By TUNDE THOMAS, VINCENT KALU and NOAH EBIJE
Some eminent Nigerians have reacted to the outburst of President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha. Former Governor of old Kaduna State, and National Chairman, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Alhaji Balarabe musa, apparently appeared not in the mood, for the first time, to comment on the burning issue.
He noted that Aisha’s outburst against the administration of her husband was unfortunate, adding that the first lady knew little or nothing about how government works.
His words: “Well, it is very unfortunate for such statement to come from the wife of the President. It is very unfortunate; things must have gone so bad. But she does not really know some of the things she said.
“This is because she is not an active politician like her husband to speak about government, and his associates. The statement is in a bad taste, really in bad taste.”
In his reaction, former Minister of Works, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe commended the wife of the President, for having the courage to say the truth.
While saying that every right thinking Nigerian is concerned about certain developments in the country, Ogunlewe added that it has become obvious that a cabal has indeed hijacked Buhari and his government.
“God bless the First Lady, she has hit the nail on the head. Buhari has been hijacked by interlopers and selfish individuals who are not only misusing power but are now reaping where they didn’t sow. I like Mrs Buhari, I appreciate her courage’’, he declared.
Urging APC leadership and those of the other political parties to take the matter up with the President, the former Minister said “It is very strange and funny that strange characters that were nowhere to be seen when you are campaigning, people that were not part of your dreams or even share the same vision with you now hijack power through deceit, while real party members are sidelined. This is injustice and this cabal issue should not be glossed over. It is real . But it is detrimental to the socio-economic well being of our nation.”
For Archbishop Magnus Atilade, President, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN South-West zone, the First Lady’s revelation is not only serious but also weighty and too revealing to be ignored.
‘’The First Lady must have been bottling up these things for a long time. Thank God that at last she has revealed it all, what President Buhari should now do as a matter of urgency is to carry out a comprehensive review of political appointments made so far with a view to knowing whether round pegs are being put in round holes. He should also shake off this cabal from his back. The First Lady has done well through that interview. She wanted her husband to succeed, and I believe the President should also quickly do the needful for the change agenda to succeed’’, Atilade declared.
While saying that the woman’s revelations should not be a source of discontent or rancorous debates, Atilade said “Since this woman has raised the alarm, it is good. We all know that APC is a party made up of individuals with different ideologies and different approaches to issues but it is left for Buhari to separate the whiff from the chaff by scrutinizing very well, those who will work with him to help crystalise his vision for Nigeria into reality.”
A professor of Eschatology at the Lagos State University, LASU, Ishaq Akintola, however sees the First Lady’s remarks as part of politics.
‘’Everthing is totally politics. What she said during the interview is politics and it is meant for politicians. I’m not a politician. I don’t want to dabble into it’’, the university don declared.
Human rights lawyer, Chief Mike Ozokhome SAN, said that Mrs Buhari must have spoke out of frustration.
“There is no difference between what she has said and what I have been writing on since he made his first major appointments last year. The only difference is that it is now coming from the horse’s mouth. I and many patriotic Nigerians had seen ‘hijacking’ since about July last year when he made his major appointments, and warned again that he is being hijacked by a very minute cabinet that is either from his town, in-laws, from his state or his religion or his former classmates or his region. I have warned severally in my write ups in major Nigerian newspapers and commented on many television and radio stations, and the social media that he should loosen himself from this iron stranglehold, iron grip by this tiny cabal because they would not make him see the larger picture. “They only present to him the smaller picture of what he should hear and what he should see. For a plural society like Nigeria with over 180 million people and 360 ethnic groups, it is dangerous for a president to see Nigeria from a very little prism that is neither pan Nigerian nor wholistic and all inclusive. I have warned again and again that his greatest enemies are those people who surround him, and made him to see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil. I have warned against bootlickers, praise singers – these are people who will make him feel that he is the messiah with redemptive stature that he cannot err.”
Former Anambra State governor, Dr. Chukwudi Ezeife said the blame game is over, as Nigerians didn’t elect any cabal to run the state.
“It was an internal affair of husband and wife that I shouldn’t comment, but in the present circumstance, it throws light on so many things that are going on. I wonder, no matter how weak a person is – with or without conscience, the things that are happening are very frustrating. Look at the issue of judges, did Buhari decide that the DSS should go and raid judges?
I’m not a fan of the judges. On those in the electoral tribunal, I call them our Lord Injustices, but I cannot support the primitive, callous, uncivilized and undemocratic ways they had been attacked.
As the woman said that a cabal has hijacked her husband, a cabal was not elected to do anything. They do everything in the name of the elected man, and that is where the problem is. I have said it before the blame game is over. If she said we should no longer blame Buhari, then if we want to blame anyone , it is God, and then we turn back to God and pray that He gives the president some more maturity and brain power.”
Spokesman of the Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, said, for the first lady to come out to make such comment, she should not be termed a wailing wailer. She must have her reasons, and the president has to look into the issues she raised.
“The president should put things together in order to avoid this type statement. You always have such characters around government – hangers on that, even if Buhari’s time expires the cabal will hold him to ransom to continue in order to hang on to power, to take advantage of the machinery of the state for their own interest against the interest of the people.
“These people are not accountable to anyone, as they didn’t give them our mandate to run the state. It is not impossible that some of the actions taken by Buhari may not have come from him.”
Also reacting to Mrs Buhari’s outburst, a second republic lawmaker and outspoken Northern leader, Dr Junaid Mohammed said the first lady spoke out because she has conscience.
His words “Everything she said was true. And that, to me is the bottom-line, whether you like somebody or you don’t like somebody. When she makes a statement of that nature, you should stop evaluating what she says because by evaluating what has been said, you are not doing justice to the truth. Any other consideration in my view would be utterly useless.
“And as I said and from what I know of her husband, for well over 40 years, everything she said was true. And when she hinted that certain people are being shortchanged, again she is being honest, brutally frank. When you look at the statements correctly and very closely, you will see that she’s doing service to Buhari, his government and the so-called party which he has gone out of his way to bastardize, trash and destroy. That is my impression simple and straightforward.”
Buttressing his point that Buhari has destroyed APC, Mohammed said
“If a political party is not united, but only used to win an election, or lying to the people for the purpose of winning election, and after election everybody is thrown out, and over 95 per cent of the people who have worked for the party are simply alienated, then you consider that party as already dead.
A party is not there to give everybody a job. A party is not there to make everybody rich. But after election, a party has to be recognized as a ruling party, and has to be recognized as a group of people who put in their most in other for the party to succeed. Now I know people who have lost their livelihood, some have lost their limps, some have lost their lives, in the cause of this Buhari katakata to be the president of Nigeria. Those people today are living either as invalids or they are living in poverty because they have been bankrupted by the Buhari campaigns. Nobody remembers those people. The people who are enjoying the Buhari government today are mostly his relations. And I don’t remember any one of them who was a member of the APC, or in fact, who has been a member of any political party.
“Those people who are enjoying this government, the bunch of the people have never been in the APC, and most of them have never been in any political party. They have never voted in any election; and I’ve been around in the 1950s when elections started in this country.
“So, if you want me to say what the lady said was unusual or whatever you want to say. But the fact of the matter is, Aisha is saying the truth. And I respect her for that. There is nothing more sacrificial than telling people the truth whatever may be the consequences. Because she has a conscience and that is very important. And being a mother, she knows what it means to see a loved one dead or being made an invalid in the cause of political struggle and seeing those people being thrown out, and new people being brought in, who never served the party, who have nothing to do with the party – they made no contribution, material or otherwise. In my view, this is a sign of a great person, and I believe Aisha is great. If she has other shortcomings, I don’t know, because I am not close to her and I have never seen her in my life. But the fact of the matter is that she’s saying the truth.”