IBB: HOW MY WIFE CONVERTED TO ISLAM

I HAD SETTLED on Maria as the woman I would wed before being discharged from the hospital, and as soon as I was discharged, I made my way to Kaduna, where she lived with her mother and uncle. I was anxious to share the good news with her: I had decided we were destined for a life together. I admired her greatly for her reserved nature and the fact that she was well brought up. I wanted to make my intentions known to her and was determined not to accept No for an answer. Fortune favours the bold, and it smiled upon me; I counted and still count myself lucky.

Initially, Maria was highly sceptical of me as marrying material. She knew that I had a track record of being something of a man about town, and those were not the qualities she wanted in a husband. She was unconvinced of my capacity to be serious, and many people said as much to her. Her family had no objections as I was well known to them, so I had to use all the help I could muster, including Garba Duba’s father (Maria’s uncle), to solidify my proposal. He gladly lent his voice to my cause.

Once I convinced her that I was serious, the prospect of becoming Mrs Babangida was not that difficult for Maria to contemplate. I shared with her the fact that my faith was an integral and essential part of my life and that I would require her to convert to Islam. Praise be to Allah; this was not a difficult decision for Maria. Being part- Christian and part-Muslim at birth and already living in a Muslim household, it was never going to be wholly uncharted territory for her. She adapted with relative ease to married life as a Muslim.

In proposing to Maria, I assured her that, though a Muslim, I did not intend to take multiple wives and bring up children from different women. I knew full well that my chances of a stable family life would be significantly improved if I avoided polygamy. I had witnessed close up – both among professional colleagues and in my extended family – the headaches and heartaches this led to, and that was not the life I wanted to live or to share with her. I wanted a life partner that would be by my side through thick and thin. I could not have made a better choice. She exceeded all the hopes and expectations of my youth at every stage of our life together.

After securing the promise of her hand in marriage, I returned to the war front for a short while. While there, I was promoted to a Brigade Major. Soon afterwards, I returned to Kaduna where, shortly before her 21st birthday and after my 28th, Maryam (as she had by then become preparatory to our getting married) and I got married on September 6, 1969, at the marriage registry in Kaduna. As she had by this time converted to Islam, the marriage registry was followed by Islamic marital rites

(Culled from a journey in service)