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First Lady of Nigeria, Aisha Buhari has accused a close
relative of President Muhammadu Buhari of issuing a presidential directive
behind her husband.
Mrs Buhari, in a statement she signed and sent to Daily
Trust newspaper, accused Mamman Daura of issuing a directive to a presidential
spokesperson, Garba Shehu, not to recognise her office.
Buhari had before his election in 2015 said he would not
allow for the office of the First Lady, and Buhari’s first term in office, the
presidency repeatedly referred to Mrs Buhari as the ‘wife of the president.’
However, after the president’s re-election, Mrs Buhari
released a statement saying she should henceforth be referred to as the First
Lady and her office as the ‘Office of the First Lady’.
Since then, the presidency has referred to Mrs Buhari as the
First Lady and President Buhari has also assigned official aides to her office.
The Controversy
On Wednesday, however, Mrs Buhari accused Mr Daura and Mr
Shehu of undermining her office.
“Nigeria’s development is hinged on the ability of public
officials to execute their mandates professionally, and to be shining examples
in their various areas of endeavor. It is not a good sign when officials
abandoned their responsibility and start clutching at straws,” the first lady
wrote in the statement she sent to Daily Trust.
Her spokesperson, Suleiman Haruna, confirmed to PREMIUM
TIMES that Mrs Buhari authored the mail.
“As spokesperson of the President, he has the onerous
responsibility of managing the image of the President and all the good works
that he is executing in the country. Rather than face this responsibility
squarely, he has shifted his loyalty from the President to others who have no
stake in the compact that the President signed with Nigerians on May 29, 2015
and 2019.
“To make matters worse, Mr. Shehu has presented himself to
these people as a willing tool and executioner of their antics, from the
corridors of power even to the level of interfering with the family affairs of
the President. This should not be so. The blatant meddling in the affairs of a
First Lady of a country is a continuation of the prodigal actions of those that
he serves.
“We all remember that the chief proponent appropriated to
himself and his family a part of the Presidential Villa, where he stayed for
almost 4 years and when the time came for him to leave, he orchestrated and
invaded my family’s privacy through a video circulated by Mamman’s Daughter,
Fatima, the public was given the impression that on arrival into the country I
was locked out of the villa by Mr. President. Garba Shehu as Villa
Spokesperson, knew the truth and had the responsibility to set the records
straight, but because his allegiance is somewhere else and his loyalty
misplaced, he deliberately refused to clear the air and speak for the President
who appointed him in the first place.
“Consequently, his action has shown a complete breakdown of
trust between the First Family and him.
“Mr. Shehu was privy and part of the plan and it’s execution
and he was shocked when he realized that I had publicized my return to Nigeria
on October 12, 2019 and cleared the air on the many rumors that took over
social media, a job he was supposed to do but kept mute to cause more confusion
and instability for his Principal and his family. “Garba then, vented his anger
on the National Television Authority (NTA) Management insisting that the media
crew to my office must be sacked. He succeeded in getting them suspended for
doing their job. I had to intervene to save the innocent staff from losing
their means of livelihood by involving the Department of State Services (DSS)
in order to ascertain roles played by key actors in the saga.
“It is at this late hour that I recall, sadly, that it was
the same Garba Shehu who claimed that the government will not allow office of
the First Lady to run. He was later to confirm to one of my aides that he was
instructed to say so by Mamman Daura and not the President. This antic
attracted the anger of Nigerian women. He didn’t realize the fact that First
Lady’s office is a tradition which has become an institution. ” Today, even
without a budget, I am able to run my humanitarian programmes. In saner climes,
Garba Shehu would have resigned immediately after going beyond his boundaries
and powers.
“GARBA SHEHU NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR
WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED.
“The latest of his antics was to wage a war on the first
family through an orchestrated media campaign of calumny by sponsoring pseudo
accounts to write and defame my children and myself.
“Based on Garba Shehu’s misguided sense of loyalty and
inability to stay true and loyal to one person or group, it has become apparent
that all trust has broken down between him and my family due to the many
embarrassments he has caused the Presidency and the first family. We all have
families to consider in our actions and therefore it is in the best interest of
all concerned for Garba Shehu to take the advice of the authority, given to him
sometimes in the first week of November, 2019,” Mrs Buhari wrote.
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