By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.
28-12-2025.
AS the Gregorian year 2025 is coming to an end, I feel there is the need for me to write something about Hajiya Maria Dangote and her many feeding programmes across the country, before some people think that yours sincerely is NOT happy with both.
I AM very happy, to say the least. Someone should only be happy that such assistance is coming at the time when an apparently deliberately caused unimaginable poverty is ravaging Nigeria, the so called ‘Giant of Africa’.
SHE is said to employ more than 6,000 people to prepare the meals served to many of the multitude poor citizens in the society. Each of the employees have a regular monthly salary, on top of free food for self and family.
I met Hajiya Mariya Dangote on two different occasions, and each time she looked much younger than her age. She was on all the occasions dressed in expensive attire, with some of her fingers wearing gold (maybe even diamond) rings. Money oozed from her dressing, which a 20-plus woman would envy.
THE first time I met the woman was in 2012, when my then principal, Right Honourable Aminu Bello Masari, went to condole with her over the death of her son, and junior brother of Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Alhaji Sani Danote. At the time of his death in a hospital in the US, he was the Managing Director of the Dangote conglomerate.
THE second occasion was in 2025 when I similarly went along with the former principal to greet her, after also saying ‘hello’ to her elder brother, the now late Alhaji Aminu Dantata.
OF course, before the visit to the monied woman on the first occasion, a condolence visit was paid on Alhaji Aliko Dangote himself in his modest Kano GRA residence. The meaning of the words ‘RESPECT’ and ‘MODESTY’ loomed large at the occasion, as ALL, including Alhaji Aliko Dangote, ROSE UP when my principal walked into the expansive place of the condolence. But the modest gentleman that I know him to be, the Governor pleaded with all to be seated, quickly sitting down before some of the other people.
ORHER Governors and ‘important’ people who also arrived for the same purpose during and after Masari, were not as treated. Many of them might as well not have been there for all the attention they received from the ‘HIGH TABLE’. They of course had their moments with the praise singers and the professional beggars. It was an occasion when all roads appeared to have led to Kano, as the créam de la créame (who is who) of the Nigerian society jostled to condole with Aliko Dangote, his uncle, Alhaji Aminu Dantata and his mother, Hajiya Mariya Dangote.
“When communes die, there are no comets seen in the sky, but the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of a prince”, said William Shakespeare in his famous play, ‘Julius Caesar’.
IN writing this article however, I have to be very careful lest one is accused of doing a sponsored Public Relations (PR) for the GLOBAL PRINCESS of money, NOT unlike her son.
SPONSORED article this write up is NOT, because Hajiya Mariya Dangote does not need sponsored Public Relations to be acknowledged as a kind hearted and generous woman. She did not contest any election and won, but failed to deliver on her promises, to NEED her image LAUNDERED.
FOR the less informed, Hajiya Mariya Dangote is from Nigeria’s money dynasty. She is the daughter of Alhaji Sanusi Dantata, the son of Africa’s first millionaire (Alhaji Alhassan Dantata). She is the widow of Alhaji Dangote, a now deceased wealthy businessman, neice to late Alhaji Aminu Dantata, and the mother of Black Race’s richest person, Alhaji Aliko Dangote owner of the world’s largest single-train refinery, who is estimated to be worth $33 billion.
A very wealthy woman in her own right, Hajiya Mariya Dangote fulfils a superior mandate with RELIGIOUS fervour. She pays her yearly ZAKKAT in millions of naira to the less endowed, and sponsors hundreds to Hajj and Umrah every year, in addition to feeding thousands daily for free.
MAY God provide Nigeria with many ‘Hajiya MARIYA Dangote’, so that many more HUNGRY people in the country would have their daily feed free of charge. The large and populous North, in particular, requires the kind of the assistance she offers to her compatriots.
Malumfashi wrote from ABUJA.
