She has advocated on so many issues and stood her grounds on a beehive of activities; she is the First Lady doing everything possible within her office to re-define the office by adding value to humanity, especially women, youths, children and the vulnerable.
She has remained a stabilising factor behind her husband and a rallying point for both the needy and defenseless and at some point, she readily sacrificed all she had for the common good of the needy.
According to Alhaji Kaikai, “There is a person to tell the truth, there is a time to tell the truth; and there is a way to tell the truth.”
Telling the truth is to effect change and nothing more especially in a country of over 200 million people where poverty is at the highest and consuming three square meals is a luxury.
Mrs. Aisha Buhari immediately hit the ground running when she organized a get-together with the social media practitioners.
This event was geared towards ensuring better coverage and online reportage of the activities of government rather than the fake news carried out by non-practitioners and fake journalists.
The event was very successful as the challenges of the practitioners, including solutions and the way forward between governments and the governed, were well articulated and solutions proffered for a seamless and symbiotic relationship of all parties involved.
In her usual advocacy that women need to be re-integrated into governance, she opposed and canvassed for the appointive positions of women to be in charge of their affairs in all critical sectors of the economy.
As such, she criticised why men should be made to head sectors which are principally supposed to be occupied by women.
Adamawa State was an example where a man was made a Commissioner of Women Affairs and she did all in her power to revert the role which also brought a lot of hues and cries in the state.
However, this move was applauded by well-meaning Nigerians for daring to raise the issue.
She spoke to the powers that be and raised her concerns about people in government, who are not supposed to be in government and who are not card carrying members of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
She particularly criticized those who had not done anything tangible for the electoral victory of her husband, but yet occupying positions meant for people that worked assiduously for the President;s re-election.
Mrs. Aisha opined that these unpopular candidates are working against the people’s wishes and aspirations, and that they do not merit the office and should be done away with in future elections.
She emphasised that she is there to protect her husband and that Nigerians should understand that she is the mother of all not minding if the person or groups of persons are opposing the president or not.
Nigerians woke up to the alarm raised by the wife of the President about an immediate investigation to the missing N2.5 billion which vanished under the care of the former Aide-De-Camp, ADC, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Sani Babau-Inna, and called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to investigate the controversy surrounding the missing money.
Indeed, Nigerians were surprised that this was indeed the first of its kind in the annals of the wives of the Presidents to cause an investigation into missing funds publicly.
This was germane and indeed a clarion call to everyone that, it is not going to be business as usual, considering the President’s stance on corruption.
Equally, in October 2017, Mrs. Aisha Buhari called for the probe of the state Medical Centre known as State House Clinic. The First Lady and wife of the President called for the probe over poor health facilities in the hospital despite the huge budgetary allocations to it.
Mrs. Buhari condemned the “lack of facilities” at the hospital during a programme in Abuja and equally lamented the total or dearth of some hospital necessities such as syringes, drugs and equipment needed for saving lives.
She lamented that she wanted to do an X-ray and was informed that the machine was not functional. She therefore, called for probe of the hospital which is in line with President Buhari’s drive to free every sector of the Nigerian polity of corruption.
In 2016, Aisha Buhari shocked the world when she said that the government of President Buhari had been hijacked by a powerful caucus that had nothing to do with the APC.
The interview was so controversial that the President reportedly tried to stop it from being aired. It made headlines across the world and she even went further to warn him that she may not back him at the next election unless he shakes up his government.
She reiterated that the government had been taken over by few people who were only interested in presidential appointments. She also revealed that the President did not know most of the officials he appointed.
Mrs. Buhari emphasised then that “some people are sitting down in their homes, folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position!”
She apparently made these statements so that party loyalists who contributed enormously to President Buhari’s election victory should rather be given the opportunity to also benefit from the government.
The First Lady then went further by saying if things continued the way they were, she would not follow him to campaign grounds to seek re-election into office and also tweeted another, raising speculations that she could be referring to her husband as a ‘Military Dictator’ when she addressed him in her tweet as GMB (General Muhammadu Buhari).
Consequently, Aisha Buhari took on the N500 billion Social Investments Programme (SIP) of the federal government, that it has not made any measurable or noticeable impact on the populace.
She also said the programme has failed in the North and left so much to be desired. As she queried the use of US$16 million for mosquito nets and expressed concern also on the release of N12 billion for trauma cases at the twilight of the government.
Mrs. Buhari launched a ferocious attack on the federal government’s much- celebrated programme, describing it as “a colossal failure,” particularly in the Northern part of the country.
She reiterated that even though the manager of the programme, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, an assistant to the president on the programme is from Kano state, the programme was also a failure in her home state.
She described the programme as equally a failure in her own state of Adamawa, where according to her, only one of the existing 22 local governments has so far benefitted from the programme.
Querying how the whopping N500 billion budgeted for the programme is being spent, Mrs. Buhari, also said that the conditional cash transfer arm of the programme is not getting to the target beneficiaries as promised by the APC during its electioneering campaign.
She also emphasized that the promise made to her by an aide of the President that 30,000 women in Adamawa State would be given N10, 000 each had remained a farce as the promise was never fulfilled.
“So, I don’t know where the social investment… Maybe, it worked out in some states. In my own state, only a local government benefited out of the 22.
“I didn’t ask what happened and I don’t want to know, but for it to fail woefully in Kano, it’s not a good sign and it’s not a good thing.
“I was expecting the N500 billion to be utilised in different methods in the North for the aim to be achieved. I don’t know the method used but most of the Northern states do not get it. My state does not get it,” she said.
By Omoba Kenneth Aigbegbele, a human rights activist and public affairs commentator
