It sounded strange, unbelievable, funny and all that, to hear Aisha, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari on a BBC interview programme, telling the whole wide world that the government which her husband is presiding over, has been hijacked by a kind of cabal.
In the interview, aired in Hausa language, Aisha Buhari was asked to give the names of the members of the cabal that have allegedly cornered her husband in the appointment of relevant government officials, but she would not identify any. She simply asked her interviewer to keep on watching television where their identities would be revealed.
Indeed, when the news first burst out and the social media was awashed with it, we on this platform: Greenbarge Reporters were not comfortable publishing it because of its incredibility. It was when the BBC went viral with it and when President Buhari reacted to it, jokingly saying that his wife belongs to his kitchen, the living room and the other room that we took it serious.
In fact, we took it serious with disgust and consternation. For, it had never happened in the history of this country, whether in military or civilian regime, that the wife of sitting President would take such a clear opposition stand against her husband.
One is therefore left with no option than to guess the circumstances that might have led to such public display of disagreement with a house in which Aisha lives.
Of course, one is not surprised that Aisha has come up as one of the instruments for the corruption fighting back because of circumstance that borders mainly on her ambition that was dashed. Let’s put it in proper perspective.
When Buhari mounted the leadership of this hyper corruptive country and declared that he was up in arm with corruption, it was obvious that he needed an extra strength and wisdom to kill the corruption or the corruption would destroy him. And he knew instantly that corruption would fight back vehemently in various ways, through various sources and by various means, including, of course, family members.
When he introduced Treasury Single Account (TSA) and Bank Verification Number (BVN), it first looked on the face of it, as a child’s play, but when the systems began to operate, couple with his focus on generating enough funds to run the government, every Nigerian, including himself began to feel the crushing effect of the measure.
One imagines that in an attempt to pursue the cleansing of the economic Augean stables and live above board, he restricted his wife to domestic duties, against her contemplation of being addressed as First Lady, with all the paraphernalia attached to the office. One imagines that Buhari would not even allow his wife to have any strong influence on who he would appoint to what position and how he runs the government generally, as was obtained in the past governments. One imagines that Buhari cancelled the special budgetary allocations being made to the office of First Lady which of course, hurts Aisha. In short Buhari had, in the spirit of Change, dealt a blow with the concept of First Ladyship.
One imagines that President Buhari cancelled not just the title: First Lady, but all such financial and social importance attached to the wife of President. And it didn’t look as if Aisha has other way of getting help from friends of the House, to run her programme in support of her husband. No one would dare come forward to render such financial help, as it happened in the case of late Mrs. Stella Obasanjo, who faced similar challenges (when the then President Obasanjo refused to recognize her as First Lady). While late Stella leaned heavily on friends of Obasanjo’s government to finance her pet project, Aisha Buhari has been left in the lurch because of the consequences of TSA and BVN, through which account details of wealthy and poor ones are traced by Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and other anti graft bodies. Everybody suddenly becomes poor, including those that are still stinking rich, but are hiding from Buhari’s anti corruption soldiers!
And so, with Aisha seriously looking for relevance in her husband’s government, and which he (Buhari), in the spirit of Change, denies her, conflict is bound to rise. Therefore, having been thoroughly frustrated, Aisha (who I used to call my Mum because that is the name of my mother), went hay wire.
Come to think of it, after having married to Buhari for nearly 27 years, and with five children, all grown up, one would have thought that Aisha would have understood Buhari enough not to misunderstand him when he came up with Change, which he repeatedly says, is a concept and not a political gimmick, that must be imbibed by all Nigerians. And it is Aisha who is supposed to take it as a project down to the nooks and cronies of this country, especially, amongst women.
Buhari’s Change mantra, the way one understands it, is that things that were being done before and were considered to be normal, common place and acceptable would not be allowed to continue: that if all such things had led the country to a near economic, social and cultural comatose, we need to try something else. Such things including cancellation of the concept of First Ladies or for the wife dictating to, or having a bigger role to play in the way the President makes decision, carries out relevant appointments and or runs the government generally.
This was why the President jokingly referred to Aisha, in his response to her diatribe, as belonging to his kitchen, the living room and the other room, since she doesn’t belong to any political party. In other words, Aisha belongs to Buhari, his ideologies, his beliefs, his dos and his don’ts as well as all that he represents and holds dear. And disagreeing with any of such things about Buhari, her husband, by her religious belief, should not have been the subject of public ridicule or consumption.
Let’s tarry awhile to understand that this world is too small and life is too short for Aisha and her likes to carry traditional gong into the market place and display anger. Especially with her own flesh…Buhari.
No matter what. [myad]
