BELONGING

For those of you who want to opsonize  Mr President so you can engulf him,  I laugh at you uncontrollably. 

You have even attempted to equate him with The Donald Trump who only recently tried to deflect a released video recording of obscene conversation he had with a certain Bill Bush about women. 

There's a pattern and a history about Trump, he talks silly things and acts similarly most times even now at 70. That he loves women and hangs out at places where women are utilized as mere 'tools of business' is no revelation.  There's perhaps enough information to nail him on several counts; however more heavyweight accusations cannot be proven yet.   

PMB while responding to a recently published interview granted by his wife to the BBC Hausa service laughed and said "I don't know what party my wife belongs to.... But what I know is that she belongs to my kitchen,  my living room and my other room."

Some intellectuals have interpreted this to mean the man does not value women and is convinced that all women 'belong in' the kitchen. The insult the president has received is akin to what Trump has gotten for every primitive word he's spoken. It appears some feminists have tagged along with this statement to amplify their voices while some ethnoreligious supremacists have used the opportunity to have a go at the president's tribe and religion. 

If you are a married man,  does your wife belong to another man's bedroom?  If you said you are sure your wife belongs to your bedroom even if you are not certain about her affiliation to another fellow's party, does that translate to your wife being in solitary confinement in your house?

PMB does not have a history of grabbing anybody's pubic bone so it really doesn't make sense when you try to label him as oppressive of women.  He may have divorced his first wife just like Nelson did Winnie but his current wife and younger daughters don't appear like they have been tortured all their lives. 

The same people who questioned the presence of two of his young graduate daughters at the United Nations General Assembly where he spoke last month are now the most vocal champions tackling the president's comment and exposing how chauvinistic,  misogynistic and denigrating of women he is.  The same people who mock him for appointing a relatively young female minister of finance are the ones now hailing Aisha Buhari as their amazon despite holding on to their belief that she is the one involved in the Halliburton bribery scandal. 

How many men will truthfully applaud their wives for seemingly negative remarks about them and/or their offices spoken openly or secretly to the media? She did speak to the media and whether she was right or wrong in doing so remains up for debate in some quarters. 

I find the interview rather irrelevant and an unnecessary distraction. I am certain that Aisha's name was not on the ballot last year so I find it strange that she was complaining about not knowing who and who made the list of government appointees. Should we reinstate the nonexistent and unconstitutional office of the first lady and make it her duty to conduct familiarity tests on any potential nominee?  

Let's get this clear,  there are many interested parties in Nigeria's commonwealth especially those who feel very much entitled due to one input or the other.  There's so much balancing of equations the president can do to satisfy all and sundry.  I'm sure the constituency of the wife of the president isn't enjoying the privileges which previous wives became accustomed to so there must of a certainty be grumblings.  The president has a very beautiful wife and dashing daughters who are capable of ending tribalism in Nigeria due to their beauty alone; if that expressway was opened up, what Herod Antipas had to endure in the Bible with respect to John the Baptist will be child's play. Many Nigerians also have the right to claim entitlements for spending and being spent to oust the Jonathans but how many people Buhari go settle? 

The wife of the former president was in the news recently claiming ownership of huge resources stashed in various bank accounts which are not in her name.  Her husband has been reported severally claiming ignorance of any heist carried out under his reign;  did this happen because several parallel governments were operating while he slept? We cannot afford to allow unelected family members of government and their associates become very powerful because that will be the inevitable end of that pathway.  Patience Jonathan used to go around in one of the presidential jets and she was regularly welcomed at various airports like royalty.  We once had to wait on the tarmac at the Kaduna airport in late 2010 due to the landing of one of the presidential planes and it was clear that none  of the top brass of government at the time was on board.  We already have enough on our plate dealing with relatively powerful national assembly leaders who shut down the airports in their home states wherever they pass through,  let's not add powerful spouses to the menu. 

When anyone says the presidency has been hijacked, there are two main individuals they refer to.  These are the president's chief of staff Abba Kyari who was once the chairman of the united bank for Africa and the president's older nephew Mamman Daura.  I'm not quite sure these two men hold all the aces in determining appointments or contracts but they must be oracles if they do.  Dwight Eisenhower as America's president had just two men advising him on critical appointments so it isn't necessarily out of place if a leader has a select few as his closest allies.  

Many want appointments to see the president and they feel Kyari is 'blocking' them; some just want oil wells but Ibe Kachikwu deflects them to oga at the top. The recent events in the land indicate that the ground is shifting and some people may have become desperate. The noose is tightening so blackmail is the last resort.  Chief of staff took money from MTN they said,  secretary cut grass with plenty millions and some won't campaign come 2018/2019 so that we can all test Buhari's popularity without their influence.  They forget that many won elections at state and federal level simply because they went with the flow initiated by a Buhari candidacy last year. 

Let's support this man biko, I belong to his camp because I understand the enormity of the challenges before Nigeria.  He's far from perfect or ideal but he's a much needed wrecking ball before a new Nigeria can be born.

14/10/2016.