The Hypocrisy of President Buhari and his Wife

It is a common impression that people who most times appear in public to feign prudish are more often than not extremely lascivious, especially when indoor activities or matters about them are involved. This, at the very best, presents a typical and relevant analogy to the obvious sort of hypocrisy that Mr. and Mrs. Muhammadu and Aiasha Buhari appear to be currently indulging themselves as much as their minds can oblige them that members of the public are currently suffering from amnesia on issues pertaining to the continued existence of the office of the first lady.

As we may recall, Major General Muhammadu Buhari had publicly averred – during the 2015 Presidential electioneering, that should he win and be sworn in as the next President (which he is now), that he would not hesitate to scrap the office of the first lady and, by implication, bring to an end the perceived corruption and public disorder perception associated with the movement of the occupant of the office within our political landscape.

Though Mr. Buhari’s wife, Madam Aiasha Buhari, did swiftly intervene in an apparent desperation to allay the fear of the womenfolk – the chief beneficiaries of the mileage that accrues from the existence of the office of the First Lady – by countering her husband’s seemingly anti-women remark and thus overruling him, the truth however, as one could candidly observe it, is that President Muhammadu Buhari is now understandably a pliable phenomenon within the context of the same prism which former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was rightly or wrongly adjudged and called all sorts of names, and which tended to propagate the impression that he was allegedly being controlled by his spouse.

Curiously, however, instead of going the whole hog of scrapping the office of the first lady now he has ultimately come on board and, more importantly, pursuant to the campaign promise made to the electorate by himself, and not his wife who is not known by the people in this context, President Muhammadu Buhari has not only reneged on this pledge so far, but also he has alternatively and subtly opted to further deceive the ever gullible bulk of the masses of this country by merely telling them that this office would be better baptised and renamed the office of wife of Mr. President than scrapping  – but this is not just a quintessential instance of a failed campaign promise of but also it is  a mere change of nomenclature that has not in any way fundamentally altered the usual first-lady malady and its associated effect as a parallel government. Unfortunately, here we are with the same man (now Mr. President) who would want the electorate to believe him at the time that whatever office or position belonging to the wife of the President, irrespective of whatever name it was called and which allowed her (that is the wife of Mr. President) the opportunities to parade around or bestride the polity for whatever reason(s), was not only unconstitutional but equally worthy of being scrapped.

Today, ironically, President Muhammadu Buhari no longer subscribes to this same belief or views the office of the first lady, which is now renamed the office of wife of Mr. President in line with the APC’s change mantra perhaps, as representing or consisting in that same yesterday’s unconstitutional phenomenon that deserved no existence – which incidentally his wife too is beginning to use it to disturb and disrupt the peace, tranquillity and order in our polity.

To be specific, aside from using this same platform, like Mrs. Jonathan and her predecessors did, to kick-start her own politics of “helping” the less privileged and the like in the society, Mrs. Aiasha Buhari has suddenly become such a caring and great philanthropist that recent media reports had it that she “donated undisclosed amount of money to 48 victims of the recent Gombe bomb blast admitted at the Federal Teaching and Specialist Hospital, Gombe state” through Hajiya Aisha Jibir, a member representing Dukku/Nafada Federal constituency of Gombe state. Of course, much as there is nothing clearly wrong in caring for the people living in anguish or in being charitable to the less privileged, especially by the wife of Mr. President, somehow what remains baffling in the circumstance is the motive behind the concealment of the actual amount of money given to the victims of the foregoing bomb blast or, better still, why the amount given should be shrouded in secrecy.

In the same vein, it defies understanding where from Mrs. Aisha Buhari is currently getting the huge sum with the aid of which the office of the wife of Mr. President is being funded and/or sustained for now. And in the absence of being part of or enjoying any known budgetary allocation in this regard for now, it is most unlikely that she (Mrs. Buhari) owes her source of funding to Mr. Buhari’s less than thirty (N30) Million Naira worth of liquid cash being part of his assets declaration prior to being sworn in on May 29, 2015 as a President.

Moreover, it is by no means less hypocritical that the same President Muhammadu Buhari who has been strutting and pontificating (like a wise guy) about the need to reduce the cost of governance by merging government ministries, departments and parastatals as well as by sacking the permanent secretaries even before their due time for retirement, all in an effort to trim down government expenses, has consciously or unconsciously allowed his wife to be moving helter skelter for the sake of operating her sub-ministries within the larger official government ministries and with no seemingly serious check on her regarding the limit to which she could spend in the course of playing her politics of “helping the less privileged. Yet, it does not seem that even Mr. President has ever taken the task upon himself to impress it on her wife on the imperative of being transparent in the way and manner she dishes out fund in the general operation of her sub-ministries or “parallel government”. Otherwise, how on earth could one fathom the rationale behind the actual amount of money reportedly given to the foregoing victims of recent Gombe bomb blast admitted at the Federal Teaching and Specialist Hospital, Gombe state, whereas the same wife of Mr. President, Madam Aisha Buhari, felt free and proud to bring to the attention of the public and, in fact, the world that over 2000 ( two thousand) women had been freely screened under the auspices of her women health initiative project tagged “Aishatu Buhari Women Health Inititaive”, which reportedly took place at the Queens school Enugu, Enugu state. Indeed, like her husband, Madam Aisha Buhari’s notion of transparency and openness in the running of the office of the wife of Mr. President seems somewhat to be determined by and dependent on the people and/or the section of the country involved. In other words, Mrs. Buhari seems to be guided by subjective interpretation of the meaning of transparency and openness in the running of the affairs of her office – an office hitherto perceived and reportedly declared unconstitutional and as such unworthy of existence by no other than her husband (Mr. Muhammadu Buhari) during the 2015 Presidential campaign.

Interestingly, after fussing about the former First Lady’s, Dame Patience Jonathan’s, visit to Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka’s Adoration Ministry in Enugu, by members of the APC, their spouses, supporters and sympathizers, Mrs. Aisha Buhari  has today become a pilgrim and visitor to the hallowed ground of the Adoration Ministry. But as some people may ask, is there anything wrong with that? Your answer is as good as mine.

Anyhow, what is important now is that President Muhammadu Buhari must try to fulfil his campaign promise by scrapping the office of the first lady or office of the wife of Mr. President or whatever appellation that may be adopted to disguise its existence. The truth is that Hajiya Aisha Buhari should, as a matter of urgency, begin to help the government and the people of this country at large in their ongoing efforts to reduce the cost of governance by putting an end to the “parallel government” which the running of the office of wife of Mr. President signifies.

Onyiorah Paschal Chiduluemije writes from Abuja via duluemije4justice@yahoo.com  Please join me on facebook or follow me on twitter @onyiorahpaschal.

The Hypocrisy of President Buhari and his Wife

Aisha Buhari urges FG to pay N5,000 allowance to unemployed

Abuja – The Wife of the President, Mrs Aisha Buhari, has appealed to the ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), not to renege on its campaign promise of paying N5,000 to 25 million unemployed Nigerians.

This is contained in a statement signed by the Special Assistant to the president’s wife on Media, Mrs Adebisi Ajayi, on Tuesday in Abuja.

She also urged the party to fulfill its promise of giving school children one free meal a day.

She stated this after the Senate voted against the motion calling on the Presidency to pay the N5,000 allowance.

“The APC is a party of integrity and has assured Nigerians during the campaign that it will pay N5,000 each month to 25 million most vulnerable citizens.

“Nigerians should be patient with the APC government as the change they had been yearning for has come to stay,’’ she said.

Aisha Buhari urges FG to pay N5,000 allowance to unemployed

Replace your commissioner - Aisha Buhari tells Adamawa Governor

Wife of the President, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, on Friday called on Governor Muhammed Bindow Jibrilla of Adamawa State to swap his male Commissioner for Women Affairs, Alhaji Aliyu Tola, with a woman.

Hajiya Buhari made the call in Yola, the capital, while inaugurating a free medical check-up for 2,000 women in the state under her pet project, the Aisha Buhari Women Health Initiative.

She said women in the state were protesting the appointment of a man as commissioner and appealed to the governor to appoint a woman in that office instead.

She said, “The women are protesting. They asked me to pass their wishes to have a woman as their commissioner for women affairs.”

Tola, who was asked to deliver his speech before that of the wife of the president, seemed to have sensed the women’s countenance, tactically uttering a few words before inviting the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Hajiya Maisaratu Bello, a woman, to address the gathering.

The appointment of Tola as the first male Commissioner of Women Affairs in Adamawa has sparked debate in the state with some criticising it and others supporting it.

Those against it argued that the ministry was meant to carry women along hence the need to make it exclusively for them, while those in support said the full name of the ministry is Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development making it open for male and female to be made commissioners.

There are four female commissioners in Adamawa. They are Dr. Fatima Atiku Abubakar (Health), Barrister Lilian Kayode (Works), Mrs. Victoria Sashi (Mineral Resources) and Dr. Kaleptawa Farauta (Education).

Replace your commissioner - Aisha Buhari tells Adamawa Governor

We May Request Aisha Buhari To Declare - PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday hinted that it may soon demand the public disclosure of the assets of the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha.

Olisah Metuh

In a statement made available to news men in Abuja on Friday by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh,the party recalled that the president in his own words had told Nigerians that, “I pledge to publicly declare my assets and liability and also encourage my political appointees to publicly declare their assets and liability.”

The party described as “deceptive window-dressing to hoodwink unsuspecting Nigerians, the release, by an aide of the President, of a mere list of some belongings of President Muhammadu Buhari and his vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, in place of the pledge made to Nigerians by Mr. President as candidate of the APC on March 18, 2015, at exactly 5 pm to publicly declare his assets if elected the president of Nigeria.”

The PDP, while questioning the contents of the list released by the president hinted that it was “not yet demanding the public declaration of his assets in his wife’s name.”

The PDP observed that President Buhari and his vice failed to produce copies of their declarations, detailing the exact nature and value of respective assets.

According to the statement,“the release of a mere list of belongings falls short of credibility, transparency and anti-corruption standards as well as exposes the proclivity of the present administration for deception.”

The statement reads:“We have noted the release of a flimsy list of belongings of President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo by the Presidency, who wants such to pass as the public declaration of assets as pledged by the President”.

“Nigerians are not deceived by this poor attempt at window-dressing designed by the Presidency to hoodwink the unsuspecting populace in a desperate bid to shore up its diminished image.

“We ask, is the resort to a mere list, instead of true copies of the declaration, not a ploy to give the Presidency a window for denial in consonance with their widely observed inclination for flip flopping, backtracking and brazen denials of their statements and actions?

“All we want is credibility, integrity and sincerity of purpose. We are not questioning how a president, who by December last year, declared that he had only N1 million in his account, could suddenly now list N30 million in the same bank account by May 29, and after an expensive campaign; we are not yet demanding the public declaration of his assets in his wife’s name.

“We are not even applauding the multiplication of his cows from 150 to 250 in a space of three months, arising from his dual and conflicting pronouncements on this issue.

“What the PDP and discerning Nigerians demand is for Mr. President to always stand by his words and pledge”.

“Mr. President, this is a mere list of your belongings and not public declaration of assets in fulfillment of your covenant with Nigerians,” the PDD stressed.

We May Request Aisha Buhari To Declare - PDP

Aisha Buhari takes over Patience Jonathan"s Office

Notwithstanding the change in nomenclature, Wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, has been operating from the Office of the First Lady located inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja, SUNDAY PUNCH can report authoritatively.

Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari

Ahead of the March 28 presidential election, Buhari, who was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, had promised that he would not have an office for the First Lady should he emerge victorious at the election.

“The Office of the First Lady is not in the constitution, so there’s no official role for them,” Buhari had said.

As the campaigns progressed however, Mrs. Buhari joined the APC team.

That made observers doubt whether the President would be able to walk his talk.

Since her husband’s assumption of office, Mrs. Buhari has dropped the title of “First Lady” used by her predecessors, including Mrs. Patience Jonathan.

She adopted the title of “Wife of the President.”

Investigations by our correspondent have, however, showed that apart from the nomenclature, nothing significant has changed.

Mrs. Buhari and her handlers operate from the First Lady’s office used by her predecessors, it was learnt.

The office is located beside the official residence of the President.

Her office, like it was under her predecessors, houses her staff members, including personal aides, security details and protocol officials, among others.

She has so far organised events similar to the ones that were not in short supply under her immediate predecessor, Mrs. Jonathan.

The first event organised by Mrs. Buhari was an elaborate “thank you dinner” she organised in honour of APC women and youths for supporting her husband’s election.

The President’s wife, during the recently concluded Ramadan, also broke her fast with some women leaders and the less privileged.

Recently, the Office of the Wife of the President, in conjunction with a United Kingdom-based private firm, organised a seminar on protocol, etiquette and security for wives of state governors.

At that event, the President’s wife charged the wives of the state governors to come up with laudable programmes to complement their husbands’ efforts.

At the conclusion of Ramadan, Mrs. Buhari also hosted children to an elaborate Sallah party.

All these events were held inside the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with glamour.

Apart from these, the President’s wife, represented by some individuals, had donated either cash or relief items to internally displaced persons and other groups in parts of the country.

Our correspondent also learnt that she is at the verge of initiating a pet project, a platform that will be used to meet specific needs.

That has also been the style of previous First Ladies.

The Director of Media in the Office of the Wife of the President, Zakari Yau Nadabo, confirmed to our correspondent on Thursday that arrangements were ongoing for a pet project for Mrs. Buhari.

Nadabo said the first step was to identify the area where the President’s wife is interested in making intervention.

He said, “It is not about initiating a pet project alone. The first step is to identify the area. The plan is already in the pipeline. Issues are just beginning to take shape.

“We do not want to rush. We want to take our time to do a careful analysis so that we can intervene in critical areas.”

Aisha Buhari takes over Patience Jonathan"s Office

Don"t serve my husband, but Nigerians- Aishat to Buhari’s aides

The wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, on Saturday implored politicians who may be picked to work with President Muhammadu Buhari and all his political associates to be careful the way they carry themselves.

Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari

She said such people should be wary of the fact that it took her husband 12 years before getting to the position he currently occupies and hence, they should tread with caution.

Mrs. Buhari said this during an “Appreciation Dinner” she hosted in honour of the All Progressives Congress’ women and youths at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

She said, “There was nothing that people did not say about the past administration. It is not former President Goodluck Jonathan that is not good but the people around him.

“So, the people that are going to be around President Buhari have to be very careful because this election ended peacefully.

“We are praying and hoping that people around him should know that it took him 12 years to get to that position and they must know that they are coming to serve the masses, not General Buhari.

“It is the people that are around him that will determine the political health of our state.”

The President’s wife also promised that the current administration would run an open government.

She said government under her husband would be run differently from what was obtainable under Jonathan when people were allegedly asked to be paying huge amount of money in foreign currency before they could see the President or his wife.

“I will like to inform you that in the past regime, whether it is true or false, only God knows, some people were going round and parading themselves as personal assistants.

“If you wanted to see the President’s wife, you will pay $30,000 or $50,000 and if you are seeing the President, you will pay all that you have saved in your lifetime.

“This will not happen in our regime. Whoever asks you to give a single penny in the name of coming to see the President or his wife is not our (member of) staff. He is not an APC member, it is a lie. Don’t be deceived,” she said.

Taking a look at her husband’s 12-year journey towards returning as President, Mrs. Buhari said her active participation in the last electioneering made the difference.

She said she did not take part in the campaigns of her husband’s first three shots at the Presidency because that was how those who surrounded him at that time wanted it.

This time, she said it was a national leader of the APC and a former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who encouraged her to play an active role.

She also faulted claims that made the rounds ahead of the elections on the alleged gender-insensitivity of her husband, saying they were mere fabrications.

Describing Buhari as the pillar of her success despite the generation gap between the two of them, she said it was the President who encouraged her to go to school.

Mrs. Buhari said, “Many people did not know why I was not appearing for the last three campaigns. I appeared only this time and I think it made a lot of difference. A lot of people said my husband earned four million votes as a result of my campaign.

“We were not sure but with the popularity of my husband, we thought then that he needed female support to cancel all sorts of gender bias people have been attaching to him like that he kept me under a purdah.”

“He had never kept me under a purdah even for a moment since I got married to him…

“My husband is a gender-sensitive human being, having so many girls as his own biological children and then having me as a wife, then you can see the generation gap. He allowed me to go to school. To cut the story short, he is the pillar of my success.”

She thanked Nigerian women and youths for the roles they played towards the success of the last election, saying she was aware of their steadfastness during the electioneering up until the elections proper.

These efforts, she said, contributed significantly to her husband’s success story.

Mrs. Buhari regretted that the number of women that made it to the National Assembly during the current dispensation declined drastically from the number obtainable during the last regime.

She said the current figure was not fair to women and they felt they are not represented.

Mrs. Buhari said something drastic had to be done to address the high rate of divorce in the North, the harrowing experience of widows in the South and the harassment of female students in the nation’s higher institutions.

Earlier, a former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, who was the chairman of the event, had thanked Mrs. Buhari and other women for making his job as the Director-General of the Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Organisation easier.

Don"t serve my husband, but Nigerians- Aishat to Buhari’s aides

How Buhari"s Trip To UK Throws Tinubu, Amaechi, Others Into Confusion

• Buhari reads riot act to wife over helicopter’s picture

Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s unannounced trip to the United Kingdom last week has caused disquiet among several bigwigs in his All Progressives Congress (APC) as it is the first clear signal that the President- Elect is a man of independent thinking determined to govern the Buhari way.

General Buhari

Sources informed THISDAY that not only did the President-Elect choose not to inform the party’s leadership of his intending trip, he travelled to the UK with  only 2 Personal Assistants, Seriki Abba and a Mr Tunde . He was received at the door of the aircraft by High Commissioner Sarki Tafida and rode in the embassy official car to his usual central London holiday flat booked by his brother having rejected the hotel booked by the High Commission.

His friend and backer of several decades, Mamman Daura was already waiting for him at the flat and they both drove in company of Seriki Abba to No 10 Downing Street to meet with British Prime Minister, David Cameron where they discussed issues ranging from security to  corruption and the immigrant crises facing Europe. Unlike his Chatham House visit with several APC bid wigs, this was done without their knowledge and the President Elect clearly needed his Buhari time.

But once APC chieftains got wind of Buhari’s departure, quite a few of them comprising the party’s National Leader, Bola Tinubu and Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi scurried off to the UK in hot pursuit of Buhari.

Indeed, Amaechi was so eager to meet with Buhari in the UK, he elected to fly in the Economy cabin of Lufthansa Airways since his last minute booking could not get him a First or Business Class seat.

Buhari, who has now elected to stay on in the UK till tomorrow night before returning within 24 hours of his inauguration as Nigeria’s next president, is said to be giving his party leaders sleepless nights.

Sources say they are rather concerned that Buhari’s penchant for keeping issues close to his chest and relying more on his old friends and backers from the North could alienate other critical members of the party who worked hard for his victory at the polls.
The First Lady is off Limits

Once a photograph of Oando Plc’s head honcho, Wale Tinubu and the incoming First Lady Mrs. Aisha Buhari sitting next to each other onboard a helicopter on the way to the Oshiomhole wedding went viral, her husband Muhammadu Buhari could not help but show his displeasure.

Buhari, an austere disciplinarian and devout Muslim, THISDAY gathered, summoned his wife and read the riot act to her on her public comportment, especially as she prepares to mount the saddle as first lady, a post he never really wanted under his administration.

Once Tinubu learnt that he had rubbed Buhari off the wrong way by allowing the photograph to find its way to the social media, he was also said to have run to those close to the retired army general to plead for Buhari’s pardon.

It is uncertain if Tinubu, who is one of several Nigerians – along with his partner Mofe Boyo – who are said to be eying the post of Petroleum Minister under the incoming administration, has made any headway with the ambition as indications are the Buhari intends to keep the Petroleum Ministry within the Presidency.

How Buhari"s Trip To UK Throws Tinubu, Amaechi, Others Into Confusion

Jonathan doesn’t deserve North’s votes after wife abused Northerners – Aisha Buhari

The wife of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Candidate, Aisha Buhari, has condemned the repeated bashing of the North by the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Patience Jonathan allegedly described the region as an enclave of beggars and unwanted children.

Mrs. Buhari said the description coming from someone who ironically campaigns for votes in that region is an indication of a hidden agenda, adding that the people of the North should, therefore, reject the Peoples Democratic Party and its presidential candidate.

Mrs. Buhari promised Kano women that her husband and the APC will be faithful to their electoral promises, and also will initiate programmes that will make women self-reliant.

“With General Buhari in power, the spate of kidnapping and reckless assassination of innocent people will be history in Nigeria. With General Buhari in power, the nation’s depressing economy will be rebounded in line with the expectation of the citizens and world best practices,” she said.

Mrs. Buhari said she was in Kano to canvass the support of women knowing their role as important pillars in winning election the world over, saying it would be a disaster for any politician to ignore the vital role of women.

She stressed the need for women to exhibit courage and fighting spirit, just as she urged them to make themselves available as foot soldiers during the election.

Mrs. Buhari advocated for more freedom for women in the North so that they would be able to engage themselves in productive enterprises like their counterparts in the Southern part of the country.

She commended the Kano State Government under the leadership of Rabiu Kwankwaso for its giant developmental strides, particularly in improving access to education.

Mrs. Buhari said Mr. Kwankwaso’s administration took children out of streets to schools.

Jonathan doesn’t deserve North’s votes after wife abused Northerners – Aisha Buhari