FOLLOWING the execution of Hauwa Liman, a former humanitarian aid worker with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), by the Boko Haram, many Nigerians took to the social media to express their condolences, but in so doing, many were sharing the image of another Hauwa Liman.
Yes, there is another Hauwa Liman. She is the founder and Creative Director of Afrik Abaya, a fashion brand that seeks to transform the traditional Middle East female attire known as “ABAYA” using African textiles and fashion accessories.
Liman, though a graduate of Economics and Development Studies from the Bayero University, Kano, makes a living as a fashion designer. She was the overall winner/most creative designer for the 2015 edition of the Nigerian Student Fashion And Design Week.
She was also one of the maiden beneficiaries of the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Foundation in 2015.
But many have continued to mistake one Hauwa Liman with the other, sharing the picture of the living while paying tribute to the deceased.
Bukky Shonibare, an advocate for the release of the Chibok Girls, also explained that there is another Hauwa Liman. “The picture to the right is not that of the ICRC Hauwa Liman that was killed. That’s another Hauwa Liman, and she’s alive,” Shonibare explained.
The picture to the right is not that of the ICRC Hauwa Liman that was killed. That's another Hauwa Liman, and she's alive.
— Bukky Shonibare (@BukkyShonibare) October 16, 2018
So, as the country mourns one Hauwa Liman, the aid worker brutally murdered by senseless terrorists, the other Hauwa Liman watches her countrymen celebrates her obituary.