Muhammadu Buhari hits back at first lady Aisha’s criticism of his leadership and claims ‘superior knowledge’
Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, has reacted to his wife’s criticism of his leadership by saying she “belongs to my kitchen”.
Aisha Buhari told the BBC in an interview this week that she may not back him at the next election if he fails to shake up his government.
But the president hit back, saying during a visit to Berlin that “she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room”.
He also said he had more political experience than her, “so I claim superior knowledge over her and the rest of the opposition because in the end I have succeeded” in winning Nigeria’s presidency.
“It is not easy to satisfy the whole Nigerian opposition parties to participate in the government,” he told journalists after talks with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.
Nigeria’s first lady, whose grandfather was the country’s first defence minister, said in the interview that Buhari has not told her if he would contest the 2019 elections. But “if things continue like this … I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again,” she said.
She suggested the government had been hijacked by a “few people” who had made key appointments and that, as a result, Buhari did not know most of the people holding top posts.
Buhari, a retired general, was voted into power in 2015 on an anti-corruption platform, and Nigerians have largely praised his commitment to restoring order and accountability.
But the Nigerian economy has been battered by a recession as a result of low global crude prices, while the oil-producing south has been hit by a wave of attacks by rebels.
Buhari is divorced from his first wife, Safinatu, with whom he had five children. He married Aisha, 45, in 1989. They also have five children.
Source : Guardian
