Opinion: Pres. Buhari must listen to his wife, Aisha

by Sumner Shagari Sambo

President Muhammadu Buhari is a difficult man to deal with, if in doubt….ask Aisha Buhari, his wife.

The woman should be celebrated for being a good wife that tells her husband the home truth both at home and abroad.

No one must muzzle Mrs. Buhari for expressing her frustrations to her husband at home and finally in the public, because he has refused to listen to her.

President Buhari is happy to appoint people he doesn’t know personally, because he doesn’t want to be accused of nepotism. But is he not already being accused by the opposition, some of his supporters and many Nigerians of what he was trying to run away from?

Mrs. Buhari seems not to be so much bothered on the president’s appointees but for the fact that many of them are non-performing thereby pitching the public against her husband.

From her interview, I deduce that her major grouse is that many of the appointees do not share her husband’s vision, legacies or the principles of the APC for if they were performing very well in office, it would have been easier to convince party members who are complaining by telling them “look, my husband likes working only with people who can DELIVER on his campaign promises, not just party members.”

Mrs. Buhari believes in compensating  people who suffered under the rain and in the sun to get her husband elected in 2015. I also do, and this is what every good mother should do especially after receiving complaints from staunch party supporters.

Yes, President Buhari dislikes many politicians because of their reckless behaviour with public funds when appointed to public office but you can’t use people and dump them. As a leader,
he should give them responsibilities while setting stringent accounting procedures in place to curb their greed. As for refusing to compensate them, I disagree with him…just like his wife, Mrs. Buhari.

Is it true that there is a government within a government, YES, it is normal with kitchen cabinets. Should Mrs. Buhari be afraid for her husband, YES. Should he listen to her and amend his ways to accommodate her views alongside his thoughts, YES. Is she working for the opposition, NO. Should he discipline her, NO!

Only those who love you tell you the bitter truth cos operating as a military head of state is different from operating as an elected president where demonic lying politicians and cocky technocrats can easily put you in a maze with all sort of evil strategies, documented reports, memos and foreign trips to keep you busy all day only for you to wake up and discover that your first term is over. You want to know more? Then ask ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo on his first term experience!

Mrs. Buhari is afraid for her husband because when the game is up and President Buhari loses, it is only her and her children that would be by his side even as the busybody politicians, technocrats and even nephews switch allegiance to their next victim. She must have been educated by past first ladies and experienced politicians who wielded gargantuan powers yesterday but are now political dump-sites today.

My advise to Mrs. Buhari is not to allow the opposing forces to cash in on her calls, to break her home. Do not allow the religious and ethnic zealots to interfere in this issue. Ask them to keep their advises and ensure you fence them away from your husband and home before they deposit those suggestive ideas of a new wife to him, and ultimately your sack. Yes the truth has been said by you, but ensure your husband sees this as friendly-fire and not enemy-fire. Well, you know the consequences of it being the latter, Hajia Sefinatu’s experience is a fresh example here.

Also, in a presidential system of government where the President is expected to make over four thousand key appointees, you and your husband will never know all of them. This is the simple truth. Many of them would have to come from political and non-political groups. They are likely to be individuals that are friends of friends of your husband’s allies within and outside the party. In-fact, if many of them are to be chosen based on merit and federal character, you would know only a handful of them.

Those making jokes of President Buhari’s joke of Aisha belonging to the kitchen, while in Germany, misinterpreted him jocularly. He couldn’t have meant what you thought or are still thinking. For God’s sake, this is a man that married his wife in her late teens but allowed her to gain a first and postgraduate degree right inside his home. He also allowed her freedom to engage in the  business of cosmetology. Many core-northerners of Buhari’s age group in northern Nigeria hardly allowed such in the past!

Dear President Buhari, though you are a difficult man to many people, you should not be one to your wife. This is the time to listen to the golden voice of Aisha….she means well for you but you seem not to be listening to her because you are busy satisfying those who will abuse you tomorrow after feeding fat from your government. It’s time to CHANGE!


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

EDITOR’S NOTE: Sumner Shagari Sambo is a Nigerian journalist based in the capital, Abuja.

One comment

  1. We agree. But next time they should have their Statements rehearsed beforehand or have a prepared statement when granting interviews

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