Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, has created a niche for herself with the demonstration of courage by pointing out the inadequacies of men in power.
She is a woman who ordinarily is meant to live in the cosy quietude of the Presidential Villa, tending only to the needs of her husband, going by the President’s resolve not to have his wife occupy the unofficial position of the First Lady. But, Hajia won’t have any of such as she is determined to contribute to the success of her husband’s administration and better the society. For the first time in a long while the wife of the President is not being addressed as the First Lady and Hajia remains unperturbed.
To play an impactful role in her husband’s government, the determined woman came up with Future Assured, a Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) preoccupied with the task of improving the lots of women and children in the country. The pet project also made impact on the victims of the insurgency in the North East by addressing issues of education and youth empowerment. The intervention of her pet-project in the society so impressed the Chinese government that it donated the sum of N60 million into its kitty.
Her zeal to ensure good health for the people made her to openly attack the management of the State House Clinic recently at the opening of a two-day stakeholders meeting on Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) at the Presidential Villa. While those who are supposed to do something about the complaints of lack drugs at the facility kept ominous silence and refused to act, Hajia, it was, who raised the alarm, not minding the consequences, about the unfortunate situation at the State House Clinic.
In an unbiased appreciation of the situation, the Wife of the President asked the logical question that nobody in the corridor of power has been able to answer for sometime now. She wondered why there would always be funds for capital projects at the facility while procurement of drugs and maintenance of equipments would never get required allocation.
Hajia’s courage and candor in this matter qualify her for both local and international recognition. Never in the history of this country have we seen a woman who could be so moved by the plight of the people that she would call out on the authority for accountability in such an open and unbridled manner. This us even more so when her own husband is in the saddle!
Apparently worried by the composition of her husband’s cabinet, the Wife of thePresident, last year issued a warning indicating that Buhari engaged mostly those who never believed in his dream. She told a BBC (Hausa) interviewer in London that some of those appointed by the President were not there with them when they were campaigning and, as such, did not know what they promised the 15.4 million who voted for her husband to emerge the President. She pointed out that those politicians who risked their lives and relationships to ensure her husband’s victory at the polls were not considered but those who never participated were appointed into positions.
Although she was vilified and criticized for granting the interview and making public her personal opinion about her husband’s cabinet, the reality on ground vindicates her position. There are pockets of discontentment in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as those politicians who feel ‘used and dumped’ are still calling on the President to consider them for appointments.
Happenings in governance have shown that the President might not know much of his appointees after all. There have allegations of corruption against government top officials and this is an indication that most of them do not subscribe to Buhari’s anti-corruption stance. For instance, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, is still on suspension with allegation of corruption hanging around his neck.
Wranglings and power tussle among top officials of Buhari’s administration are also indications that those in position are indeed strange bedfellows who are not as committed to the welfare of the masses as the President whose hard earned reputation is currently on the line. Hajia Aisha’s outburst against those she perceived as strangers in power is understandable because she shares in her husband’s dream of repositioning Nigeria on the path of prosperity and sustainable development.
Her concern for Buhari’s legacy placed her directly on the firing line of the political elites who are in control of the lever of power especially in those dark days of Buhari’s medical treatment in London. But she fought on. She fought on the part of the people. When Senator Shehu Sani came up with the metaphor of hyena and jackals, Aisha assured the public that the Lion King would soon return and those lesser animals praying for his good health would have cause to rejoice again.
Undoubtedly, the Wife of the President has demonstrated her love for her husband and what he stands for. She has proven her passion for change in the country by holding those in authority to account. Reports that there are drugs now in State House Clinic, few days after her outbursts even when the facility has yet to be commercialized, indicated that her criticisms pricked the conscience of those stone-hearted administrators.
Restructuring made easy with Governors’ intervention
Hopes that the challenges posed by the upsurge in the clamour for restructuring of the country would soon be resolved was raised yesterday when the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’Forum (NGF) and governor of Zamfara state, Abdulazeez Yari, said they have resolve to support the demand for devolution of power.
Yari added that the reports of the Constitution Amendment committees of the National Assembly would be debated by the governors in conjunction with the leadership of the Conference of Speakers.
With this development, some items hitherto on the Exclusive List of the constitution for only the Federal Government to legislate would be dropped to either Concurrent or Residual Lists.
It is argued that projects which fall into the Exclusive category, like federal roads and dams, which are now in dilapidated state, would be left for the state and revenues accruable to the federating units from the federation accounts would be increased.
There have been several attempts at constitution amendments but each effort terminated at the state level. This is because for any amendment to be carried through, two-third concurrence from state Assemblies is required. Laudable amendments done in the past, like that of local government financial autonomy got ‘killed’ when state Assemblies kicked against them.
Even though there have been regional consensus on restructuring, the only constitutional means of actualizing it is by passing the request through the National and state Assemblies. This fact was stressed by the President himself in his Independence Day broadcast. With the readiness of the governors to cooperate with the National Assembly, getting state Assemblies to authenticate any amendment recommended by the National Assembly would be easy. This is more so when all state Assemblies are tied to the apron strings of their governors.
The issue of devolution of power, which is a pivotal component of restructuring, was thrown out during plenary clause-by-clause consideration of recommendations of the Constitution Amendment Committees at both chambers of the National Assembly but the consensus among the governors will obviously force them to re-introduce the clause for a fresh debate for passage.
With this development, the issue of restructuring hitherto considered intractable has been resolved as political leaders have been able to forge a consensus with a view to moving the nation forward.
