The controversy surrounding the interview wife of President Muhammadu Buhari had with BBC has in the past couple of days taken a feminist angle especially with regards to Buhari’s response that his wife belongs to the kitchen. Nigerians have equally responded in many ways especially in defense of Buhari’s wife that she should be regarded more than a domestic appendage. This is the general feeling, but then the core of her message is not about her role been undermined, but the fact that Buhari’s government have been hijacked by people who were not in APC during electioneering campaign.
Regardless of how the first lady voiced out her grievances, the troubling fact is the she is not the first to allege a a hijack of Buhari’s government. Senate President Bukola Saraki earlier in June 2016 at the period of his intensified trial said that with the ongoing alleged forgery case of the 2015 Standing Order against him and by extension, the National Assembly, there was a clear indication that President Muhammadu Buhari was not in charge of governance as a cabal has taken over his government. According to Saraki, those he described as forming a new government within the government of Buhari were using it to pursue and working towards achieving their nefarious agenda.
Saraki was quoted as saying: “However, what has become clear is that there is now a government within the government of President Buhari who have seized the apparatus of Executive powers to pursue their nefarious agenda”.
The first lady raised very serious issues pointing to a possible government within the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, she alleged that four to six people that really started the journey with Buhari are in the system. In another interview while responding to the question of Who these 4 to 5 people are about, the first lady responded: “People like Ogbonnaya Onu, Amaechi, Fashola. After the merger, it was a huge group that came together and started the struggle. It is sad that only a few of them are in the system now. Though I heard that they are about to announce 3000 names as Board members. We feel that those that have started the struggle should not be limited to board members; they should be in positions like heading agencies that will impact positively on the lives of Nigerians”.
“We know what we campaigned for, only for us to bring people that are busy telling people that they are not politicians but they are occupying seats that were brought in by politicians. This is a huge disrespect for politicians. We are just starting; we have not got to 2017, much less 2018 and then 2019 for us to go back to the polls. You understand what I mean?
The first lady insisted that to bring the government back to the people, the 15.429 million people who elected him should take their government back. she said: “Because they elected him; that’s why he is here. If they can stand firm and strengthen the party and tell everybody that ‘No, we can’t take this; we can’t take you because you are not a card carrying member, you don’t know what we want to achieve within so and so time’. Fifteen-point-something million people is a huge number that can control a country”.
It is a glaring call to action by the first lady to the 15.429 million people who voted APC into power to demand the hijacked government back to where it belong!
But the all important question is this: who are those “few” powerful individuals forming a government within the government of President Muhammadu Buhari? how much influence and power are they wielding? One can be rest assured that whoever these forces are, they are after their own interest and they don’t have the interest of Nigerians in their agenda.
