First Lady Aisha Buhari drew an instant response from President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday after threatening on air that she might not support his re-election bid in 2019.
Speaking in an interview she granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), the wife of the President said the President needed to reshuffle his cabinet for her to back him for re-election.
“I have decided as his wife that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again,” she said.
She claimed that the President “does not know” most of the top officials he has appointed so far.
She said: “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.
“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.”
Aisha said some of such appointees are not on the same page with the President on the vision of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), adding that they were appointed only on account of the influence of a ‘few people.’
She mentioned no names, and when pressed to identify those she was referring to, she said: “You will know them if you watch television.
“Some of them don’t even have voter cards, and those who made sacrifice have been reduced to nothing and certainly not happy with the way things are going.”
The APC, she said, must wake up to remedy the situation.
She said people who did not share the vision of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were now appointed to top posts because of the influence a “few people” wield.
“What I am afraid of is the rebellion of 15 million people. Many people have started creating division among the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“This worries us a lot because they believe they are the ones who suffered but are nowhere today.
“Those who didn’t do anything, who don’t even have voters’ cards, are the ones in position doing everything.
On whether the President was aware of the challenges caused by the cabal, she added: “Whether he knows or he doesn’t know, those who voted for him know.
“There is nothing I will tell him. He can see. Among all the people he selected, if he is asked among 50 people, he doesn’t know 45.
“I don’t know them despite staying with him for 27 years.”
Responding to a question on if the president was in charge, she said: “That is left for the people to decide.”
Pressed to comment on a major achievement of Buhari, she pointed to the enhanced security in the North-East as a result of a total war against Boko Haram.
She added: “No-one is complaining about being attacked in their own homes. Thankfully everyone can walk around freely, go to places of worship, etc. Even kids in Maiduguri have returned to schools.”
But Mrs. Buhari admitted that the President had not told her yet about 2019.
Her words: “He is yet to tell me (if he’ll seek re-election) but I have decided as his wife that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again.”
She was also asked whether the President was in charge of his administration, to which she responded thus: “That is left for the people to decide.”
However, she hailed the President for checking the onslaught of the terror sect, Boko Haram in the Northeast and for improving safety in the geo-political zone.
“No one is complaining about being attacked in their own homes. Thankfully, everyone can walk around freely, go to places of worship, etc. Even kids in Maiduguri have returned to schools,” Mrs. Buhari said.
Moments after the interview was aired, reporters covering President Buhari’s current visit to Germany asked him to respond to the First Lady’s comments.
He claimed to have laughed it off and 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.
“So I claim superior knowledge over her and the rest of the opposition, because in the end I have succeeded. It’s not easy to satisfy the whole Nigerian opposition parties or to participate in the government.”