Wife of the President, Aisha
Buhari, has told the BBC she will not campaign for her husband’s re-election in
2019 if he does not shake up his government.
The 45-year-old said President
Muhammadu Buhari had not told her whether he would contest the 2019 election.
“He is yet to tell me but I
have decided as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will
not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I
will never do it again.”
An
exasperated Mrs Buhari said the President “does not know” most of the top
officials he has appointed.
She
suggested the government had been hijacked, saying a “few people” were behind
presidential appointments.
Her
decision to go public with her concerns will shock many people, but it shows
the level of discontent with the President’s leadership, says the BBC’s Naziru
Mikailu in the capital, Abuja.
Buhari
had promised before and after his election last year to go after corruption and
nepotism
He famously remarked at his
inauguration that he “belongs to nobody and belongs to everybody”.
But his appointments have been
heavily criticised for favouring people from the North.
In the interview with Naziru
Mikailu, Mrs Buhari said: “The president does not know 45 out of 50, for
example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being
his wife of 27 years.”
She said people who did not
share the vision of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were now
appointed to top posts because of the influence a “few people” wield.
“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.”
Asked to name those who had
hijacked the government, she refused, saying: “You will know them if you watch
television.”
On whether the president was in
charge, she said: “That is left for the people to decide.”
The BBC is believed to have
defied pressure from the Presidency which attempted to stop the interview
broadcast.
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