2019 Election: ‘If things continue like this, I will not go out and campaign again’ Aisha Buhari

The wife of the president, Aisha Buhari, has warned her husband, Muhammadu Buhari, that she may not support him at the 2019 election unless he shakes up his government.

In her yet-to-be aired interview with BBC Hausa, Mrs Buhari is quoted to have said that if the hardship the citizens are experiencing presently continued, she will not come out to canvass for women to vote for him for second term.

She added that her husband had not told her whether he would contest during the 2019 election.

“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. I will never do it again,” BBC quoted.

She suggested the government had been hijacked, saying a “few people” were behind presidential appointments.

”His wife’s decision to go public with her concerns will shock many people, but it shows the level of discontent with the president’s leadership,” says the BBC’s Naziru Mikailu in Abuja.

She said people who did not share the vision of the APC were now appointed to top posts because of the influence a “few people” wield.

”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. 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,” she reportedly added.

When asked to name those who had hijacked the government, she refused, saying: ”You will know them if you watch television.”

On whether the president was in charge, she said: ”That is left for the people to decide.”

When asked what she regarded as the government’s major achievement, she said it was to improve security in the north-east where militant Islamist group Boko Haram has waged an insurgency since 2009.

“No-one is complaining about being attacked in their own homes. Thankfully everyone can walk around freely, go to places of worship, etc. Even kids in Maiduguri have returned to schools,” she said, referring to the city which was once the headquarters of the militant group.

Following the explosive interview, Buhari and members of his kitchen cabinet are reportedly mounting pressure on BBC Hausa Service not to broadcast the full interview granted by his wife.

The interview is due for broadcast on Saturday.