The First Lady, Aisha Buhari has re-echoed the thinking of most Nigerians by bluntly telling her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari that she might not support his re-election bid come 2019 unless he shuttle his cabinet.
Mrs. Buhari in an interview granted to the BBC published on Friday said that her husband did not know most of the government officials he had appointed, and that many had been nominated due to the influence of a few people.
“He is yet to tell me but I have decided, as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again,” she said in the interview.
She said people who did not share the vision of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), had been appointed to senior positions because of the influence wielded by a “few people”. “Some people are sitting down in their homes folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position.”
“The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years,” Aisha Buhari said. Asked to name those who had hijacked the government, she refused, saying: “You will know them if you watch television.”
When she was asked if the President was in charge, she said: “That is left for the people to decide.” When she was asked what she regarded as the government’s major achievement, she said it was to improve security in the north-east where militant Islamist group Boko Haram has waged an insurgency since 2009.
“No-one is complaining about being attacked in their own homes. Thankfully everyone can walk around freely, go to places of worship, etc. Even kids in Maiduguri have returned to schools,” Mrs Buhari said, referring to the city which was once the headquarters of the militant group.
President Muhammadu Buhari was elected in 2015 with his promise of change and vows to fight corruption and nepotism in government.
