Hadiya was a doctor. Aidah was a pharmacist. They were twins, healthcare professionals and daughters of Prof Hadiza Usman. Then, in the space of 48 hours, a family lost them both.
There are some losses that words struggle to carry.
For Professor Hadiza Abdullahi Usman, Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, Yobe State, the unimaginable came in two devastating blows.
First, she lost one daughter.
Two days later, she lost her twin.
Dr Hadiya Usman, a young medical doctor undergoing her internship at FMC Nguru, died on Friday, October 2, 2026, after reportedly spending about a week in hospital following a sickle cell crisis.
On Sunday, October 4, her twin sister, Aidah Usman, a pharmacist and Doctor of Pharmacy who worked at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, also died.
They were just 48 hours apart.
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Two daughters.
Two healthcare professionals.
One grieving mother.
And a family suddenly forced to bury two sisters who had entered adulthood and professional life together.
The deaths have sent shock waves through the medical community in Yobe and Borno, where colleagues, friends and relatives have been mourning the sisters and praying for their souls.
A family member, Ibrahim Auwal, described the development as deeply painful, saying the sisters were hardworking young professionals with promising futures.
Their mother, Prof Hadiza Usman, has also publicly acknowledged the loss.
According to a report by Vanguard, the professor confirmed the deaths in separate messages shared on her WhatsApp status, announcing the passing of her two daughters. The newspaper did not publish the full text of those messages.
For a mother who has spent decades treating patients, teaching doctors and helping build specialist healthcare in northern Nigeria, there can be few imaginable pains greater than losing two children in such a short space of time.
They were born together. They died two days apart.
Hadiya and Aidah were not simply sisters.
They were twins.
Those who knew them have remembered them by their professional identities — one a doctor, the other a pharmacist — but behind those titles were two young women whose lives had been intertwined from birth.
Hadiya had followed medicine.
She was undergoing her internship at the same Federal Medical Centre in Nguru where her mother serves as Medical Director. Reports say she had been receiving treatment there for about a week after suffering a sickle cell crisis before she died on Friday.
Aidah had chosen pharmacy.
She worked at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, another major tertiary health institution serving the North-East.
For years, the sisters had lived with sickle cell disease.
Then came the crisis that neither could overcome.
Reports say Aidah had also been receiving treatment at UMTH around the same period and had reportedly improved enough to be discharged.
But after the death and burial of her twin, tragedy struck again.
Several reports say Aidah visited Hadiya’s grave on Sunday before she suddenly collapsed and was taken for medical attention, where she later died. The Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, subsequently acknowledged her death in a social-media post, referring to her as the “second twin” of Professor Usman.
The precise medical circumstances surrounding Aidah’s death have not been independently established in the public reports.
What is known is that she was gone two days after her twin.
A mother who spent her life fighting disease
There is an especially painful irony in the story of Professor Hadiza Usman.
Medicine was her life’s work.
She is a Professor of Gynaecological Oncology and Reproductive Health and has spent decades in clinical medicine, teaching, research and hospital administration.
She graduated from the University of Maiduguri in 1992 and trained in obstetrics and gynaecology. She became the first female consultant obstetrician and gynaecologist produced by the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and was promoted to professor in 2018.
In November 2022, she became Medical Director and Chief Executive Officer of FMC Nguru — the first woman to hold the position at the institution.
Her career has been built around saving lives.
Her daughters followed her into healthcare.
One became a doctor.
The other became a pharmacist.
Yet sickle cell disease, an inherited blood disorder they had lived with, ultimately claimed them both.
The cruelty of sickle cell disease
Sickle cell disease is not a condition that respects education, profession, wealth or access to medical knowledge.
It is an inherited disorder that can cause severe pain crises and damage organs over time. Acute complications can become life-threatening.
Nigeria carries one of the world’s largest sickle cell burdens.
For families living with the condition, a crisis can turn an ordinary day into an emergency.
And for the Usman family, two crises have now left an unbearable silence.
They were preparing to heal others
There is something particularly heartbreaking about the professions Hadiya and Aidah chose.
Hadiya was learning to save lives.
Aidah was learning to help patients through medicines.
Their mother had spent her professional life caring for women, treating disease, teaching medical students and building healthcare services.
Her daughters had followed the same broad calling.
They were preparing to spend their lives caring for other people’s families.
Instead, colleagues are now gathering to mourn them.
Hadiya’s career had barely begun.
She was still an intern, standing at the threshold of professional life after years of medical training.
Aidah had gone further into her chosen profession and was already working as a pharmacist at a major teaching hospital.
There should have been decades ahead of them.
More patients to treat.
More colleagues to mentor.
More milestones.
More birthdays.
More ordinary days.
Instead, their family has had to say goodbye twice.
The mother’s silence speaks too
Professor Hadiza Usman’s reported WhatsApp announcements are significant not because they provide a detailed account of what happened, but because they show that the grieving mother herself publicly acknowledged the deaths of both daughters.
No full statement from her has been published.