She belongs in the kitchen: Struggling president hits back after wife’s ticking off

Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari has shrugged off criticism from his own wife by saying she belonged in the kitchen. The 73-year-old leader insisted having run for president three times and having succeeded at the fourth attempt, he could “claim superior knowledge over her”. He added: “I don’t know exactly what party my wife belongs to. Actually she belongs in the kitchen, the living room and the other rooms in my house.” His remarks, made as he stood alongside chancellor Angela Merkel during a visit to Berlin, came after his wife Aisha, told the BBC she would not support him at the next election if he did not shake up his government.

The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years.

Aisha Buhari

Mr Buhari, a 73-year-old former military ruler, was elected last year after a campaign largely fought on his pledge to crush the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and crack down on corruption. But his wife said those who did not share the vision of his ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, were being appointed to senior positions. She said many in his government owed their positions to the influence of “a few people” working behind the scenes. “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.

He is yet to tell me but 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.

Aisha Buhari

Africa