Major Hamza Al-Mustapha’s Daughter Graduates From Law School; Talks About The Stigmatization She Faced While Growing Up

Fatima Al-Mustapha, 24, is one of the daughters of the Chief Security Officer to General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha. Fatima graduated few weeks ago from the Nigerian Law school. She holds an LLB (2011) and LLM (2012) from the University of Nicofia, Cyprus and International School of Maritime law, Malta. Big congrats to her! Here’s an interview she granted recently to the Sun Newspapers:

My mum tried so hard to hide it from us. But then we saw it in the news­papers…saw pictures of him climbing the Black Maria and all that. I confronted her and she was forced to let out the truth. I was inconsolable.”
“Going to school was difficult, because your erst­while friends and school mates were told not to talk to you; and parents withdrew their kids from some activities because we (Al-Mustapha’s children) were participating. Then you had some people (armed) following us about.”…

She said despite everything, she occupied herself with how to get her dad freed,
“It was more of a passion to get daddy back. As a child, I just couldn’t get over seeing his pic­tures in Black Maria. I figured how to get him out. But the real encouragement actually came from one of my teachers who said only a lawyer can get him released. She explained that lawyers were people who go to court and argue cases before the judge and that based on the mer­it of the case, the judge can set him free. That was why I decid­ed I would be a lawyer. You know when you have a passion for something; you don’t see any hindrances or difficulty.”