Office of First
Office of First Lady: Aisha Buhari Clashes with Mamman
Daura Garba Shehu
The Full Statement signed and issued by the First Lady, Aisha
Buhari
Garba Shehu Has Gone Beyond His Boundaries
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