“I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again,” Mrs Buhari said in an interview with BBC Hausa’s Naziru Mikailu.
“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” said President Buhari, Associated Press reported.
It nauseates one when a politician or leader you ardently support spew out gaffes that are even inadvertently indefensible and demeaning. Sadly, you are left to struggle and battle with your conscience and consciousness. Mr President is playing a defense with his adversaries who want him to fail. I unrepentantly still believe he will win his anti-corruption crusade against those who have raped our commonwealth. He will move us to a safe realm and consolidation of a new Nigeria. I love president Buhari’s persona: his disciplined attitudes and vision for a strong and incorruptible nation. He should also realize that his wife has the constitutional rights to voice out her concerns about national issues. Her remark shows that something untenable is going on between the two of them. It’s not a clear signal at all.
I am miffed with the president’s description of his wife, it is crude in this age of information dissemination and distortions. The statement is short of respect for professional women and womanhood in general. Women shouldn’t be object of sex and male satisfaction, their roles should not be mutually exclusive from men’s world. Women’s roles shouldn’t be confined into the ‘slaughter house.’ While his wife’s remark is uncomplimentary about his efforts to solving Nigerian problem, his remark about his wife is also condescending and demeaning. Mr president should not edge into the wide world of trumpism and sexism.
It is clearly evident from his wife’s unguarded but true statement that her husband’s administration has some incompetent hands. Most of them have fell short in the image-making of her husband’s administration. His efforts are not being properly conveyed or translated into positive multiplier effects on the impatient people of Nigeria. But clearly, the end justifies the means.
Regrettably, it is very disturbing to listen to Mr president’s gaffe anytime he is outside of Nigeria. Mr president seems to be unaware of the cobwebs and traps being set for him by the international media anytime he is outside of the country. I have admonished in my various contributions to nation building that, when president Buhari is embarking on a journey of like mind, especially in the international community, he should preempt the surreptitious cynicism of the western media; get coached by the experienced diplomats likes Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, Prof. Akin Oyebode and some other competent Nigerians who are experts in the area of international diplomacy.
Regrettably, Mr president seems not to realize the mercantilism of the western media. President Buhari seems oblivious of the cat and mouse games of the international media. Journalists are not in the news just for ordinary news, they’re in the news for sensationalism, negativity and the digging out of news out of the ordinary. Seriously, how many western news media have reported or aired a sustained news of the recent release of the Chibok girls in Nigeria? Because the news is positive, that is why it’s not worth a Breaking News or newsworthy. Junk journalism mostly thrives in an atmosphere of dystopia, chaos, total anarchy and utter confusion.
Meanwhile, when you’re faced with the monstrosity of the junk media, you had better taken cognisance of your environment and watch what comes out of your mouth. Every word or statement that comes out from your mouth will be used against you in the court of public opinion. I love women, and I cherish the role of women in national and global harmony, but when a woman decides to wash her family’s dirty linen in public, forgetting that there’s a home after the mantle of power, then, the end will justifies the means. I am sympathetic with Mrs. Aisha Buhari for her purported interview with the BBC Hausa Radio in the United Kingdom. She should have been thoroughly schooled in the cobweb of sensational journalism and how the power of the media works. We thought or expected her to have been polished in this area.
Nigeria is faced with a lot of mundane problems, contradictions and confused people, but it is frustrating and disheartening to watch the mismanagement of opportunity to rewrite a tumultuous history. Our country is stinking of corruption. The soul of Nigeria is under attack; Nigeria is gripped by the claws of corruption of the Legislature, the Judiciary and the Executive. The vulnerable people in the Nigerian society are always at the receiving end of corruption.
Again, as the president attempts to stop the bleeding in the Nigerian economy, President Buhari should beware of Men of yesterday. His statement in Germany about his wife is a complete distraction of his avowed fight against corruption. I will also admonish Mr. President to stay focused in his fight against the menace of corruption in Nigeria. Any planned fiscal or physical policy under corruption usually comes to naught. Corruption and underdevelopment are siamese twins, no nation has ever thrived under the hydra-headed corrupt system.
Moreover, President Buhari should also be mindful of any statement that demeans women in our society. No matter how powerful a man can be, a woman can make or mar him, because they have the smitten power and the inalienable mother-rights to change the world. President Buhari’s statement of his wife, Aisha Buhari in Germany is antithetical to how the West or rational minds view women’s roles in the affairs of the home front and the world. Leadership entails the ability to recognize mistakes or gaffes made either by commission or omission and learn from them for future development.
Finally, Mr President must be rest assured that he will not only succeed in his unrelenting efforts to stamp out corruption and mismanagement of our resources in Nigeria, his adversaries will be alive to see his success; a strong and formidable Nigeria that will be counted among the most successful nations in the world.
