On Saturday, April 14th, 2018, Vanguard Media Limited beckoned Aisha, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari to Lagos, to honour her with a prestigious Award. The Award is Personality Of The Year 2017.
One of the reasons the management and Board of the Vanguard Media Limited chose Aisha for the honour was that she had the courage to speak boldly against her husband, President Buhari on the way he was running the government. That was months ago.
Responding to what she called: “this unexpected award,” the President’s wife expressed surprise that she was being honoured based on the interview she granted which some people saw as criticism to a government that she has been part of.
Although, Vanguard might have meant well to regard Mrs. Buhari as a courageous woman that had the guts to tell what, to the management, was the truth, to the power, but recognizing and celebrating such courage that was displayed within a matrimonial circle wreaks of mischief.
As a matter of fact, it is un-African, much more, un-Islamic for a woman to criticize her husband in public no matter how aggrieved and how right she is. Women have all the opportunities in the whole world to express their grievances to their husbands in the confines of the matrimonial homes and even matrimonial beds, but not on the pages of newspapers or the screens of televisions.
Of course, no one is beyond mistake, even the ones that are knowingly committed, but the sign of maturity and repentance is for such person to show remorse and return to the world of sanity, mend his or her ways and shows determination not to repeat the mistake.
And long after the dust raised by Mrs. Aisha’s mistake over which she had since repented, has settled, for Vanguard to nominate her and honour her for the same, does not look neat on the face of it. It was like acknowledging that she had set a worthy example to other women in the same position; to vilify their husbands in public and still cling to the same men.
The mood of celebration and mockery which the award signified to Vanguard, was however, rudely cut short by the repentant President’s wife when she showed Vanguard management that that issue no longer exist and that the matrimonial bond between her and her husband remains as strong as when they first met before marriage.
Hear her: “let me use this opportunity to state that I support my husband in this call to service and will continue to do so.”
Aisha Buhari would not deny, even if for the purpose of making the Vanguard management happy for a while, that she said what she said, but insisted: “I need to state that my position was a result of my sense of justice and not confrontation or disrespect. I was brought up to stand by the truth and this is how I have always been.”
We in Greenbarge Reporters believe that the Vanguard’s Personality Of The Year Award was wrongly channeled to a wrong person for mischievous reason. We believe that for the same mischievous reason, Vanguard should have given it to the governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, who had made the deafening noise and unprintable characterization of President Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), more than the way Mrs. Aisha had done, just once.
Indeed, if all good men and women are no longer in existence in the country to merit such award, it is just wise for the management of Vanguard Media Limited to suspend it for now, for, you don’t give award to a person who you rightly or wrongly believe to have developed the courage to confront his or her loved ones.
If that is the concept of Vanguard, what is it celebrating and encouraging in the society? [myad]
