Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar last weekend buried his father-in-law, Chief Chukwuka Iwenjiora in Onitsha, Anambra State. The deceased who is a father of one of his wives, Dr Jennifer Jamilah, died after a brief illness at an Abuja Hospital on January 26 in the thick of the presidential campaign in which his illustrious son-in-law was a leading candidate for the Peoples Democratic Party in the February Presidential elections. The burial could not hold at that time as arrangement was put on hold until last week. At the funeral, many PDP bigwigs trooped to Onitsha to honour Atiku to give his father-in-law a befitting transition to glory. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, Imo State governor, Emeka Ihedioha and former governor of Anambra State, Peter Obi, were among the dignitaries who paid their last respects to the late Iwenjiora. Just last year August, Jennifer lost her loving sister, Princess to a deadly cancer ailment in a Dubai hospital. Her sister’s death left her devastated and inconsolable for couple of weeks and while just getting out of the loss then came the death of her beloved dad. Fondly called Jamilah by her husband, she was reported to have aided Atiku’s dream of starting an American-styled university in the early 2000s, when she was a doctoral student at the American University in Washington DC.
After a long hibernation occasioned by her husband’s apparent diminished influence in the power equation of the country, she resurfaced on the social and political radar to take part in his political campaigns. Last year, she drew family, friends and associates to Dubai for the wedding of her son, Chuka, and was seen glowing, mingling with all and sundry, a proof that she has not toned down her level of socialising. Jamilah enjoys the love and confidence of her husband. Little wonder one of the administrative buildings in the American University of Nigeria (AUN) owned by the former vice president was named after her.