■ President Buhari advised to ban Aisha from Aso Rock; Cleric calls for her arrest
■ Aisha felt she was just used for the election, to boost Buhari’s image, and then dumped
While the news media, and social media walls are suffused with the controversy over a latest public verbal feud between Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari, and her husband, President Buhari, International Guardian has unearthed a can of worms that might have provoked the latest scuffle.
Aisha recently took her case to the world, when she granted a controversial interview to the BBC, denouncing her husband’s leadership approach, and threatening to withdraw her support in an anticipated 2019 reelection campaign unless he shakes up his government. In a BBC interview, Aisha Buhari suggested his government had been hijacked by only a “few people”, who were behind presidential appointments.
But the President Buhari’s response set the global media fraternity on fire when standing alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a news conference, he said “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.” While Buhari’s camp played down this comment as a mere expression of humor, majority of Nigerians and other communities worldwide denounce the comment as chauvinistic, and utterly abusive.
Further investigations however revealed that Aisha’s comment may have been a prolongation of her ongoing feud with the President over issues of family and government. In July 2016, International Guardian reported how Aisha was relegated in activities of Aso Rock and how staffers loyal to her were not taking likely. One of Aisha’s Aso Rock informant then who vowed to leak to the media, the unfolding drama surrounding the presidency – questioning why the wife of the President would need a protocol to see her husband, and vowing that “If they want fire, we will give them fire.” The latest feud may be just that fire, it was gathered.
Furthermore, one of President Buhari’s right-hand person, Alhaji Mamman Daura who is also his nephew, it was reported then, relocated to the presidential Villa permanently, directing most of the President’s protocol, and at some point, clashes with the First Lady over communicating personal matters about her husband.
Aisha’s worst nightmare remained one mystery girl identified as Buhari’s mistress. International Guardian in July reported how this curvaceous light skinned journalist based in Canada was brought back to Nigeria and lodged in an exquisite suite on the third level of an Abuja five star hotel; how she spent most times with the President, and helped him with media issues, especially in identifying bloggers and activists bitterly opposed to his regime. The report cited Nnamdi Kanu who was arrested on October 18, 2015, in Lagos State by Nigeria’s secret police the Department of State Services (DSS). As one of the victim of this operation.
Yet Aisha’s headache with her husband transcends her isolation from the regime she painstakingly was instrumental to, but allegedly is unconnected with her and her children’s position in the Buhari’s family. Confided a source, “You know that Oga President has been sick for some time now, and Aisha wants to get closer, but that has not been possible.”
Buhari vs. Aisha: War in Aso Rock as the First Lady gets a much younger rival
Another source claimed that Aisha and Buhari barley communicated to each other for years until during a heated 2014 electioneering campaign. Buhari seen as ‘anti-women’ needed Aisha to boost his image toward women and families. Aisha in turn saw a request to campaign alongside her husband as an opportunity to reestablish a nonexistent relationship with him and their children. According to an informant, “Buhari has been in-and-out of hospital since 2011, and Aisha and her children didn’t care so much – so why does she think that everything would just change overnight? Aisha, on the other hand felt she was used for the election and dumped, so when she made that comment at the BBC, I knew exactly where she was coming from.”
President Buhari’s silent brawl with the First lady, Aisha has been vividly clear, but people apparently do not just see it. International Guardian reported how Buhari brought his son Yusuf as soon as he won the election, and took him around, showing his properties and establishments he owned. Aisha became excited when multiple photos of Buhari and their son made it to the social media, and equally brought back her daughters to Aso Rock to establish their own rightful grounds. But the romance did not last long, it was gathered.
The latest controversy between supposedly the two family heads however brought to light the intensity of their prolonged fight over issues of family and official business. Top family heads very close to Buhari, it was gathered, have advised the President to ban Aisha from Aso Rock.
President Buhari’s secret scuffle with Aisha however got worse shortly before he made a 2-week medical leave to Europe and Aisha was neither briefed not allowed to see him. During the campaign, Aisha was allowed to travel with him for medical checkups until he became the president, and a source told International Guardian then, “This is not right. I could not conceive the president going on a medical leave without any of his immediate family members – not even his wife. Aisha has always travelled with him in other medical trips, so why would it be different this time?”
When Buhari went to the United Nations meeting in September, it was presumed that he actually travelled with his family after photos of Aisha and the children made it to the media taking selfies and playing around while matters of the government were being discussed. It was however revealed that Aisha singlehandedly arranged her own trip with her children, and had no communication with her husband during that trip.
The latest controversy between supposedly the two “first” family heads however brought to light the intensity of their prolonged fight over issues of family and official business. Top family heads very close to Buhari, it was gathered, have advised the President to ban Aisha from Aso Rock.
Also, on Friday, the leader of the Jamaatul Izalatul Bid’ah Mosque in Farm Center, Kano, Shiek Ismail Illyasu Mangu called on the regime to arrest Aisha. The cleric spoke to the thousands of worshipers immediately after the Jumaat prayer, calling on security agencies to arrest the first lady because, “her interview is capable of inciting millions of Nigerians against her husband”. The cleric claimed the Aisha’s statement was unfair and capable of inciting violence. “It is a threat to the peace of the country and we do hope the security agencies will immediately arrest her,” he said.
This is just an indication of the anticipated backlash of the Aisha’s bold and public expression of her grievance with Buhari. Reliable source confided that Aiaha’s children were worried about the current development, but added, “Aisha really does not care at the moment what would happen. I think she has some people behind her sha.”
Leave a Reply