Hajiya Murjanatu Katsina was born in 1930 to the family of Mallam Abubakar popularly known as Mallamn Bube and Malama Rabi’atu, at Sararin Kuka quarters in the Katsina metropolis. Her father Mallam Bube was originally from Rawayau village and settled in Katsina working with the Child Welfare Clinic, established by the British in 1927. Where Murjanatu was born. She was the third child in a family of six children. Like every other child in traditional Hausa Muslim society, she attended Qur’anic school (Makarantar Allo) at an early age. At the age of thirteen Murjanatu’s father gave her hand in marriage to Mallam Ibrahim, the union lasted for vears. without a child and she was divorced. She started working with the Native Authority (N.A.) in 1950 as a sanitation officer. In 1951, she joined the Adult Education Programme to acquire a Western education and afterwards, she was transferred to Tudun Yanshanu Welfare Clinic Katsina, as a matron taking care of children.

At Tudun Yanshanu Welfare Clinic a senior health colonial officer from Kano Hospital visited the clinic and came across a very tiny newborn baby. The visiting health officer asked questions about the newborn baby. Murjanatu, in English language using the literacy she acquired answered that “he is a prematurely born baby”. The health officer was very surprised by Murjanatu’s response. Shortly afterwards, she was chosen to attend a midwifery training programme at Kano between 1952 and 1953.At the end of the training, she was posted to Kankia, later to Malumfashi and Funtua as a midwifery attendant (1954-1956). In 1956, she was posted to Kano City General Hospital where she

served for three years as a midwifery atterndant. When General Hospital Katsina was established, Murjanatu was posted there as a midwife attendant and children’s health care offcer. Back in Katsina, she re-married to Alhajı Sanda Kaita and moved with him to Kaduna with the permission of the then Emir of Katsina Sir Usman Nagogo because of the nature of her work.

In Kaduna. with the help of her husband, she joined the services of the Radio Broadcasting Corporation of Northern Nigeria (RBCONN) as an Assistant Presenter of the women and children programme between 1962 and 1965. 

While working with the corporation. She participated in a writing competition, organised by radio Deutchevelle Germany ((Murvar Jama’ar Jamus) in 1965 and won the first position. Radio Deutsche Welle emploved her and she worked for six years, attending a year course at BBC London. She left Germany 1972 and resumed work at Radio Broadcasting Corporation of Northern Nigeria, Kaduna.

By 1976 when General Murtala Muhammad intro duced local government reforms, Dutsin-ma Local Government was among the newly created local government areas. Murjanatu was nominated as supervisory councillor, finance, administration, information, planning trade Cooperation, and community development in Dutsin-ma Local Government from 1976-197934 In 1979.

Hajiya Murjanatu joined politics under the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) contested and won a seat in Kaduna State House of Assembly, representing Katsina Local Government. She became the first female member in the house representing Katsina. That is where she earned the name “Murjanatu Katsina.

At the end of her tenure, Hajiya Murjanatu ventured into farming at her farmland in Tashar Barau in the Dutsin-ma Local Government area. She cultivated maize, millet, sorghum and beans, thereby becoming an active farmer with a very high output. She acquired two tractors and employed many labourers in the farmland. During each farming season, she went to the farm from Kaduna and stayed there to monitor the labourers. After the haryest, she stored the farm produce and later sold it in preparation for the next farming season.

According to Alhaji Ali Rawayau, a nephew to Hajiya Murjanatu, the Commissioner of Agriculture in the defunct Kaduna state paid an official visit to Hajiya Murjanatu’s farm in 1984 and expressed happiness with her success as a farmer. She received an award as the best female farmer in Katsina LGA in 1984.In 1986, the Association of Nursing Organization Patron for Mothers presented a certificate of excellence to Hajiya Murjanatu and in the same year, she received an award of excellence from the National Council for Women’s Societies. In 2002 she received national honours from President Olusegun Obasanjo as a Member of the Order of Niger (MON). Hajiya Murjanatu never had a child but has fostered the children of her brother. She died in 2021 at the age of 92.

This article was culled from a book titled: Katsina In Transition, Exploring The History of Royalty, Culture, Trade, and Security.

Edited by M.D. Suleiman, Samaila Suleiman, Ibrahim Sani Kankara, Uwaisu Iliyasu. Sponsored by Sardaunan Katsina Alhaji Ahmad Rufa’i Abubakar CON