By Wale Sokunbi
Three important events caught
the imagination of many Nigerians in the past fortnight. But, I will dwell on
one of them. Nigeria
 |
| President Buhari and wife, Aisha |
Buhari, to the shock of the
lady and the enlightened world, said his wife’s place was in the kitchen, the
sitting room and the now infamous “the other room.”
Aisha’s statement castigating
her husband had, last week, won the hearts of many who felt that the president
needed to be told the home truth that she told him. The statement was
particularly pleasing to those who are happy to hold on to any straw to condemn
the president and project his many perceived “failings”. Indeed, one writer, on
account of what he regarded as Aisha’s identification with ordinary Nigerians
on their disenchantment with the Buhari administration, actually saw in her
someone who should run for the office of vice president in 2019.
What is the import of the
Buhari/Aisha spat? For me, Aisha’s outburst mirrors her frustration with the
president for not making the appointment of persons into his administration a
“family and friends affair”, but one of strange bedfellows who were coming in
to reap where they did not sow. In that sense, all the anger is not so much
about the baking of the nation’s legendary “national cake”, but the sharing of
it in a manner that did not reflect the efforts of those who contributed in
making the cake available for sharing by Buhari in the first place.
