The Political Miseducation of Mr. and Mrs. Buhari, By Majeed Dahiru

It is important to properly educate the first couple of Nigeria, on some vital political lessons. First and most importantly, the problems of the Buhari administration are not as a result of his choice of appointments alone, as claimed by Aisha, but in the president’s wrong perception of what leadership entails, at this time and circumstance, such as we find ourselves in Nigeria.

This is not the best of times for President Muhammadu Buhari and the first family. He is facing an internal revolt led by his beautiful wife, Aisha.

The pressure from the enormous challenges of the affairs of state appears to be taking a heavy toll on the first family as evident by a crack in its nucleus. In what has been described as unprecedented, the wife of the president has severely criticised her husband over his style of political leadership, to the delight of many.

Her outcry was met with a mixture of varying reactions from numerous quarters. She appears to have vindicated the most vocal critics of her husband’s administration. She also seems to have spoken the minds of disillusioned supporters of the president who are yet to experience any positive change, as promised by him. Even the APC hierarchy appears to tacitly endorse her position.

In the court of public opinion, Aisha’s lamentations were well received and resonated across the land.

Right or wrong, one fact is certain, Aisha has dealt a fatal blow to the political fortune of her husband. She has provided ample weapon to the president’s opponents within and outside the APC to fight him to a standstill. A dark cloud of uncertainty now hovers around the political future of President Muhammadu Buhari. Unfortunately the president’s response to his wife’s outcry made an already bad situation, worse. He succeeded in leaving an impression of an existing fault-line, even at the home front.

A close look at the lamentations of Aisha and the response of Buhari conceals a much deeper problem, at which the core is the pattern of administration of her husband, but reveals the political miseducation of Mr. and Mrs. Buhari. It is important to properly educate the first couple of Nigeria, on some vital political lessons. First and most importantly, the problems of the Buhari administration are not as a result of his choice of appointments alone, as claimed by Aisha, but in the president’s wrong perception of what leadership entails, at this time and circumstance, such as we find ourselves in Nigeria.

Buhari has a rather simplistic idea of governance, which he rigidly holds on to. It is a known fact that Buhari has taken sectionalism to a higher level, therefore the claim that the president appointed people into positions he doesn’t know is a fallacy.

The Buhari administration is dominated by party chieftains, longtime friends and family members. To make way for the appointment of APC members, the government went as far as removing tenured office holders, including university vice chancellors. The problem here is that the only thriving enterprise in Nigeria today is politics. Therefore everybody wants to be patronised to stay afloat. Aisha must also realise that his rise to power was made possible by a complex web of elite and people power, across all socio-political divides, including from members of the PDP, some of who were opposed to the Goodluck Jonathan candidacy.

The president negotiated with a lot of interesting groups unknown to his wife, who related more with the masses.

Unfortunately, the Buhari government has succumbed to the corrupt elite power brokers, whose interests appear to be protected by members of the administration’s kitchen cabinet. The frustrations among the president’s supporters are as a result of wrong policies of government which have worsened the economic crisis inherited by this administration. Aisha must also understand that Nigerians grew wary of an over bearing former first lady, Patience Jonathan, and will not likely tolerate such again. The president was right to have curtailed the influence of his wife in matters of governance.

The recent saga calls to question his sense of judgment and method of administration. The president should begin to consult widely outside his familiar circle of appointees and associates. As reprehensible as this act of his wife may appear, it found legitimacy in a broad cross section of the populace including friends and foe alike. Everybody cannot be wrong at the same time, all the time.

The president also needs some tutoring on the role his wife played towards his aspiration to become president and how to be presidential and politically correct in his response to issues. His response to this issue could have been better and more circumspect.

A simple “I love my wife”, with a smile, would have effectively reduced the lamentations of Aisha Buhari, from a rebuke to a good advice, from a loving wife which was well taken by her equally loving, affectionate and grateful husband. The president has put his supporters, the hailing hailers into a state of confusion and is unable to coherently defend their idol.

The president should also realise that his wife is a member of the APC who brought a lot of positive image and energy to his campaign. The appearance of his beautiful, educated and economically exposed wife helped to reduce the stereotype about his fundamentalist religious beliefs. Buhari was running against a Jonathan who has a reputation for empowering women with plum government jobs. With Aisha, Nigerian women felt reassured of better things to come.

Her calm and quiet disposition endeared a lot of women to Buhari. Nigerians simply loved the prospect of a “good” woman as first lady. She mobilised a lot of women across the country who played major roles in ensuring electoral victory for her husband. Therefore she is right to the extent of demanding for patronage for people who worked for her husband’s electoral success on her platform.

The question of whether Aisha is right or wrong to have spoken out is debatable. Was it motivated by selfish quest for power and influence? Or is she genuinely concerned about her husband’s political future and legacy? Only her husband can determine these in the days to come. Nobody can claim to love Buhari more than his wife and mother of his five children. The president should ponder on these issues deeply with an open mind.

The recent saga calls to question his sense of judgment and method of administration. The president should begin to consult widely outside his familiar circle of appointees and associates. As reprehensible as this act of his wife may appear, it found legitimacy in a broad cross section of the populace including friends and foe alike. Everybody cannot be wrong at the same time, all the time.

Majeed Dahiru, a public affairs analyst, writes from Abuja and can be reached through dahirumajeed@gmail.com.