NIGERIANS yesterday closed ranks in their condemnation of President Muhammadu Buhari over his statement to the effect that his wife,Mrs. Aisha Buhari, who lamented that the All Progressives Congress,APC-led Federal Government had been hijacked, lacked knowledge of the workings of his administration.
Made up of women activists, party leaders, and socio-political organisations among others, the angry Nigerians did not take the President’s response lightly.
In faulting the inability of the first family to be on the same page on the way the country is being governed, those who spoke to Saturday Vanguard and others, who aired their opinions on the social media said the development portends danger for the polity.
They, however, urged President Buhari to heed his wife’s suggestion, noting that being the wife of the President placed her in a position to make informed statements.
The development which indicated that the crisis in APC may have come to a head resulted in the President and his wife disagreeing on call by the later for the restructuring of the former’s cabinet in order to put an end to claims of non-performance against his ministers.
The wife of the President had in an interview with the BBC lamented that the crisis in the ruling party was provoked by the hijack of the party by those, who contributed nothing to its ascension to power.
While Mrs. Buhari said a restructuring of the President’s team would assuage the anger of aggrieved party members, Buhari, while briefing newsmen in Germany, said his administration was succeeding. She said: “He is yet to tell me if he will seek re-election 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.” The President, however, said his knowledge of the workings of the government surpassed the understanding of his wife and the opposition.
Those, who spoke to Vanguard include the Spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, Prof Dayo Adeyeye; a former Minster of Women Affairs, Mrs. Josephine Anenih; Second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Muhammed; retired Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav; National Publicity Secretary of Pan-Yoruba socio-political organistaion, Afefenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin; Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre,WARDC, Dr. Biola Akiyode- Afolabi; Acting National Publicity Secretary of APC, Mr. Timi Frank; former Secretary of PDP in Benue State, Mr. Tertsea Gbise and Publicity Secretary of the APC in Lagos State, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, who made his position known on his Facebook page.
VANGUARD
