It is often said that behind every successful man there is a woman. There are those who point out that behind most unsuccessful men there are also women. The real import of the statement is that it is difficult for any man to succeed if he has a bad wife. The social and mainstream media have been fixated on the wife of President Buhari for certain actions she allegedly took relating to the arrest and detention of a young student, Aminu Mohammed.
Firstly, it must be pointed out that Aisha Buhari is a good wife otherwise her husband would not have recorded success in his personal life. That his government is not a success is a different matter altogether. The President’s wife cannot be blamed for the failures of his administration because it is clear that her political opinions mean nothing to him. Long ago, President Buhari averred that he did not marry Aisha for her intellect or political savvy, but for her talents in “the kitchen and the other room!”. Aminu Mohammed, a student of the Federal University, Dutse (FUD) incurred Aisha’s wrath when he tweeted a picture of her burgeoning weight saying that she has fed fat on poor people’s money.
The President’s wife’s reaction brought her into disrepute far more than the tweet itself. There is no doubt that she has put on weight, but the reason Mohammed adduced for it was offensive. Women put on weight for several reasons, which may range from medical problems to psychological frustration with the way things are going in their lives (binge eating), to sheer gluttony. Without any evidence, the writer decided to ascribe her weight gain to gluttony.
If indeed the President’s wife had a medical problem, this would be extremely unfair to her. However, the problem is that Nigerian presidents and their wives rarely allow people to know their true medical status. In one memorable case, it was later discovered that a “First Lady” succumbed to death while undergoing a completely unnecessary but vanity-driven cosmetic surgery operation overseas. Several writers have gone to great lengths to support the student’s assertion by referring to the unjustifiable ever increasing budget for feeding and entertainment in the Presidential Villa. In the 2023 budget, N40.5 million is to be spent on constructing a new kitchen and N509 million on foodstuffs and refreshments. These amounts are more of a reflection of the callousness of Nigerian leaders toward the suffering of their people, than gluttony. Nobody believes for one minute that all that amount will actually be spent on buying food! As news of Mohammed’s arrest spread, pictures showing Aisha Buhari in 2015 and 2022 went viral on the social media. There can be no disputing that she has added weight. As a professional beautician, it comes as no surprise that she would be offended by criticism of her looks. She is entitled to feel hurt, but not entitled to order the arrest of critics. Indeed, the end result of her miscalculation is that the whole world is now focusing on her added weight and speculating as to the reasons. She has inadvertently given the public permission to insult her unnecessarily.
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What Mohammed wrote was insensitive, unnecessary and misinformed, but Nigeria’s security agencies have once again shamed themselves and proved that they are not interested in justice but in serving whoever is in office, however, unjustly. The Department of State Services (DSS) in particular seems to have lost focus. While insecurity is deepening daily they seem to find it far easier to capture and arrest government critics than insurgents, bandits or separatists. As for the case itself, which has now been dropped after Mohammed “apologised”, there was very little chance that the student would have been found guilty of the charges. Mind you, if he had, it would have simply been another in a lost list of travesties of justice in Nigeria. Dropping the case after punishing the boy for doing nothing illegal was apparently enough satisfaction for the president’s wife.
The question is, why do the wives of Nigerian officials behave the way they do? From local government chairmen to governors and the president, their wives feel as if they have an official role to play. This is simply not true. The office of “First Lady” is unconstitutional and just a sign of the egoism of those concerned. In a novel entitled “The dictator’s wife” it was pointed out that tyrants tend to use glamorous spouses to soften the unpalatable images of their misuse of power. The fact is that security agents who charged the student with defamation were completely out of order. The saddest aspect of this matter is that Aisha Buhari was amongst the most popular high profile first ladies. Apart from her looks, she warmed the hearts of Nigerians by never restricting herself to criticising her husband’s administration and expressing sadness about untoward events. However, she lost support when excess lavishness became her hallmark. One thing is clear, the best way to annoy a woman is to criticise her looks. This is what happened. As her husband is soon to quit office, Aisha Buhari should be left alone to contemplate on all the good things she failed to do to make a difference, and should now be left in peace to criticise herself!
