Maryam Abacha
Widow of President of Nigeria

Maryam Abacha ((); born 4 March 1947) is the widow of Sani Abacha, Nigeria's military ruler from 1993 to 1998.
Early life and career
In 1999, Maryam Abacha said that her husband acted in the good will of Nigeria. A Nigerian government official said that Maryam Abacha said that to convince the government to grant her a reprieve, as the president, Olusegun Obasanjo, had been jailed by Sani Abacha. After the death of her husband, Maryam was caught while attempting to leave Nigeria with 38 suitcases filled with cash. As of 2000, Maryam Abacha remained in Nigeria and continued to proclaim the innocence of her husband despite several human right abuses attributed to him. She resides in Kano state, Nigeria.
Maryam and Sani Abacha had three daughters and seven sons. Maryam Abacha's eldest surviving son is Mohammed Abacha.
Maryam Abacha founded National Hospital Abuja (originally known as the National Hospital For Women And Children) and established the African First Ladies Peace Mission.
Bibliography
Kabir, Hajara Muhammad,.
“Maryam Abacha” enters the record as widow of President of Nigeria. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Maryam, Abacha and Widow can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6781066. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1947, 1993, 1998 and 1999.
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This entry incorporates text from “Maryam Abacha” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.