Former President Olusegun Obasanjo yesterday advised the First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, to use the “pillow talk” principle to draw the attention of her husband, President Muhammed Buhari, to issues affecting the nation and the need to address them urgently.
Obasanjo, who was apparently reacting to Aisha’s latest displeasure with the frightening security situation in the country and the seeming inability of the military to arrest it, said the First Lady might have been able to bring home the issue to Buhari, if she had adopted the bedroom approach.
In a statement by his media aide, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo said: “We have to put all things on the table to address these problems. Mind you, we have to be sincere and genuine with ourselves.
“It is nice that President wife is talking. I think she did well, and maybe she should also have a pillow talk with the President.
“I believe every Nigerian family, individual, group is entitled to livelihood. It is the responsibility of all to make sure we have a dignified life. That should be our aim collectively,” Obasanjo said.
As expected, the advise had series of reactions from Nigerians on social media.
Meanwhile, the Deputy Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Chuks Ibegbu, who spoke with The PUNCH, described Aisha Buhari as a patriot and a kind-hearted first lady.
He added, “She should force or cajole Buhari, her husband to the other room with pillow so they can have useful talks to address our challenges.
“Obasanjo is right. We live in a stone age here, even Rwanda and Chad are better than us now.”
Also Chief Emeka Attama, the Media Advisor to the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, said President Buhari appeared not to be in charge of his government, adding had he been in control he would have known that the government intervention programmes were not reaching the right people.
“Recently, the President commented that the level of poverty in the country was too high, that Nigerians were suffering. Mr President seems not to be in charge as to know what is happening in different parts of this country because if he knew he would have known that the intervention programmes of the Federal Government was not really reaching the right people.
“However, Obasanjo is very correct, if it only requires the wife to engage Buhari in a bedroom chat to be able to address this, so be it.”
Aisha expressing frustration, says Afenifere
On its part, Afenifere said the President’s wife was right to express her frustrations on the situations in the country, despite being told by the President that her place was in the bedroom and the kitchen.
The Afenifere Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, said, “One of the times Aisha spoke, the President said that her place was in the other room, and not in the political arena. So, I think, like every Nigerian, she goes to the social media to vent her frustrations and give her views.
“The former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, was throwing a funny one. If Aisha was told to remain in the other room and the kitchen, then the option is a pillow talk. But there is no doubt that the situation in the country is raising concerns for every rational Nigerian. This is why the First Lady too is venting her frustrations.”
We won’t take issue with Obasanjo – ACF
But the Arewa Consultative Forum said it would not take issue with Obasanjo over his advice to the President’s wife.
When contacted on the telephone on the northern body’s take on Obasanjo’s advice to Aisha, the National Publicity Secretary of the ACF, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim-Biu, said, “We do not want to take issue with Chief Obasanjo over his counsel to Mrs Aisha Buhari on the PMB’s administration.”
Credit: Kemifilani