Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari recently ventilated her concerns with her husband’s leadership of the country and the response of President Muhammadu Buhari has given the Nigerian gossip market another product to ply their trade. The wife of the president claimed that her husband’s administration has been hijacked by persons who did not labour for the All Progressives Congress presidential victory. Aisha progressed to warn her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari that she may not back him at the 2019 election unless he shakes up his government and remove persons she considers as join-men. Her words with the BBC , “The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years.”
President Muhammadu Buhari on his part replied the wife before the media in the German capital, Berlin, when he answered reporters’ questions that sought his reaction to his wife’s comments.“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.”
Very often and customary of their modus operandi, sycophants would want to do some damage control where and when possible as a strategy of tagging-on with their targeted principals for obvious reasons of sustaining their rental lives. Such characters sometimes cry more than the bereaved. On the occasion of Aisha’s outburst and the husband’s response, they came denying for Mr. President explaining that “he was quoted out of context.” But Mr. President that we know came up again to reaffirm his statement that his wife belongs to his kitchen. This statement speaks volumes of the infighting that would have taken place between the First couple.
Expectedly, Nigerians have been baring their minds on the issue which is still raging. To some, Aisha Buhari did not need to make such an outburst in the public, they would have preferred her discussing the issue with the husband extensively in their closet and resolve whatever the issues are there and then without making it a public matter.
A gender activist said, “this woman like the late wife of Abdulsalam Abubakar, Fati has shattered our assumptions once again about Northern women. We in the South have always assumed wrongly about Hausa women. We always think they are confined only to the kitchen or bedroom without having a say in the decisions their husband’s make. Mrs. Abubakar, as a judge pressured her husband to relinquish power in 1999.Now we are seeing criticism coming from Mrs. Buhari herself unlike what we had in the last administration. Thank God for this rare wonderful Nigerian first family. With them, Nigeria is heading the right direction.”

Another activist said “the Constitution posits that federal character must be considered in the appointment of ministers. For a president that’s just having a taste of democracy for the very first time, it won’t be easy for him to identify people of integrity in every state of the federation. He would have to rely on his political associates from other states for recommendation of viable appointees which could be misleading. Buhari is more of a regional converted democrat. Therefore, if he is to appoint only people he knows, he would appoint those that served under him in the 80’s who are now too old to serve and are mainly northerners.”

In my considered view, these commentaries are not all untoward. Some make real sense, more so when he who brings home ant-infested faggots must be prepared to contend with lizards. I strongly believe that Aisha Buhari who has been with Mr. President for over 27 years ought to know him better than any Nigerian. One recalls that once the President won the election he made it abundantly clear to all that he was going to scrap the office of the First Lady created by other past Presidents reasoning that such an office was not supported by the Nigerian constitution.
Shortly after his swearing-in, Nigerians noticed that the First Lady, Aisha Buhari went to the office operated by the immediate past First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, same office operated by Mrs. Stella Obasanjo to begin the operation of the office. Aisha had received in audience, wives of state governors in that office and was sharing with them her plans to operate the office. I imagine that Mr. President would have been looking at her as a deviant and rebellious wife.

But Aisha Buhari ought to know better that once her husband has said a thing, having been convinced about it, he would not want to go back on it with any ease. He had his reasons for taking the decision that his wife would not operate office of the first Lady as did her predecessor because he was coming to prosecute a war against corruption ravaging the country and preventing it from development and at the same time impoverishing millions of innocent citizens who do not have access to the public till like the priviledged public officer. How does Aisha want her office funded, because there can no longer be a national budget for office of the First Lady?

Clearly, some of us can conveniently see Aisha Buhari’s outburst as a sharp reaction to begin to discredit the man because he has kept faith with his promise to Nigerians that he was not going to operate the First Lady’s office in his time. I am sure that is what led the man to say Aisha belongs to his kitchen, the living room and the other room.
Prior to his election as President, most people saw Muhammadu Buhari, as the most disciplined leader Nigeria ever has. He as military Head of State launched and successfully prosecuted the “War Against Indiscipline” which, remains one of the best policies ever in the annals of the nation’s chequered history. Aisha and many Nigerians need this kind of policy to solve many of our problems, such as insecurity and corruption.
Only very few persons in Nigeria today can deny the fact that the country is faced with multifaceted challenges in the areas of security, power, education, employment, corruption and many others, and it is only a focused government headed by an enigmatic leader like Buhari that can address the nation’s many challenges.
Economic recession or not, what the country needs at the moment is a president with a strong character and direction to lead the country. President Muhammadu Buhari, is the only viable Nigrian who could deal with our character, attitude and indiscipline to make the country to move forward.
The point is that you could have the best economic experts and managers but if all the economy generates as revenue goes down the drain through corruption, greed and nepotism, then the problems would continue to remain with us and we would not make any progress.
I will encourage our First Lady, Aisha Buhari to learn to understand her husband who many of us can easily discern his next move from our long distances. Being a closer person to him, Aisha Buhari and her friends ought to know the man better and save the nation of any form of embarrassment in the future.

• Mr. Dan Owegie is a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.