Aisha’s long absence not due to infighting in Aso Villa –Presidency

* ‘President’s wife has absolute freedom to go anywhere’
* PMB’s wife absent from official events, spends second month
abroad

The Presidency on Saturday said President Muhammadu Buhari’s
wife, Aisha’s absence in the country for about two months was not
due to any infighting in Aso Villa, Punch report.

The Presidency’s reaction comes amid the speculations that Aisha
is unable to pull her weight round the Villa lately and
uncomfortable with how government affairs were being run by some
powerful people in her husband’s cabinet.

The Director of Information to the First Lady, Mr Suleiman
Haruna, debunked the speculations and said the President’s wife had
the freedom to travel to wherever she wanted, as a free
citizen.

Aisha has not been in the country for nearly two months since
the completion of the Hajj. She reportedly jetted out of Saudi
Arabia, where she went in company with her husband, to London at
the completion of the religious pilgrimage in August

She has not returned to the country since then, fuelling
concerns that she deliberately left the Aso Villa in protest
against certain issues at the seat of power.

The First Lady’s prolonged absence at Aso Villa became
pronounced as she did not attend public functions that she
ordinarily would have attended.

She was said to have been absent during the mid-August
Eid-el-Kabir celebration in Daura, Katsina State, even though his
husband was around to welcome world leaders such as the President
of Guinea, Alpha Conde.

It was reported that the Senior Special Assistant to the
President on Administration, Dr Hajo Sani, had been representing
Aisha on a number of occasions recently, including an event of the
Organisation of African First Ladies for Development, which held on
September 25, 2019, on the sidelines of the 74th United Nations
General Assembly in New York, United States.

The event was said to have been attended by the first ladies of
Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Niger Republic.

Although Mrs Buhari’s office confirmed to Sunday PUNCH that she
was indeed away from the country, it said it had nothing to do with
issues she had with anyone at the seat of power in Abuja.

The office said as a free Nigerian who was not a government
official, Mrs Buhari could travel for private engagements both
within and outside the country, adding that the reasons for such
trips must not be tied to “needless speculation or rumours.”

Speaking to Sunday PUNCH after the case of Aisha’s absence from
the country was raised, her spokesperson, Haruna, insisted the
President’s wife had the freedom to be wherever she wanted to
be.

He said, “It’s a free world and people have been speculating
about everything in this country and it is allowed.

“She is a free Nigerian and does not work for the government.
So, if she decides to stay somewhere in her village for two months
or to go somewhere and stay for two months, why should it become a
national issue?

“She is a free Nigerian and has absolute freedom to move round
for however long she wants.”

Asked to comment on the speculation that Aisha was no longer
comfortable with how the affairs of government were run and her
alleged frequent brushes with some top administration officials,
including the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr Abba Kyari, the
director dismissed them as rumours.

“I am in shock when I hear all these things. I don’t believe in
all these rumours about the President’s wife because they are not
true.

“That is why, most times, the office does not bother to react to
these speculations,” Haruna added.

Aisha had publicly raised issues with her husband’s
administration, including the one where she stated that persons who
did not contribute to her husband’s election victory were calling
the shots at the Presidency.

She had also canvassed more roles for women in government,
specifically asking the leadership of the ruling All Progressives
Congress to ensure that more women and card-carrying members of the
party were given prominent positions in the government after Buhari
won a re-election in February.

In March 2019, she hosted a programme in Buhari’s Daura hometown
to thank women for supporting her husband. She promised them that
the President would recognise them more this time round and also
make Nigeria a better place.

The President’s wife had also criticised some of the
administration’s policies, including the N500bn Social Investment
Programme, which she said had failed “woefully” in the North in
particular.

Aisha, who hails from Adamawa State, had noted in May this year
that the situation in her home state, as far as the implementation
was concerned, was pathetic.

She also cited Kano, a highly-populated northern state, as
another example where she believed the programme failed, despite
the huge funds the Federal Government budgeted for it.

Speaking during an interactive programme she organised for women
at the Presidential Villa, she disclosed that after four years of
implementing the programme, the 30,000 women who were supposed to
benefit from it in Adamawa State had yet to do so.

However, in a reaction to Aisha’s comments, the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on Social Investment, Mrs Maryam Uwais,
said the programme did not work the way the President’s wife
understood it.

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