A First Lady’s outburst at her husband’s presidency

IN MATTERS of marriage, third parties are often cautioned not to utter trenchant opinions. But when the spouses are not private individuals, and the issue involved are not a “family affair”, commenting on the matter at stake falls within permissible intrusion. In the last two weeks or so, two issues have dominated national discourse.
The first was the late night raid on the residences of some  judges. Among them,were two Supreme Court Justices. The second big news was the outburst of the nation’s first lady, Aisha Buhari . While we have witnessed twists and turns in the raid on the judges’ houses by the Department of State Services (DSS), the president wife’s bombshell remains something many Nigerians continue to express shock and commendation. Why must she go public with the way she feels about her husband’s government?,some have asked in  anger.  Some even argued that the first lady’s expression of anger  in her interview with the Hausa service of the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) should be seen as a family feud ,and therefore, should be settled in-house . I disagree.          There’s no doubt that the first lady’s comments about her husband’s presidency, the whirlwind of the last one year (still counting), did spur a flurry of anxious conversations, some condemnatory of her stand, the president’s response during his official visit to Germany, that his wife belongs to the kitchen and his bedroom and other rooms,was unpresidential. It lacks leadership finesse. Every sensible woman knows such description hurts.
This is where I stand : If what the first lady said amounted to an outburst, it reveals the innermost heart of a down-to-earth woman. Even though she had stood fiercely by her husband and family in the past, she is acutely aware that a president runs aground the very he is beholden to special interest, call it a cabal. A president should at all times bear in mind that  the office he holds is a trust on behalf of all Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic groups or party affiliation.
That, in effect means that  when a President seems to depart  from that contract, he drags down  not only his own presidency but the country with him. That, I believe, really troubled the president’s wife, just as millions of other Nigerians who can’t speak up. In that regard, my take is that the president should be eternally grateful to his wife for saving him from himself. She doesn’t deserve all the mud that many people have thrown at her. I believe that, in the fullness of time, history will vindicate her.     Let’s rehash some translated parts  of her interview. She reportedly said that her husband was no longer in charge, that a “cabal” has taken over, that those who contributed actively to the emergence of the government are today sidelined. Instead, a new set of people who are not even politicians, that are not known, have been imposed on Nigerians. This set of people, she said, knew little about the campaign promises of the ruling party. Sadly, such persons have been foisted on the people. She called them “intruders” . Asked by the interviewer whether the president was aware of the so-called ‘cabal’, she reportedly said, “whether he’s aware or not, the truth is that the people who voted him in are aware”.
When asked if she had brought her complaint to the president, she said pointedly, ‘I don’t need to tell him, he’s seeing it… ‘.  She claims that the president may not in fact know many of his appointees, and she doesn’t know them either, she says. Perhaps her biggest sound bite in that interview was when she was asked if she will support her husband if he seeks re-election in 2019. Her response :”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 not do it again”. Few days later, she  enjoined Nigerians to help stop the ‘cabal’.
Altogether ,what the first lady said may seem so strange, so divisive, but this is a gracious woman speaking in a straightforward manner, no embellishments, just the way it is. The truth is that the president may not see what she’s seeing. The president is dug in on this awful position – face flushed, lips pursed, voice strained perhaps because he has allowed some people  who have attached themselves to his person, his name, or his office as a means of advancing their own selfish interests and agenda . These are not exactly my words.
These are the words of a witness to power in the United States, Donald T. Regan. Regan was at various times,  Secretary of the Treasury and Chief of Staff to President Reagan.     In his memoir that turned the White House inside out, Regan noted in an unparalleled political account some of the problems a sitting president grapples with, oftentimes, without knowing,because of the ever presence of some appointees he calls “frivolous gossips and sycophants”.
He said such persons can destroy families and even friends of the president. He (Regan) was a victim of such sycophants. These are the people our first lady had in mind in that interview.  Only if her husband will listen.   It’s this kind of self-serving people that destroyed the regime of Ibrahim Babangida and ran aground the presidencies of Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan.
But Regan has a great advice for all:  In a democracy, the political appointee does well to remember that he is present as a matter of luck and courtesy rather than by any right. The president will help himself if he realises that he is in power through the vote of the people, and they can take it away if he fails to deliver on the promise that brought him to office. That’s why your vote is your power,and the reason why the presidency is often described as a “duty to perform “,not a “prize to be won”.
It’s unkind to say, as some people have stated, that since Aisha is not a political official, the president’s wife has no right to comment on what she perceives to be wrong with her husband’s presidency. Such people miss the point, big time. This much is plain :Though the role of the first lady has never been codified or officially defined in our Constitution, she figures prominently in both political and social life of the nation. And in every country that practices democracy, the public is interested in the first lady’s experience as a witness to power.  Many first ladies have held influence in a range of sectors, from fashion to public opinion on policy.
We thank God that, unlike many first ladies such as Nancy Reagan (may her soul rest in peace), Aisha Buhari didn’t  resort to any clairvoyance means  to influence her husband’s government.  Instead, she took a dignified, measured approach and made her feelings  public and urged those that voted for her husband in 2015 to intervene. That’s where she wins my heart. I don’t know about you.