Buhari vs Buhari: President maintains that his wife’s place is in the kitchen

Picture: www.newson247.com

Presidential spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu must be scratching his head in amazement and confusion.

The media aide had tried to defend his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, for saying his wife’s place was in the kitchen and she should not dabble in politics. Shehu had tried to play down the President’s earlier remarks as a mere joke.

“My friends, can’t a leader get a sense of humour anymore?” he queried after the President’s comments drew condemnation across the country. “Mr. President laughed before that statement was made. He was obviously throwing a banter.”

However, the President has shown that his comment was far from a joke when he repeated the statement during an interview on Deutsche Welle, the German broadcaster.

Responding to the interviewer’s request to clarify his controversial comments, President Buhari didn’t mince words. “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 that, even if she’s working,” he replied.

When Phil Gayle, the interviewer, asked if that was his wife’s function, the President replied in the affirmative. “Yes, to look after me.”

It is ironic that Buhari’s first statement about his wife’s place being in the kitchen was made in Berlin, Germany, during a joint press conference with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a woman.

“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” he had said at the time.

If it was a joke, Merkel didn’t find it funny in any way.

However, Mrs. Aisha Buhari is a card-carrying member of the APC, the same party with the President. And if he says he doesn’t know which party she belongs, it means he probably doesn’t approve of her interest in politics.

It is apparent that the President was not happy with his wife’s criticism. The First Lady had averred that some of her husband’s appointees did not share the vision of the party and were appointed because of the influence of a “few people.” Read more on Aisha Buhari spits fire

“Some people are sitting down in their homes folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position,” she said in an interview with the BBC.

She also threatened not to vote for her husband in the 2019 elections, if things didn’t change.

“I have decided as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again,” she said.

Many were shocked that a Nigerian First lady would openly criticize her husband and they expected that she would later come out to deny parts of the interview or at least put a spin to it and say she was somehow misquoted. But since that has not been done, it appears the First Lady is standing by her comments.

Maybe the President is embarrassed by his wife’s comments and wants to pay her back. One of the most demeaning things you can say to a modern woman today is that her place is in the kitchen. And to say that to the hearing of the whole world – not once but twice – shows he means every word.

Unfortunately, all these dirty linens are being washed not just in public but abroad. While the First Lady granted an interview to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Hausa Service, the President replied via the German Deutsche Welle. Meanwhile, the local media houses are left to fight for scraps, only succeeding in getting second hand quotes from the crumbs they see on the Internet.

Charity, even when it is unpalatable, should always begin at home.