by Alexander O. Onukwue

Why have the comments of First Lady Aisha Buhari on the “kingdom” met with condescension and turned to the subject of comic relief?

Because, on proper scrutiny, there could not have been a more perfect response and follow up to the post made by Senator Shehu Sani about Hyenas and Jackals trying to make sure the prayers of weaker animals for the Lion King to return will be fruitless.

Perhaps because Nigerians, for the best part of the last seven years, have become used to a First Lady who entertained and owing to the “other room” episode, there has become the conditioning that whatever it is that comes from the First Lady would automatically become a subject of derision and prints on t-shirts.

But Aisha Buhari was saying something serious here. As if to prove that most of the disdain for her statement is out of context, she had not made the initial ‘Animal Farm’ analogy; Senator Shehu Sani did. Why was it not the Senator that has been hung out to dry for the comments, which in any case are not as cynical as they are being made out to be.

It is perhaps the same attitude that greeted her first comments about there being persons around her husband who were working for him, and that was a statement she made when President Buhari was active and still agile. Now that there is the belief that he is reasonably incapacitated, she has again referred to this group of persons, only this time she has borrowed (and affirmed) the lexicon of a legislators dictionary.

Nigerians should not be bothered about whether or not Mrs Aisha was referring to Nigeria as her or her husband’s kingdom. Looking at the quote, there could be the sense that she did but she never actually did. What is more important and should have generated more buzz is that the wife of the President – who, in many countries, is the closest confidante and the real Chief of Staff of the President – is tacitly confirming that there is a cabal at work against the return of her husband to the country.

For a country supposedly serious about unity and democracy, the successful return of the President should not be in question. There should, quite rightly, be the case that his health should be fully disclosed to the Nigerian public, and should he be actually incapacitated, should resign. However, if there could be a chance that the President returns, there could not be a question about him being allowed to do so.

And, no, she was not trying to make herself seen as a queen but to recognise that the King’s court has a horde of deviants.

Editor