Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, joins Twitter

Pauline Tallen

The new Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, has joined Twitter with the handle @PaulineKTallen.

She was among ministers who were inaugurated on August 21 following the end of the Presidential Retreat for ministers-designate, presidential aides and other top government functionaries at the State House in Abuja.

“Welcome to my official Twitter handle. Looking forward to strategic engagements here,” she wrote on Wednesday.

Mrs Tallen, an ally of First Lady Aisha Buhari, had in 2016 rejected an ambassadorial appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The former Plateau State deputy governor rejected it for the sake of fairness to other parts of her home state.

“I hail from the same local government and tribe with Governor Simon Lalong. I turned down the nomination because of balancing of appointments. I don’t think it is right for me to accept the appointment,” she said.

She also cited her husband’s poor health as reason for the rejection.

A founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Tallen served as minister of state for science and technology under former President Olusegun Obasanjo from 1999 to 2003.

She was elected Plateau deputy governor in 2007 on the platform of the then ruling party.

Tallen left in 2010 to contest the governorship on the platform of the Labour Party in 2011 but lost to incumbent Governor Jonah Jang.

She returned to the PDP in 2012, leaving again in 2015 for the All Progressives Congress (APC).