United Aishas: Why the First Lady and Alhassan can find common ground

by Alexander O. Onukwue

In the midst of all the attention that has been expended on Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Alhassan, over her comments on Buhari and Atiku, little has been considered of what the First Lady, the nation’s first Aisha, would be making of it all.

On one hand, Mrs Buhari had called out many, without mentioning names, of those working with Buhari as not having his interest at heart. The interview which was on BBC Hausa went viral and by the time it got to President Buhari’s attention to respond while in Germany, he gave us the now famous “other room” remark. Now that it has become public knowledge that Mrs Alhassan was not so much a ’Buharist’ from the beginning, it would seem as if the first lady was speaking about persons like her in that interview.

But like Mrs Alhassan, the First Lady has come under fire too, enough to make her relate with the present travails of the Minister. An audio recording has emerged in which Mamman Daura supposedly makes an outrageous claim that she is “a suicide bomber from Yola”. Mrs Buhari was born in Adamawa State, in the same North-East region as Mrs Alhassan. They both come from a conservative part of the country but have made themselves worthy recipients of public honour.

It’s a bit of an irony that with the present conversations about the 2019 elections, both Aishas are somewhat connected with Atiku; Mrs Buhari as a ‘sister’, and Mrs Alhassan as a ‘daughter’. Surely they cannot be at loggerheads with each other, can they?

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