housewife and mother is not only confined to the home of her husband, but can make a huge impact in governance and statecraft. In her three years stint as a minister she justified this position.
She is from a family of scholars as her father, Alhaji Jibrin Dukku was a renowned teacher in northern Nigeria, who became a permanent secretary, ministry of education North Eastern State. Her mother was also a teacher and an Islamic theologian. They moulded their daughter into an epitome of humility, piety and respect to all people.
She first attended Federal Government Girls' College, Bauchi, where she developed a national outlook to life. She then went to Bayero University, Kano where she majored in Education. She started her career as a teacher and rose to become a Vice Principal, then to Principal and to a Federal Inspector of education before she was appointed Minister of State for Education in 2007.
As a minister, she contributed immensely to the development of capacity building and utilization of the primary sector of education. Her contribution to nomadic and Almajiri system was immense. Being a product of Girl child education and a shining example of what can be achieved. She maintained in her on words, "The girl-child education is not only peculiar to the north, even in the south-south, we have some communities, even in the south-east, where you have the highest percentage of females with a lot of degrees married to someone who has not even gone to school.
There is still the problem of girl-child education. I also want to correct the notion that the problem of the girl-child education is tied to Islam. It is not true. Islam gives the girls-child ample opportunity to excel. It is stated that the mother is the first school of the child. You cannot have an illiterate mother and think you can be a better leader.
The girl-child has to be educated so as to become a better woman, wife and mother and also a better leader tomorrow. So we have challenges because the schools we have are not protecting the girl-child and any father will like the girl to be protected. I was travelling in Katsina State and saw a school very far from the community.
Even the boys were begging for lift to go to school, so no reasonable parent will allow his daughter to be on the road, looking for lift from strangers so as to go to school". When asked as a Muslim woman, a housewife, and a mother in a conservative setting how she gets along, she has this to say, "It baffles me that some husband say their wives are housewives, no salary is commensurate to what the woman does at home. I have been able to put everything together as a mother, teacher and administrator. First and foremost, it is Allah's will that I found myself in this position".
"I got married at an early age, that is immediately after my secondary school. I must appreciate my husband who took most of the decisions regarding my life. He gave me the privilege of going back to school and allowed me to work. He contributed in taking care of the children.
He is not a father that will just give all the responsibilities to the mother of the children. I will say most of the problem is tied to the husband, most husbands will not allow their wives to further their education or work. Worse still, most of the time the marriages end in divorce.
"It is this lack of support from the husband that brings about high prevalence of divorce in the North. Most northern men believe that all the woman has to do is at home. Yes, it is our responsibility, and we appreciate it because it is God given responsibility. Nobody will take that away from us. As a woman, you must contribute to the family and to the society as a whole."