By Nnanke Harry Willie
The wife of Nigeria’s president, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has played a rare activist role in the Buhari presidency hitherto unknown, unimaginable and unseen in not just Nigeria but in the world.
Mrs. Buhari’s most recent activist stride was displayed a few days ago when she informed the nation that her husband had underperformed due to the unmitigated power and influence of who she described as “Two Powerful Personalities” who according to her “had constituted themselves as a cog in the wheel of speedy development of the country.”
Our dear president’s wife who spoke at a conference organised by Project 4+4 in Abuja, however refrained from mentioning the names of the powerful persons. According to reports, Mrs Aisha Buhai explained that the government had achieved a lot but could have achieved even more but for two people in government who will never allow things to move fast. The President’s wife said that she was disappointed in men who rather than fight these two men will go to them at night begging for favours.
Respected online publication, persecondnews.com also reported that the president’s wife urged Nigerian women to arise and fight and added “I have realised that Senator Babafemi Ojodu, Special Adviser, political, to the President, and Dr. Hajo Sani, and wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Osinbajo, are not comfortable with my saying this and want me to confine myself to my prepared speech but we must say the truth.” adding that the powerful duo were retrogressive elements preventing the government from moving forward.
In October 2016, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, in a BBC interview told a stunned world that her husband was being held hostage by a cabal and had thus hijacked his government. According to her “The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years”
Mrs Aisha Buhari said people who did not share the vision of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were appointed to top posts because of the influence a “few people” wield. According to her, “Some people are sitting down in their homes folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position.” According to BBC’s Naziru Mikailu “the president’s wife’s decision to go public with her concerns will shock many people, but it shows the level of discontent with the president’s leadership”.
On October 9, 2017 at the opening of a two-day stakeholders’ meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, a period when Buhari had spent almost 6 months in London Hospital receiving top-notch medical treatment, Mrs Aisha Buhari told a shocked audience that she wondered what could have happened to a common man on the street if Buhari could spend several months outside Nigeria for health reasons.
She recalled that she was sick recently and was advised to travel abroad because of the poor state of the (Aso Rock) clinic. The President’s wife explained that she had to go to a private hospital owned by foreigners when she was told that the x-ray machine in the State House Medical Centre was not working. She further lamented that the Aso Rock Clinic was so badly managed that consumables such as syringes and paracetamol were not readily available. Mrs Buhari observed that although the CMD would not be happy that she spoke publicly on the issue, the truth, she noted, must be always be said.
In the 2016 BBC interview, Mrs Buhari said she will not support or campaign for her husband’s second term bid if things did not improve. As discerning Nigerians can all attest, things have even gotten worse since then. Poverty has so permeated the country that it is now designated as the poverty capital of the world. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) to end extreme poverty by 2030 is now unlikely to be met due, in large part, to Nigeria.
With 86.9 million Nigerians now living in extreme poverty, this represents nearly 50% of our estimated 180 million population. As we advance Nigeria towards becoming the world’s third largest country by 2050 due to a booming population, we are sitting pretty on a time bomb if we do not get a leadership that will begin to reverse this ugly trend and set us on the path to real progress and growth.
Of course, poverty is being fuelled by bourgeoning unemployment as well over 12 million jobs have reportedly been lost under the Buhari administration.
The failure to substantially resettle IDPs in the north-east and the brutal unleashing of militant invasion of farm settlements and towns in Benue, Kogi, Plateau, Edo, Delta, Zamfara, Taraba and Kaduna states along with wanton kidnappings and killings across the country is surely a major cause of loss of jobs by farmers and so, food security is also a major cause of concern at this time.
Quite unfortunately, President Buhari’s major campaign promise which is to ‘fight corruption’ has been largely unfulfilled. Rather, corruption has eaten deeper into the social fabric and soul of the country as reflected in 2 recent scandals in Aso Rock villa. If unmitigated corruption thrives well in the presidency, then where can be free from the crippling monster?
First was when Mrs. Aisha Buhari’s Aide-de-Camp (ADC) was accused of collecting over 2 billion Naira ‘on behalf’ of the first lady’ but, of course never remitted same, since she was not a part of the scheme in the first place. He is being investigated by the DSS after a Police investigation cleared him of any wrong-doing. It is clear, however that people in the presidency have been stealing in the name of the Buharis unabated.
The second is a N150 million Naira scam which the accused, a middle-aged lady variously known as Amina Mohammed, Justina Oluoha and Amina Villa has stoutly insisted that the money was proceeds of bribes and that it was not fraud as alleged since Chicason, the giver is used to the system in the villa and he knows he needs to give bribe to top officials in the presidency in order to get the choice properties he was interested in. Meaning, there is a well-oiled corruption machine working at full steam in the presidential villa even under Buhari’s presidency. According to the accused, operators of this machine includes sacked secretary to the government of the federation (SGF) Mr Babachir Lawal!
The above revelations justify the slide in the corruption perception index of Transparency International for Nigeria which dropped from 136th position in 2016 to 148th in 2018.
While Mrs Aisha Buhari has consistently blamed fifth columnists for President Buhari’s shortcomings, Buhari, his Vice, Prof Yemi Osinbajo and his officials have rather been blaming past administrations for poor performance. What is therefore not in doubt is that, so far, Buhari’s score-card is more of a failure than a success. Actually, critics will say it is a resounding failure!
So, as patriotic Nigerians, shouldn’t we trust the wife of the president and hearken to the cries of Mrs Aisha Buhari who has been telling us nothing but the whole truth about her husband’s inability to control of his appointees and effectively take charge of his own administration? Shouldn’t we spare her the misery of going through another four years of seeing her beloved husband’s mandate hijacked and flagrantly abused? She has told us in simple language that president Buhari has not been in charge of his presidency, so should we, yet again, bring in another set of de facto proxy presidents?
I believe, Aisha Buhari deserves better, I believe president Buhari also deserves better (with a well-needed rest) and I believe fervently that Nigerians deserve much, much better. Let us retire Buhari now and bring in a president who will truly be in charge of our country and pull us out of the jaws of Nigeria’s pending damnation.
Enough is enough!!!
