by Akan Ido

It must be hard to be President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman right now. Very hard. Working overtime cracking permutations to get the right twist on every wrong statement made by the President – a task that has proved much too difficult for Femi Adesina, Buhari’s special adviser on media and publicity. Every single attempt by Adesina to convey the president’s thoughts to Nigerians through the months he’s been in office never comes out well. A complete disaster some people will say.

Not so for Garba Shehu. He kind of knows how to gauge the mood of the ‘Wailing wailers’. He appears to have mastered their nuances – what they want to hear, when they want it, and how to present it. This is why we like him. But President Buhari’s latest statements from Berlin, Germany must have confounded even him. To be fair, no one expected the First Lady, Aisha Buhari to fly off the handle by going straight for her husband’s jugular in the manner she did. And we bet no one ever imagined President Buhari would respond to her warning (threat, if you may) by essentially telling her to get behind him….

Solution? Let’s tell Nigerians that the President was only at his sarcastic best regarding this kitchen thingy – he didn’t quite mean it that way, right?

Wrong.

A new video clip from Deutsche Welle TV just emerged featuring President Buhari once more repeating his earlier statement and essentially ordering his wife to stay out of politics and remain where she belongs – the kitchen.

Asked by reporter Phil Gayle what exactly Aisha’s role should be, President Buhari replied: “I am sure you have a house… You know where your kitchen is, you know where your living room is, and I believe your wife looks after all of that, even if she is working.

“That is your wife’s function?” The reporter asked, and the president answered: “Yes, to look after me.”

Dear Mallam Garba Shehu, we are not understanding this joke again. It has gone too far.

Tolu

Your pop culture/entertainment go-to. Music head. Wallflower. I do not like to write. On a mission to decipher covfefe.