Hajiya Jummai Tafawa Balewa occupied an unusual place in Nigeria’s modern history. She held no national political office, yet her life was intimately connected with Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, the teacher who rose through Nigerian politics to become Prime Minister in 1957 and remained head of government when Nigeria achieved independence on 1 October 1960.
By the time Jummai died in Lagos on 27 October 2019, aged 85, she was the last surviving wife of Nigeria’s first Prime Minister. Her life connected the quieter years of Balewa’s teaching career with the dramatic politics of decolonisation, independence and the military coup of January 1966 that brought his premiership to a violent end.
Her recollections provide a rare glimpse into the private household surrounding one of the most important political figures in Nigeria’s early national history.
Hajiya Jummai Tafawa Balewa Before the Premiership
Aishatu Jummai married Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in 1945. Their marriage took place before Balewa entered the Northern Region’s legislature in 1947 and 12 years before he became Prime Minister.
Jummai later recalled that she married Balewa when he was still a headmaster. Balewa had trained as a teacher and worked in education before moving into politics.
He was elected to the Northern Region’s House of Assembly in 1947 and entered the federal House of Representatives in 1951. His rise continued during the final decade of colonial rule as he assumed increasingly important responsibilities in the federal government.
Balewa became one of the leading figures of the Northern People’s Congress and emerged as a central participant in constitutional negotiations surrounding Nigeria’s movement towards self-government.
In 1957, he became Prime Minister of the Federation of Nigeria.
When independence arrived on 1 October 1960, Balewa remained Prime Minister and head of government. He continued in that office after Nigeria became a republic in 1963.
He would remain the only person to serve as Prime Minister of independent Nigeria.
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One of Tafawa Balewa’s Four Wives
Balewa had four wives: Lami, also known as Zainab Inni, Jummai, Laraba and Umma.
Jummai described herself as Balewa’s second wife. Their marriage began long before the political transformation that eventually placed her husband at the centre of Nigeria’s federal government.
Life as the wife of a national leader did not mean that Jummai assumed an official governmental role. Her later descriptions of the household portrayed Balewa’s wives primarily as members of his family rather than political actors.
The women experienced his growing prominence while continuing to maintain family connections with Bauchi, the region that remained closely associated with Balewa throughout his life.
Life Between Lagos and Bauchi
Jummai’s recollections provide an illuminating picture of life inside the Prime Minister’s household.
Balewa’s wives did not all permanently live with him in Lagos. According to Jummai, they rotated between Lagos and Bauchi. Two wives would stay with the Prime Minister in Lagos while the others remained in Bauchi, and the arrangement would later change.
The system reflected a family life divided between Nigeria’s federal political centre and Balewa’s home region.
Jummai also recalled that the wives were not involved in governing the country. Women who visited them were generally relatives or family friends rather than people seeking political appointments or government favours.
Her description presents a household quite different from the prominent institution of the presidential First Lady that became familiar in later periods of Nigerian political life.
For Jummai, her position was primarily that of a wife and member of the Prime Minister’s family.
Hajiya Jummai Tafawa Balewa and Nigerian Independence
By the time Nigeria became independent, Hajiya Jummai Tafawa Balewa had been married to Balewa for about 15 years.
Her husband stood at the centre of the new government.
On 1 October 1960, Nigeria became an independent country within the Commonwealth. Balewa remained Prime Minister and head of government, while the British monarch remained the constitutional head of state and was represented in Nigeria by the Governor-General.
Sir James Robertson served as Governor-General at independence. Nnamdi Azikiwe succeeded him in November 1960.
Nigeria became a republic on 1 October 1963. Azikiwe became President and head of state, while Balewa continued as Prime Minister and head of government.
The parliamentary system placed the Prime Minister at the centre of day-to-day government. Balewa consequently occupied one of the defining positions in the political history of independent Nigeria.
The system, however, survived for only a few years.
The January 1966 Military Coup
In the early hours of 15 January 1966, soldiers launched Nigeria’s first military coup.
Senior political and military leaders were attacked in different parts of the country. Among those killed was Sir Ahmadu Bello, Premier of the Northern Region and Sardauna of Sokoto.
Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Premier of the Western Region, was also killed, along with several senior military officers.
In Lagos, Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa was taken from his official residence during the coup.
His whereabouts remained uncertain for several days before his body was discovered.
The coup brought the First Republic’s parliamentary government to an end and opened a new era of military intervention in Nigerian politics.
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Jummai’s Memories of January 1966
Jummai later spoke about the crisis from the perspective of Balewa’s family.
She recalled that she and the senior wife, Zainab, were in Bauchi at the time, while two other wives were in Lagos.
The wives who had been in Lagos subsequently told the family what had happened when soldiers came for the Prime Minister.
Jummai remembered the confusion surrounding the coup and the uncertainty over Balewa’s whereabouts. She was pregnant at the time.
She recalled preparing to attend an antenatal appointment when news circulated that Sir Ahmadu Bello had been killed. The developing crisis quickly made clear that something extraordinary had happened across the country.
For Balewa’s family, the national political emergency was also an intensely personal tragedy.
The Prime Minister who had led Nigeria through independence was missing.
His death ended both his political career and the family life that Jummai and the other wives had known.
Widowhood After the First Republic
Balewa’s death transformed Jummai’s life.
The parliamentary political system over which he had presided did not survive the coup. Major-General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi emerged as Nigeria’s military Head of State, beginning a new and turbulent period in the country’s history.
Jummai would live for more than half a century after her husband’s death.
She did not pursue a nationally prominent political career of her own. Her life remained closely connected with her family and Bauchi.
Over the years, however, she occasionally spoke publicly about Balewa, their household and the events surrounding the coup.
Her memories helped preserve the personal dimensions of a political era frequently remembered mainly through constitutions, elections, regional rivalries, coups and the careers of prominent male politicians.
Through her recollections, Nigerians also encountered the family behind the office of Prime Minister.
The Last Surviving Wife of Tafawa Balewa
As the decades passed, Jummai outlived Balewa’s other wives.
By her later years, she was the last surviving wife of the former Prime Minister.
Her longevity gave her an unusual connection to Nigeria’s past.
She had known Balewa before he entered the legislature. She experienced his transformation from educator to national political leader. She witnessed Nigeria’s movement from colonial rule to independence and lived through the violent collapse of the First Republic.
More than 50 years after Balewa’s death, Jummai could still speak about family life during an era that had already become part of Nigerian history.
Her life consequently spanned extraordinary changes in the country.
Nigeria moved from British colonial rule to independence, from parliamentary democracy to military government, through civil war, repeated coups and eventual restoration of civilian rule.
Jummai survived through all these transformations.
Her Final Illness and Death in Lagos
Hajiya Jummai Tafawa Balewa died on Sunday, 27 October 2019, at the age of 85.
She died in Lagos following a protracted illness.
Her granddaughter, Hajara Yakubu Wanka, said Jummai had recently returned from medical treatment in India and suffered cardiac arrest.
News of her death prompted condolences from political leaders and members of the public.
President Muhammadu Buhari expressed sympathy to the Balewa family and the people of Bauchi State.
An aircraft from the Presidential Fleet was made available to help transport her remains from Lagos to Bauchi for burial.
More than five decades after Balewa’s death, the response demonstrated the continuing place occupied by the former Prime Minister and his family in Nigeria’s national memory.
Funeral and Burial in Bauchi
Jummai’s remains were returned to Bauchi on 28 October 2019.
Funeral prayers were held at the palace of the Emir of Bauchi.
The prayers were led by the Chief Imam of Bauchi Central Mosque, Mallam Bala Baba-Inna.
Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed attended the funeral alongside traditional rulers and other dignitaries.
Following the prayers, Jummai was buried at Bauchi Central Cemetery.
She left behind children, grandchildren and a family connected to one of the most consequential periods in Nigeria’s political history.
Her burial closed a remarkable personal link with the household that stood at the centre of Nigeria’s federal government during the transition from colonial rule to independence.
Conclusion
Hajiya Jummai Tafawa Balewa’s place in Nigerian history does not depend on political office or formal governmental authority.
Her significance comes from her connection to the private life of a man who occupied one of the central positions in Nigeria’s transition to independence.
She married Abubakar Tafawa Balewa in 1945, before his entry into elected legislative politics. She lived through his rise from education into national leadership and became part of the household surrounding the Prime Minister when Nigeria achieved independence in 1960.
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She also lived through the catastrophe of January 1966, when the coup destroyed the government Balewa had led and brought his life to an end.
Jummai survived her husband by more than 53 years.
By the time she died in 2019, she was the last surviving wife of Nigeria’s first Prime Minister and one of the remaining personal links to the domestic world of the First Republic.
Her memories preserve a human dimension of Nigeria’s national story: the experience of a family transformed by political power, independence and sudden tragedy.
Author’s Note
Hajiya Jummai Tafawa Balewa’s life reminds us that the story of Nigeria’s independence and First Republic was experienced not only by politicians, soldiers and civil servants, but also by the families surrounding them. Her marriage to Abubakar Tafawa Balewa began before his emergence as a national leader and carried her through independence, political responsibility and the upheaval of January 1966. Her long life after his death connected later generations with the domestic world of Nigeria’s first federal government and preserved personal memories of a period that fundamentally shaped the nation.
References
High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. Mukhtar Abubakar Tafawa Balewa & Others v Dr Abduljalil Tafawa Balewa, Suit No. FCT/HC/CV/956/2015, judgment delivered 16 January 2023.
Central Bank of Nigeria. Alhaji Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, 1912–1966, biographical record.
Daily Trust. Shehu Abubakar, “My Husband Was Tricked And Taken Away By His Orderly, Late Tafawa Balewa’s Wife”, interview with Hajiya Jummai Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, 2016.
Channels Television. “Tafawa Balewa’s Last Surviving Wife Dies At 85”, 28 October 2019.
News Agency of Nigeria, published by The Guardian Nigeria. “Remains of Balewa’s Wife Buried in Bauchi”, 28 October 2019.
Punch Newspapers. “Last Surviving Widow of Late Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa Dies at 85”, 27 October 2019.
