Aisha, the very polished and urbane wife of Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari, has proved that even a worm will turn. She may have tried what is known as pillow diplomacy and when it failed she remembered that “nice guys finish last.” The anger may have been gathering in her head like the steam in a pressure cooker and she didn’t want to finish last. So she decided to unspool her anger instead of continuing to live in sweet taciturnity.
She took the unprecedented step of complaining loudly about her husband and the cabal that is presumably holding him hostage. In a BBC Hausa service interview she said that out of 50 persons that Buhari appointed into his government he does not know up to 45 of them, neither does she even though she has been his wife for 27 years. There is by her analysis a cabal that is running the affairs of Nigeria and that if Buhari does not take back the power that belongs to his office she will not go campaigning with him in 2019.
By speaking out openly against her husband’s political vulnerability she was culturally incorrect but politically democratic. Her words have weight because she looks responsible, carries herself regally and talks measuredly as opposed to the rabble-rousing stance of the immediate past First Lady of Nigeria, Patience Jonathan.
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At a press conference in Germany in the presence of Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and one of the respected leaders of the free world, Buhari said that he did not know which political party his wife belongs to – which was okay. He went further to say that his wife belongs to the kitchen, living room and the other room – which was far from okay. In an apparent effort to throw more light on this vulgarity he said: “I still maintain that my wife’s duty is to take care of me.” Of course, part of your wife’s duty is to take care of you and part of your duty is to take care of your wife. That is the reciprocity inherent in a marriage covenant. Buhari’s remarks are surprising and even paradoxical considering the trajectory of his relationship with Aisha. He married her at the completion of her secondary school education. He sent her to the university and she became a proud member of the elite club of bachelor’s and master’s degree holders. She went for short courses in France and the UK on cosmetology and beauty care, all of which have given her a high degree of cosmopolitanism and urbaneness. Why did Buhari want Aisha to be such a well educated woman if his own view of her contribution to society was likely to be limited to only staying in the kitchen and cooking for him, staying in the living room and cleaning it and staying in the other room and rendering bedroom services? Although in Buhari’s house there may be many rooms that can be called “the other room” – pantry, store, exercise room, spa, massage room – but by many people’s understanding it is his puritanical carriage that did not let him mention “bed room” even though that is what he meant. Donald Trump would probably have called it “pussy room.”
Aisha’s speech has bludgeoned the All Progressives Congress (APC) Federal Government into panic mode and some of the members think she is on the wrong side of the park. They claim that the tail cannot shame the dog, that she has no constitutional role in the government and therefore should have no say in how the government is run. Some of them see her merely as a pantomime dragon, some kind of paper tiger who cannot have any influence on policy and can do little or nothing about the existence of cabalism in the government. One politician said to me that Aisha is the equivalent of Dame Partington, the lady who tried to tame a high tide with a mob and a bucket. All of these remarks only go to confirm that her words, actually, have the capacity to wound because of the courage implicit in those words. No past First Lady in Nigeria has ever criticised her husband or his government in public or even taken on the mafia within the government. Most of Nigeria’s First Ladies have always been lotus eaters, people who choose to dress flamboyantly and live in carefree luxury despite the grinding poverty around them. They introduce their pet projects largely to make money from the government and the private sector denizens who want favours from government. Most of them exerted influence over and above their non-official status, commanding ministers and parastatal leaders to do even the unthinkable. Of course, many politicians and high government officials were always only too ready to grant favours, solicited or unsolicited, including cooking special dishes for the First Lady. In our set-up, grovelling sycophancy is the name of the game. One of the past First Ladies actually told a governor friend of mine that he will not get a second term ticket if he did not treat her like royalty. And he treated her the way Britons treat their queen.
We must understand that Buhari’s take-down of Aisha goes beyond Aisha. It is not simply a wife-husband disagreement of opinion because he is the President of a country where women have been generally maltreated and mistreated on account of religion, culture, tradition and male chauvinistic conditioning. It is even a worse advertisement for Nigeria that Buhari made those remarks in the presence of a woman who has achieved world acclaim, Merkel, by being the German leader. By November 8, when Hillary Clinton becomes America’s first female President, the world will largely be run by three powerful women: Merkel, Theresa May of Britain and Clinton. How will Buhari fit into that world if his view of women is so insultingly ancient?
Buhari’s remarks amount to the official objectification of women. This is a solid blow on Nigeria’s and world’s efforts to put the issue of gender equality/equity on the front burner. Even when Buhari’s spin doctors tried to give the impression that his statement was merely a joke, he countered their view and insisted he meant what he said. I sympathise with those who manage his public utterances and image because Buhari is not famous for flexibility. His rigidity is evidence of his unwillingness or inability to broaden his narrow horizon and embrace views that are antipodal to his own. If he had said that Aisha’s statement was evidence that our democracy works and that free speech is alive and well, he would have received a standing ovation. He would have saved our country from the anger of the Germans who asked him through their newspapers to leave their country quickly.
The relegation of women to the background is a global problem but it is more prevalent in developing countries. Buhari is not alone in this exhibition of bigotry. Many men in Nigeria are in the same boat and they are not yet ready to let go. Domestic violence against women is prominent; discrimination against women in the work place and in political office sharing is a phenomenon that we have to perpetually contend with. A lot of civil society groups in Nigeria are working for gender equality but a statement from the bully pulpit by the President of Nigeria such as the one in contention is a dampener to the battle for gender equality or equity.
Nigeria’s democracy is operating under the heavy yoke of one-viewness. And one-viewness is the very antithesis of democracy. Democracy involves flexibility and the ability to accommodate conflicting and contrary views even within the same party. That is intra-party democracy which is very, very illusive and illusory in Nigeria’s political parties. The lack of it is the root of the crises in the PDP and APC today.
Aisha’s howitzer is causing a frenzy in the APC. The leaders are meeting to see how they can reduce the circumference of damage that Aisha’s words can cause to the stability of the party and the government. I would imagine that the cabal will offer to realign their strategies either to accommodate or ostracise her but because of her proximity to the throne they cannot ignore her without incurring some uninsurable and uninsured risks. Doing some serious fence-mending will be a way of taking the wind out of the sails of her criticism but whatever the party and the President think of her she is regarded by many Nigerians as the epitome of courageous outspokenness.
Aisha has earned the plaudits from many Nigerians who hardly know her. She carries herself well and does not appear to be throwing her weight all over the place. As the President’s wife she has considerable vicarious power but she wears her power lightly. Her complaint is probably that it is the squeaky wheel that is getting all the grease. Why should the shoemaker’s kid go barefoot, some people may ask.
We keep deceiving ourselves when we fail to prescribe a role for the wives of the president and governors. Whether or not we give them a role, they always prescribe one for themselves. So why don’t we do what is right and proper: carve out a role for them and make them accountable. Failure to do this, gives some of them the licence to become a loose cannon.
