The Story of Gambo Sawaba

The story of Gambo Sawaba is the compelling story of Haijya Gambo Sawaba, the first female politician of note to bestride Northen Nigeria. Born in 1933 to Mr Isa Amartey, a Ghanaian and Fatima, a Nupe woman from Lavun in Nigeria State of Nigeria, Hajaratu Amartey who came to be known as Hajiya Gambo Sawaba joined the Northern Elements Progressive Union (NEPU) before she turned twenty, Shortly after joining NEPU, she was jailed and on fifteen other occasions she also went to prison on account of her politics. Though she was the third female to join the NEPU in Zaria where her father settled, she rose rapidly to prominence. While fighting for the liberation of the country, and later during the immediate post-independence era, for genuine independence, Hajiya Gambo Sawaba who schooled under the late Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and at the NEPU School of Politics, was subjected to extreme deprivation and times without number she had to disguise as a man. She went without food, was beaten several times and often used car tyres as her shoes. She slept in the kitchen and often had to wait for her single wrapper to dry any time she washed it, before going out as she had no spare one. She had assassination attempts and was kidnapped once, for a whole week and left in the bush at the mercy of the elements. Though she has only a child, which she gave birth to while still a teenager, Hajiya Sawaba, by her testimony, has trained over 500 children. She was married four times to four different men. Each marriage being a unique one. Three of the marriages collapsed because of her participation in politics.