As reactions continue to trail the recent interview of the wife of the
President, Hajia Aisha Buhari, on the Hausa service of the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), more eminent Nigerians have applauded
the courage of the First Lady for crying out loud against the cabal in
the seat of power that has allegedly seized the government by the scruff
of the neck.
Below is the concluding part of the interview as monitored by SUN.
But some will say whenever you are elected into government,
you have to bring in professionals, experts who know how to do the job
and not just politicians?
Yeah; but if you look at the journey that we had; after the merger, we
didn’t call it merger or APC again, we called it a movement because it
was a collective effort of millions of people, only for us to find out
that the government is being operated by a few people. Very few, in the
sense that we have, may be, four to six people that really started the
journey with us in the system.
Unfortunately, the people that are occupying the seats, I don’t think
they have any expertise that our supporters in APC do not have. We have
supporters all over the world. It was a real collective effort by those
who supported APC and felt that enough is enough; let us have sanity in
the society.
Nobody will say that ‘it was as a result of my hard work that I brought
this government’; it was a real team work and we wish that the team work
should continue.
Everybody knows what my husband wants to achieve in four years. But
having new set of people on board that are not part of us or know what
we promised Nigerians is the thing we are facing now.
Who are these 4 to 5 people you are talking about?
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?
Who are these few people you said are surrounding President Muhammadu Buhari and have you spoken to him about this?
After receiving complaints upon complaints, I decided to tell him. But
all the same, a lot of people have been coming on their own and also
collectively to tell him that things are not going the way it should
when it comes to putting people in certain positions. Because most of
those that are occupying positions in agencies, nobody knows them and
they themselves don’t know our party manifesto; what we campaigned for;
they were not part of us completely. People were sitting down in their
houses, folding their arms only for them to be called upon to come and
head an agency or a ministerial position. They don’t have a mission or
vision of our APC. You understand what I mean?
Whose fault is this?
It’s the fault of 15.429 million people, because they are the ones that brought in the government. It’s their fault!
But theirs is just to elect APC and President Muhammadu Buhari and he is the one that is supposed to be in charge. Is he not?
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.
Somebody listening to this will feel like President Muhammadu Buhari is not in charge of this government?
It is left for the people to decide whether he is in charge or he is not
in charge. People actually accepted his ideology and decided to follow
him for the past 13 years. That is what brought him to this current
position.
As his wife, what will be your advice to him to move forward?
My advice is to the whole people that voted for him. They should
strengthen the party and whoever is not part of the party should not
have control over fifteen-point-something million people. We are in a
democracy and not military era; so, we have to play it well and leave a
legacy.
What you are saying is that if things continue like this, you will not leave any legacy?
As a person, I have my right to say how I feel about something. If it
continues like this, I am not going to be part of any movement again,
because I need to work with the people that we started the journey with
collectively so that we can achieve what we want to achieve, so that he
would leave a legacy.
Have you told your husband all this?
Yeah! He knows! At my own level, I have done it personally. I have also
listened to people’s complaints and I tried to tell him what they are
coming to tell me so that if there is anything to be corrected; it can
be corrected.
Concluding part of the translated Version of an interview with the wife
of president, Hajia Aisha Buhari, by the Hausa service of the British
Broadcasting Corporation, BBC. Monitored in Zaria by Abdullahi Hassan,
Zaria.
- “It is time to tell the world the truth about your husband’s death” Mohbad’s friend, Primeboy tells his wife, Omowunmi, files petition against her
- Paul Okoye reunites with his kids in Atlanta, shows off his daughter’s singing talent (Video)
- “This year has been mentally draining for me” Toke Makinwa shares as she takes a break from social media
- “This your bbl is it detachable” Regina Daniels’ recent post sparks concern about her body
- “Nothing must happen to her” Mohbad’s wife’s sister cries out to Lagos Government to protect Omowunmi and Liam over cyberbullying (Video)