Public communication is one of the most delicate challenges that people in public life face, either in the corporate or the public sector. Many people suddenly find themselves in high places, and they become a source of news, a potential interview subject, and they get chased around by journalists and other media figures who want a story, in fact, not just a story, but a scoop.
I used to explain in communication coaching
classes and to the bosses whose media I managed, at one point or the other that
they should never feel obliged to say things they do not want to say. No matter
how aggressive the journalist may be, they should be careful what they
say.
A journalist would make you feel at home, he or she may even reassure
you that whatever you don’t want published could be edited out, and that if you
don’t feel comfortable with a question, you should feel free to keep quiet. But
a good journalist knows how to push you into a corner and get you, through
follow up questions, to say things you may not ordinarily want to say. By the
time the tape starts rolling, and you are encouraged to feel like a star, and
your own tongue starts rolling, you’d be surprised the kind of emphasis, what
you consider an innocent remark, would receive when it is published. Point is: journalists, while on duty, are not
working for politicians or big men and women; they are working for organizations
that need stories that can sell. They want scoops that can make the headlines.
That is what makes them journalists: getting the good story, the good comments,
the good shots.
After reading the interview granted by First Lady Aisha Buhari on BBC
Hausa Service, I was tempted to conclude that this is what may have happened.
She could have said the same things in a more delicately phrased manner. I have always held the view that anybody at
all in a public position should be sent for media training (including how to
deliver speeches, poise, pronunciation skills, even basic grammar lessons)
before they are unleashed on a Nigerian public that has learnt to subject the
lives of public officials to utmost scrutiny. The Aisha Buhari interview also fell short in
this regard. She just gave the BBC Hausa service a scoop, which in my view has
done more damage to her husband’s politics than good.
Given the enormous effect that the
interview has had on the public, I would have expected that by now, she would
perhaps have tactically disowned it, put a spin on it somehow, and make it
clear that it is not intended in any way to discredit, or criticize her
husband’s administration. But nothing of such has happened. And what does that
mean? That the interview was deliberate and that she is standing by every word
she said. She has been called the “good lady in the Villa.” She has been
praised for being a modern wife who can speak up, and exercise her right to
free speech. She has been called fearless and assertive. The only thing I have
not heard from some of the hypocritical commentators is that she would be a
good Presidential candidate for 2019.
I have also been told that she must have spoken out of frustration and
that her public outburst about the existence of a cabal in the Villa, which determines
who gets what appointment, to the disadvantage of members of the All
Progressives Congress is making APC members who feel left out of the power-sharing
process, very unhappy. But her outburst is nothing but a poor understanding of
power politics. There will always be cabals around the seat of power. Power is
so potent the people around the corridor will never leave it alone to the
President.
And if it is true that this cabal or the President has recruited non-APC
members into the government, then that is a positive thing, it is also a positive
thing that the President does not know many of the people he has appointed. He
doesn’t need to know them personally as long as they come from all parts of
Nigeria and they are competent men who can get the job done. The First Lady
seems to assume that only card-carrying members of the APC should work for the
Buhari administration. On a positive note, however, she doesn’t want anybody to
hijack her husband’s Presidency and she believes those who are trying to do so
do not mean well. But what does that say about her husband?
The First Lady is also of the view that if the present trend continues,
she cannot campaign for her husband in 2019 should he decide to seek
re-election. She sounded pleased with what is being done to ensure security in the
North East, but she gave the impression that she doesn’t think her husband has
done enough to merit a second term in 2019. Hear her: “What I fear is the uprising of 15.4 million
people”. And consider this: “…Nobody
thought it is going to be like this. But now that it is so…Sometimes when one
is doing something wrong without him knowing, but when people talk to them,
they should listen”. Who is that person doing something wrong and who does not
listen?
Altogether,
Mrs Aisha Buhari has passed the equivalent of a vote of no confidence in her
husband, and the people around him. This
is a kind of “home trouble” brought to
the public. The biggest challenge a man can face is to have his own wife “fight”
him in public. And what has happened is both unprecedented and significant
considering that a Hausa-Fulani couple is involved. It is probably the first time a lady in this
position would publicly upbraid her husband and his team. Is she furious
because she has been scorned, ignored, rendered powerless?
Well, even if we were not privy to other details, she was publicly
scorned when her husband sent a volcanic message from Germany that she should
go back to her place in the “kitchen, the living room and the other room.” Feminists and critics of misogyny have
protested over this, quite rightly too, at a time when women are leading countries
and corporations, it is incorrect and insensitive to say that the best place
for a First Lady is to be a cook, a living-room-soap opera-watching detainee
and a bedroom object. But given the cultural circumstances involved, this may
well be the future Aso Villa fate of First Lady Aisha Buhari. She could be
marked out as an ambitious woman who wants to share power with her husband, and
as a threat to her husband’s politics.
See
how much damage has been caused already by the President’s counter-response:
The German Chancellor glared at our President when she heard that comment about
“the kitchen, the living room and the other room.” She quickly ended their press conference. Angela
Merkel is married, and she is Chancellor, but I don’t think her husband would
dare tell her she is best fit for the kitchen and the other room. And imagine
if Theresa May, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Oby Ezekwesili, Grace Alele-Williams, Omobola
Johnson, Chimamanda Adichie, Joke Jacobs… had all been chained down in the
“other room”. No wonder, President
Buhari’s local opponents are already making big political capital out of his un-Presidential
comments, and the German public is shocked that any world leader could be so
politically incorrect. The number of jokes and memes that have been designed
around this husband-wife exchange are thoroughly amusing. Mrs Buhari has also
handed over to critics of this administration, speaking points that would be
exploited all the way till 2019, and she may well end up not as a powerful
force in the Villa but as a strong voice for women’s rights.
It is possible she may be advised soon to recruit spin-doctors to do
damage control, but she may have left that rather late already. On the other
hand, there is no amount of damage control that the President’s spin-doctors
can sell to anyone. Whatever happens, she is cultivating a reputation as a
different kind of First Lady. Since
independence, every Nigerian Head of State or President has enjoyed the support
of his wife while in office: strong, fanatical support. Mrs Maryam Abacha was
so supportive of her husband, while everybody condemned him, and long after his
death, she has continued to celebrate his memory. Before her, Mrs Maryam
Babangida brought greater colour and celebrity status to the Office of the
First Lady and added much value to her husband’s tenure.
Mrs Fati
Abubakar was a dignified presence behind her husband, the same with Mrs Margaret
Shonekan. President Olusegun Obasanjo had as First Lady, the very elegant and
beautiful Stella Obasanjo who mobilized support and goodwill for her husband.
Turai Yar’Adua, wife of the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was also so
devoted to her husband’s cause, she was declared the head of the Aso Rock
cabal. No one doubted her determination to protect her husband’s interest
during those critical moments. You all know Mrs Patience Jonathan. She was as
First Lady, her husband’s most vocal supporter. This brought her at loggerheads
with some sections of the public who objected to her prominence and controversial
statements, but not once did she or the other First Ladies before her, criticize
their husbands in public.
Elsewhere, First Ladies also
support their husbands. With all the reported cases of dalliance and cuckoldry
during the Bill Clinton Presidency, Hillary Clinton stood by her husband. Michelle Obama has also proven to be a very
good role model in this regard. Certain
positions require careful grooming. Any form of tension in the home could
distract a political leader and make him seem vulnerable in the eyes of the
public. Mrs Aisha Buhari may have spoken her mind, but she should not make a
habit of assuming the role of a radical, in-house critic, throwing her husband
under the wheels. She ought to be
thoroughly embarrassed by all the fun being poked at her husband because of
that BBC Hausa interview she granted. How this matter is resolved between their
kitchen and “the other room” is a family affair into which we cannot dabble.
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