A video that shows Aisha arguing with her husband’s niece, Fatima Mamman Daura, at the presidential compound went viral.
How Aisha’s position on ‘cabal’ sparked Buhari’s wedding rumour
The constant ‘anti-cabal’ stance of Nigeria’s First Lady Aisha Buhari precipitated the viral rumour that President Muhammadu Buhari was taking a second wife last weekend.
A source in the presidency told our reporter that there was already a negative perception about the First Lady’s relationship with her husband following her consistent comment that ‘there is a cabal’ in the presidential villa, a statement to which Buhari, during his first tenure, responded that his wife, Aisha belonged to ‘the other room’.
“Buhari had told Aisha, publicly, that her powers are restricted to the other room. What the President meant was that his wife should desist from meddling in affairs of governance of the state”. If you follow events in the country, you would recall that Aisha consistently fought what she called, the cabal. And from the look of things, Buhari seems to favour the so called cabals, not Aisha’s dispositions.
Rumours thrive on perceptions and speculations. Believed that Aisha has not been in the good book of the powers that be. So, since Buhari, as a Muslim is entitled to take even a fourth wife, people believed that the president may have finally decided to marry someone who could be loyal to him”, our source added.
Even after Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser on media and Publicity to President Buhari debunked the news in an interview with a local newspaper, Nigerian Tribune saying it was a deceptive manoeuvre by those who fabricated the news, Nigerians still did not accept that Buhari did not wed the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq.
Nigerians on the social media believed that the wedding took place somewhere in Abuja and has been consummated.
Adesina also disclosed that the news was far from the truth and that no such marriage is taking place at the Presidential Villa today.
A video that shows Aisha arguing with her husband’s niece, Fatima Mamman Daura, at the presidential compound went viral.
Mrs. Buhari has apologised over the video which she believed might have caused some concern to her admirers.
She announced her apologies on Wednesday, while hosting a delegation of wives of politicians who paid her a courtesy visit after her return from a two-month stay abroad.
“I used the opportunity to apologise for the embarrassment I might have caused my children, my immediate family members, well-meaning Nigerians and the institution I represent, on the circulated leaked video clip,” she posted on Instagram.
The president’s niece, Fatima Mamman Daura, who recorded the video, recently told the BBC she filmed the video herself in 2018 but it had been circulated more recently by “mischief-makers”.
President Buhari has denied claims by Aisha that two persons she referred to as cabal were controlling the affairs of his government. The President had challenged the First Lady to prove the existence of the cabal or remain silent.
“That is her business. This shows I am a democrat. What they are saying is different from what is happening.
They should come out and say those things they feel were staged managed by the cabal; what the cabal forced me to do. They should mention just one thing.”
Mrs. Buhari, while addressing a gathering of All Progressives Congress (APC) women in Abuja on December 4, told Nigerians that although over 15 million Nigerians voted for Buhari in 2015, “only two or three persons have since taken control of the government.”
She said that the leadership of the country under her husband would have performed better, but for two powerful individuals who are retrogressive elements preventing the government from moving forward. Aisha said that she is disappointed in men who rather than fight these two men will go to them in the night begging for favour.
In an interview with the BBC in 2016, Mrs. Buhari had threatened to withdraw support for her husband if he chose to seek reelection unless he shakes up his cabinet and includes more people who worked for his success in 2015.
She said although the victory of the APC in 2015 “was a collective effort of millions of people” she said “only for us to find out that the government is being operated by a few people.”
Mrs. Buhari, however, did not name the individuals or elaborate on her claims.