By the time President Buhari is deserted

Mr President will return home by 2023 if Allah spares his life to the end of his administration or ‘regime’ as Punch would want to call it. By then all the euphoria of being president would be over; no one will compete with Aisha for her husband’s attention anymore. There will be no Mamman Daura […]

Mr President will return home by 2023 if Allah spares his life to the end of his administration or ‘regime’ as Punch would want to call it.

By then all the euphoria of being president would be over; no one will compete with Aisha for her husband’s attention anymore. There will be no Mamman Daura or Abba Kyari to issue instructions to anyone without the consent or knowledge of Aisha’s husband.

Now, the frustration of (First Lady) Aisha during the week reminded me of great presidents we had in both distant past and just recently. I remember Nigeria’s political Maradona and Military President, the ever smiling General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.

Many historical accounts portray him as both brutal and cunning – a hybrid of both fox and lion. When his wife, Maryam died in December 2009, I was in junior high school then, the newspapers and TV presented the image of a woman who I wished had come to limelight during our time. We were told she was the brilliant and beautiful pillar to her husband’s successful military administration.

She is said to have created importance around the unofficial office of the First Lady through exemplary humanitarian service to women and the less privileged across the country.

I am quite confident that if Maryam Babangida were alive today she would have given moral guidance on how to be the power behind the ‘most powerful’ leader of about 200 million Nigerians to Aisha. But since some few powerful individuals have forced her out of her place, it is just a matter of few years to come, and they will all be gone. She would be left to grope in the wilderness of loneliness as there won’t be numerous visitors anymore. She won’t be seeing her name or pictures on TV, newspapers, or Facebook and Twitter.

Well, finally, may Aisha have the patience to continue to bear the frustration at the villa while she maintains her place in the living room, the kitchen, and the other room; where both her husband and his handlers have relegated her to.

Musa Kalim Gambo writes from Zaria [email protected]