Aisha Buhari blasts Garba Shehu, Mamman Daura

Full press statement:

The wife of the Nigeria’s president Mrs Aisha Buhari has accused the president’s spokesman Garba Shehu of pushing for the sack of her media aides because she addressed the press on her return to Nigeria on October 13th.

“Mr. Shehu was privy and part of the plan and it’s execution and he was shocked when he realized that I had publicized my return to Nigeria on October 12, 2019 and cleared the air on the many rumours that took over social media, a job he was supposed to do but kept mute to cause more confusion and instability for his Principal and his family,” Mrs Buhari said in statement on Wednesday.

“Garba then, vented his anger on the National Television Authority (NTA) Management insisting that the media crew to my office must be sacked.”

She said Shehu eventually succeeded in getting her media aides suspended for doing their job. Mrs Buhari sais she had to intervene to save her staff from losing their jobs by involving the Department of State Services (DSS) in order to ascertain roles played by key actors in the saga.

Buhari was away from Nigeria for more than a month and was unusually silent. Her silence generated rumours that the oft-mentioned powerful cabal in the presidency has pushed her to the background.

Rumours that President Buhari was going to marry another wife and a viral video in which Mrs Buhari was seen protesting in the presidential villa were touted as proves that cabal was trying to hush  Buhari.

On her arrival in Nigeria on October 13, Mrs Buhari told the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority shortly after she returned to Abuja around 5 am on Sunday morning that she was in the United Kingdom to be with her children.

She said she also saw her doctors while she was there, adding that she has always travelled out for vacation for six weeks every year. This, she said, was nothing unusual.

She said the rumours were decidedly targeted at her family.

“The genesis of this fake news started when my husband fell sick and perpetrators of this act were showing fake Ambulance, Hospital and dead body suggesting that my husband is dead,” she said.

“That time, I received so many calls from other first ladies and Presidents of other countries to confirm; so I called the attention of NCC, NBC and the National Orientation Agency.”

Buhari said in her statement on Wednesday that the rumours could have been laid to rest if Shehu had done his job.

“[Shehu] kept mute to cause more confusion and instability for his Principal and his family,” she said.

The press Statement in full:

Nigeria’s development is hinged on the ability of public officials to execute their mandates professionally, and to be shining examples in their various areas of endeavor. It is not a good sign when officials abandoned their responsibility and start clutching at straws.

As spokesperson of the President, he has the onerous responsibility of managing the image of the President and all the good works that he is executing in the country. Rather than face this responsibility squarely, he has shifted his loyalty from the President to others who have no stake in the compact that the President signed with Nigerians on May 29, 2015 and 2019.

To make matters worse, Mr. Shehu has presented himself to these people as a willing tool and executioner of their antics, from the corridors of power even to the level of interfering with the family affairs of the President. This should not be so. The blatant meddling in the affairs of a First Lady of a country is a continuation of the prodigal actions of those that he serves. We all remember that the chief proponent appropriated to himself and his family a part of the Presidential Villa, where he stayed for almost 4 years and when the time came for him to leave, he orchestrated and invaded my family’s privacy through a video circulated by Mamman’s Daughter, Fatima, the public was given the impression that on arrival into the country I was locked out of the villa by Mr. President. Garba Shehu as Villa Spokesperson, knew the truth and had the responsibility to set the records straight, but because his allegiance is somewhere else and his loyalty misplaced, he deliberately refused to clear the air and speak for the President who appointed him in the first place. Consequently, his action has shown a complete breakdown of trust between the First Family and him.

Mr. Shehu was privy and part of the plan and it’s execution and he was shocked when he realized that I had publicized my return to Nigeria on October 12, 2019 and cleared the air on the many rumors that took over social media, a job he was supposed to do but kept mute to cause more confusion and instability for his Principal and his family.

Garba then, vented his anger on the National Television Authority (NTA) Management insisting that the media crew to my office must be sacked. He succeeded in getting them suspended for doing their job. I had to intervene to save the innocent staff from losing their means of livelihood by involving the Department of State Services (DSS) in order to ascertain roles played by key actors in the saga.

It is at this late hour that I recall, sadly, that it was the same Garba Shehu who claimed that the government will not allow office of the First Lady to run. He was later to confirm to one of my aides that he was instructed to say so by Mamman Daura and not the President. This antic attracted the anger of Nigerian women. He didn’t realize the fact that First Lady’s office is a tradition which has become an institution.

Today, even without a budget, I am able run my humanitarian programmes.

In saner climes, Garba Shehu would have resigned immediately after going beyond his boundaries and powers.

GARBA SHEHU NEEDS TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS KIND OF BEHAVIOR WILL NO LONGER BE TOLERATED.

The latest of his antics was to wage a war on the first family through an orchestrated media campaign of calumny by sponsoring pseudo accounts to write and defame my children and myself.

Based on Garba Shehu’s misguided sense of loyalty and inability to stay true and loyal to one person or group, it has become apparent that all trust has broken down between him and my family due to the many embarrassments he has caused the Presidency and the first family. We all have families to consider in our actions and therefore it is in the best interest of all concerned for Garba Shehu to take the advice of the authority, given to him sometimes in the first week of November, 2019.

Aisha Muhammadu Buhari

First Lady, Federal Republic of Nigeria

11th December, 2019