To be candid, I have never met Dr. (Mrs.) Aisha Buhari, wife of
the Nigerian ruler, President Muhammadu Buhari, neither am I one of her fans.
But I detest all cynical attitudes toward her based on social pretensions. I'm
highly contemptuous of any attempt to put a family seal unto a divine
arrangement whose antecedent can be traced to God Himself.
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| *Aisha Buhari |
It is
also unfortunate that some Nigerians could open their mouth so wide to condemn
the First Lady for trying to protect her nuclear family from dangerous
interlopers who are threatening not only to manipulate the President but also
to usurp the rights of his wife to gain access to her husband.
The harassment of the First Lady is becoming a big embarrassment
to the country. As a law abiding citizen of Nigeria and a practising journalist
in the country and in the world at large, I have very great respect for the
office of the President of our great country. I also have great respect for the
Constitution of the "Federal Republic" of Nigeria.
Although written by the military and their apologists without
the participation of the authentic representatives of the Nigerian people, the
Constitution remains the Supreme Document from which every aspect of our
national life derives its powers.
 |
| *Hillary Clinton |
Even
though the President's wife has no official mention or recognition in the
Constitution, there is a widely acclaimed universal dictum created and
commanded by the Almighty God (Allah), the Supreme Deity who created man and
woman and all things, that a man and his wife are one and the same entity who
must be inseparable except by death. So, the President and his wife cannot be
separated by words or deeds. All over the world, the wife of the President is
the first unofficial adviser to her husband. The saying that 'behind every
successful man there is a woman', cannot be more true.
Which is
why every wife of a president or head of state works very hard to ensure that
her husband succeeds. Mrs. Buhari, being a woman of substance and with enormous
conscience has been very anxious to see her husband succeeding, to see her
husband fulfilling his campaign promises to the electorate who voted him to
power in the first place. That has been her greatest undoing, and the more
reason why they are fighting her unceasingly from all fronts and calling her
all sorts of names. Some uninformed ones even go as far as telling her to her
face that she is on an illegal duty. She is indeed on a legitimate duty insofar
as she remains the President's wife.
In fact,
the First Ladyship has become a phenomenon all over the world. In the United
States of America from where we borrowed our executive presidential system of
government, the First Ladyship exists alongside the Presidency. The opening
scene had Martha Washington (1789-1797, wife of the first President of the
United States, George Washington, making the journey by coach from her home in
Virginia, to New York City, then the US capital.
Through various momentous
eras, other prominent women made their mark on the First Ladyship. Abigail
Adams (1797-1801), was a political partner to her husband. Dolly Madison
(1801-1817), forged the role of First Lady - for her husband as well as
President Jefferson - through her political influence, interaction with the
Press and the public undertaking of a special project- to name just her most
obvious aspects.
 |
| *Patience Jonathan |
Not only was
she the first to appear on a magazine cover, but, according to tradition, the
term "First Lady" was first used in eulogizing her. Julia Tyler
(1844-1845) was a beguiling and savvy New York débutante who eloped with the
incumbent president and scandalized the United States with her audacious
coquetry, hedonistic lifestyle, and a joie de vivre that she infused skillfully
in the more political aspects of her role. She was indeed the first incumbent
to be photographed in the history of the First Ladyship in the US. Sarah Polk
(1845-1849), her successor, was an intelligent, albeit judgmental, woman,
pious, hardworking, and her president's primary political adviser.
Mary
Lincoln (1861-1865), was perhaps the most vilified- her political power and
predilections for material comforts during wartime being the two primary
complaints. Julia Grant (1869-1877), possessed qualities similar to those of
Mrs. Lincoln's but wholly escaped censure. Lucy Hayes (1877-1881), became
renowned for banning liquor.
Frances Cleveland ( 1886-1889, 1893-1896), was
quite unlike her predecessors, the most obvious difference being that she
entered the White House by marrying the president after he was elected.
Subjected to Press and public interest exploitation as none other before her had
been, at twenty-one years old, "Frankie" proved to be so much the
unwitting celebrity that only forcibly could she maintain her privacy.
In the
new twentieth century, strong women like Nellie Taft (1909-1913), proved that
the First Lady could be both traditional hostess and thorough political power.
She was the first to publicly support suffrage and had tremendous influence
over her husband. Ellen Wilson (1913-1914), continued in this tradition, and
she is best remembered for her project work to help clear New York's slum
dwellings, though she died without completing the job. She was succeeded as
wife and First Lady by Edith Wilson (1915-1921) who became legendary and was
accused of being "the first woman President."
It was undeniable that she had held far more personal power over
her President during his crippling stroke than any of her peers. Florence
Harding (1921-1923) was in the class of politically powerful First Ladies,
exercising open, public influence in government, sometimes managed with her
reliance on the zodiac readings of her White House astrologer.
Yet, due
to space constraints, we may just summarize the First Ladies and their terms of
incumbency: from Grace Coolidge (1923-1929); Lou Hoover (1929-1933); Eleanor
Roosevelt (1933-1945); Bess Truman (1945-1953); Mamie Eisenhower (1953-1961);
Jacqueline Kennedy (1961-1963; Lady Bird Johnson (1963-1969); Pat Nixon
(1969-1974); Betty Ford (1974-1977); Rosalyn Carter (1977-1981); Nancy Reagan
(1981-1989); Barbara Bush (1989-1993); Hilary Rodham Clinton (1993-2001); Laura
Bush (2001-2009); Michelle Obama (2009-2017) and Melania Trump (2017 till
date).
Despite
the non-recognition of the wife of the Nigerian president or head of State by
the Constitution, there has always been allocation of funds to her to perform
her official functions since independence. The office of the Nigerian First
Lady, addressed as "Her Excellency", started gaining currency
following the inaugural of the 1963 Republican Constitution when Flora Azikiwe
assumed the role on October 1, 1963 at Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos. Following
the January 15, 1966 coup and the resultant failure of the coupists to form a
government it became incumbent upon Major General JTU Aguiyi Ironsi, the most
senior indigenous military officer then to become head of state, and his wife,
Victoria, became First Lady between January and July 1966.
 |
| *Michelle Obama |
There was
a mutiny in the Nigerian Army on July 29, 1966 and the counter-coup that led to
the assassination of Ironsi by young Northern elements in the Army and the
concomitant emergence of Lt. Col. Yakubu Gowon as head of state and the ensuing
Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970). Victoria Gowon was First Lady (1966-1975), when
her husband was overthrown. Like Victoria Ironsi, Ajoke Murtala Muhammed
reigned as First Lady for just six months (July29, 1975-February 13, 1976)).
Stella Obasanjo was First Lady (1976-1979), having just been married to her
husband in 1975.
Before
then, there was no First Lady (1979-1983) because Shehu Shagari who was
Nigeria's first elected Executive President, married three wives (Amina,
Aishatu and Hadiza), and none was preferred to others. Safinatu Buhari was
First Lady for twenty months (December 31, 1983-August 27, 1985). Then came the
biggest masquerade in the annals of First Ladyship in Nigeria, Maryam Babangida
(1985-1993). There was Margaret Shonekan (August-November 1993) of the
notorious June 12 interim government debacle.
Mariam
Abacha was also First Lady (December 1993-June 1998) and Fati Lami Abubakar
(1998-1999). Stella Obasanjo was again First Lady (1999-2005) when she died.
Turai Yar'dua reigned as First Lady (2007-2010) when her husband died and
Patience Jonathan was First Lady (2010-2015). The import of this piece is to
emphasize the need to accord respect to our current First Lady Mrs. Aisha
Buhari.
Whatever the mission of those trying to harass or malign her out
of her husband's embrace, let the cabals realize that a tradition has been
entrenched in our political culture, which is a universal practice, on the role
of the First Lady in the sociopolitical engineering of Nigeria.
As a
highly educated, brilliant and energetic young woman who feels passionately for
the suffering masses of this country, Mrs. Buhari has had cause to lament the
plight of the poor and downtrodden in Nigeria. She also finds time to advise
the government on how to alleviate the pains that Nigerians are passing
through. Do we expect her to be a recluse? If only to give honour to whom
honour is due, let us give her a breather as a mark of honour to Mr. President.
Is it not even logical that if we are loyal to and love our President we should
respect his wife?
*Amor, journalist and
public affairs analyst, wrote vide: danamor641@gmail.com (08063246289 sms only).
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