With antagonistic Aisha, Buhari needs no adversaries-Bala Ibrahim

It didn’t come to me as a surprise when someone called to tell me that Aisha Buhari, the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, had this evening tweeted her support for the End SARS protesters.

Earlier on, I read the comments of one of her daughters. The tweet, which was written in Hausa, under the hashtag #Achechijamaa, or #Savethepeople, is a direct affront on the President.

In a language short of saying the President is a toothless bulldog, Aisha Buhari urged her husband to save the people, by acting properly, and not sitting in the office signing documents or having fruitless meetings with the service chiefs.

Attached to the message is a video of various images of the President having meetings with the country’s service chiefs.

Ordinarily, the message would have gained public applaud, because virtually everyone is worried about the protraction of the country’s insecurity, but coming from Aisha Buhari, who is increasingly being seen as part of the problem, the action can at best be described as playing to the gallery. It is nothing but an attempt to appeal to the opposition in order to humiliate the President.

Since her infamous interview with the BBC in 2016,  wherein she openly attacked the President of not being in control of his government, with a warning that comes 2019, she would work against his re-election, the First Lady had made herself open to ridicule and disrespect, by those who hold the institution of marriage in high regards.

The ridicule even became more, when President Buhari, while on a visit to Germany, responded by saying his wife only belonged to his kitchen.

Under normal or saner climes, one would not want to join issues with the First Lady of the country, because she is the mother of the nation, who is expected to put head together with the President at home, with a view to getting solutions to the problems of the nation. But when the First Lady takes delight in aligning with the opposition, at every slight opportunity, she must be made to understand the consequences of such misguided adventure.

As the President’s wife, Madam is expected to be utilising the opportunity of the “other room”, wherein, as suggested by elders, she could employ “pillow language” to pass suggestions to the President. Under such a setting, she should think of ways to solve problems, rather than going to the market place complaining and lamenting.

Such an attitude is depicting the mindset of a lady that has lost the trust and confidence of her husband. And for a First Lady, nothing more can give the signal of incompetence and the failure or loss of values.

If Aisha Buhari is interested in testing her public popularity, the best thing to do is to come out and contest, and not be playing the opposition, at the Presidential seat of power.

The tweet came almost the same time, with the interview of a professor of History and International Relations in the University of Ibadan, Prof. Alexander Adebisi,who disclosed that the former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the one sponsoring the on-going #EndSars protests in the country.

In an interview with thisnigerianow, the Professor was quoted thus, “the former Governor of Lagos and self-acclaimed Leader of the All Progressives Congress was sponsoring the protest in order to cripple the country and discredit the administration of President Buhari internationally.

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This is the same strategy they used against former President Jonathan.  Recall that they promoted the bring back our girls to the point that it got international sympathy.  The only Challenge Tinubu is facing now is that he is yet to get the Northern youths to join the protest the same way the North got the Southerners to join the protest against Jonathan.”

The rumour mill has been awash with stories of strong ties between the First Lady and Tinubu, with speculations that they are working towards a political arrangement, that may make her more relevant, come 2023.

Whether true or false, Aisha is being amateurish, by using such miserable methodology to support protesters, against the regime of her husband, who are clamouring for a revolution. It may interest Aisha Buhari to read the message of Hajarat Danyaro, which goes thus:

“Many revolutions in history started with protests and civil disobedience leading to the collapse of public order and chaos. Passing through all these many stages of social revolutions usually don’t take long.

The most difficult and painful part of the journey is the stage of restoring social order after the collapse of societal structures and institutions. Ask Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Syria.

Most times, generations that started revolutions don’t live to see the return of order as it takes decades and, in most cases, even when order is finally restored and a new society is born, it tends to be worse than the previous one.

Read Also:#EndSars: Female protester’s reckless driving kills two

With our huge population, large swathes of ungoverned territories, a high number of small and medium arms, the outcome of a possible collapse of public order in this country is unimaginable.

I just hope those who are escalating the #EndSARS protests and seeing it as an opportunity to bring down the government know what they’re bargaining for. If this situation escalates, as they’re pushing, neither them nor their local supporters and financiers can predict the outcome of events in the near future.”

With this new tweet, I hope the President would know where to look for his foes.

Bala Ibrahim, a Media Advisor writes from Abuja.