Close-up with Abuja's First FemaleTaxi Driver

After several cancelled appointments due
to the nature of her job Chineme Okafor
finally got close-up with Aisha Umar, the
Abuja’s pioneer female taxi driver. He
writes about the life of a woman who
breaks the jinx to succeed in a profession
commonly reserved for menfolk
“Reserved for men?” Aisha Umar, a single
young mother-of-two from Mubi Local
Government Area in Adamawa State and
Abuja’s renowned pioneer female taxi
driver queried in disagreement when
asked why she decided to explore
opportunity in a job known to be
common with men in Nigeria.
“I am a taxi driver and I’m loving it,” she
said. “Some people believe that driving a
taxi is a trade exclusively reserved for
men and people of low life, but it is a
wrong perception. I prefer to earn a
decent living through this means than to
sit down and beg for money.”
In Abuja where Umar is the first female
taxi driver and one of three plying the
streets of the cosmopolitan city, there is
no mistaken of her identity.
Culled From This Day.