Actress, Lydia Forson has contributed to the criticisms flying over President Muhammadu Buhari’s controversial comment that his wife, Aisha Buhari ‘belongs to his kitchen and the other room.’ Continue reading…


Social media has been ablaze since President Buhari of Nigeria said his wife belonged to the kitchen during a recent press conference with the German chancellor Angela Merkel.
This was in response to his wife’s BBC interview where she stated that she would campaign for him only on condition.

The first lady’s comments, which many thought was disrespectful to her husband, I believe was actually in support of his presidency. After all dont they live together? So why would she publicly try to humiliate him?

By saying she wouldn’t campaign for him if he didn’t fulfill promises he’d made was her way of reassuring people that she had faith in her husband enough to take that gamble.

It’s like saying I’ll walk the streets naked if I don’t predict this election correctly, it’s a psychological trick we’ve all employed many times to make a point.

And his response to her was an equal attempt at making light her statements, only he indirectly exposed his own prejudice in the process.

But for the first time in a long while I’m not as offended by these less than flattering comments President Buhari like many other men made about a woman.

Maybe it’s because I’ve come to expect it as part of my existence.

I know admitting this sort of suggest I’m giving up in a way, but I’m only expressing how I feel at this very moment, I don’t know about tomorrow.

Today, however, I’m tired of fighting what seems like a losing battle, and frustrated at constantly have to defend my reasons for doing so.

So when the experts, activist, politicians, opinions leaders etc weighed in on these controversial statements by expressing their frustration, disappointment and for a few dismissing it as a harmless joke; I decided to take a less than sentimental approach.

I believe the Nigerian president made those comments thinking people would laugh along with him,why he thought a WOMAN like Angela Merkel would laugh at that is beyond me.

A joke is only funny around people with shared interest or similar sense of humour.

He chose the wrong place, wrong time and wrong audience.

He thought he was with his friends back home who shared his sentiments and would understand his “what does she even know about serious issues”, joke; something the privilege of his patriarchal society affords him.

By joking about his wife’s only place being the Kitchen and the now infamous “other room”, he dismissed her role, importance and knowledge of the political arena and other “serious issues”. 

I’m sure he wants to believe he loves and respects his wife, hence why he’s dismissing this as a joke; but the proof is always in the pudding, and this time, it didn’t taste as good as it looked.
But let’s talk more about this whole kitchen brouhaha and why women, feminists, and all activists alike are so angry at this reference.

Let’s talk about the fact that in our haste to check him we inadvertently fed into the negative connotation the KITCHEN  has come to represent.

But why though?