"Few would have believed that the
taciturn, austere General Buhari had a soft, smiling
and sweet woman at home," the Vanguard daily said
after the former military ruler was elected Nigeria's
next president.
Aisha Buhari remained in the shadows for most of
the election campaign but could now impose a very
different style from the current First Lady at the
presidential villa Aso Rock in Abuja.
Little is known for now about the First Lady elect
other than a few details in the Nigerian media: she is
44, married her 72-year-old husband in 1989 after
he divorced his first wife the previous year, and they
have five children together.
"I met Aisha Buhari three times, and she seems to
be a very humble person, very friendly and a good
listener," said lawyer Ebere Ifendu, head of the
Women in Politics Forum group in Abuja.
The current First Lady, Patience Jonathan, wife of the
outgoing president Goodluck Jonathan, has a very
different public profile.
She is well-known to journalists and mimicked by
comedians for her boisterous public appearances as
well as political and financial scandals.
"Patience has been like a bull in a china shop. No
control whatsoever," said Yemisi Ransome-Kuti, head
of the Nigeria Network of NGOs.
"We are very hopeful that we will have a very
different First Lady, who will bring calm and harmony
at the presidency."
- Calm and relief -
In the large house in a residential area of Abuja
where her husband Muhammadu Buhari of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) was watching election
results come in, Aisha Buhari's calm demeanour
contrasted with the tumultuous scenes outside.
The official vote count was under way and the
electoral commission was drip-feeding results for the
presidential election state by state until Buhari took
an unassailable lead.
The APC high command announced victory for their
candidate and the news spread around the country,
sparking scenes of jubilation, notably in the north's
biggest city, Kano.
Dressed in a cream-coloured tunic and an orange and
pink embroidered headscarf, Aisha Buhari seemed
calm and also relieved, despite the magnitude of
what had just happened and what was to come.
"The long journey has come to an end," she told AFP,
referring to the election campaign.
But she admitted to "mixed feelings" about the
campaign, a low-key reference to the low blows and
personal attacks aimed at her husband from the
ruling party.
Jonathan's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused
Buhari, a northern Muslim, of supporting radical
Islam, of failing to secure his secondary school
certificate and even having terminal cancer.
Aisha Buhari preferred instead to talk about the
positive aspects of the rollercoaster ride that had led
Nigeria to its first democratic transfer of power
between parties at the ballot box.
Nigeria had nothing to fear from her husband, she
said.
"I know him personally. Not as a leader of Nigeria. I
know him as my husband and I think Nigeria should
feel comfortable with him. He will get there," she
added.
- 'Mama Peace' -
Patience Jonathan for her part tended to add fuel to
the flames during the campaign, going as far as
urging PDP supporters to "stone" anyone shouting
"change" -- the APC campaign slogan.
The comments sparked outrage in the APC and led to
a furious debate in the Nigerian media.
Patience Jonathan -- who styled herself "Mama
peace" -- is used to media scandals.
Even before the election of her husband as head of
state in 2011, she was suspected by the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission in 2006 of having
laundered a vast sum of money.
In 2012, she became "permanent secretary" of the
oil-producing southern state of Bayelsa, where
Goodluck Jonathan is from and was a former
governor.
The opposition heavily criticised the appointment,
decrying "nepotism" and "favouritism".
She also attracted the ire of civil society when in the
aftermath of the mass kidnapping of more than 200
schoolgirls in April last year, one of the leaders of
the "Bring Back Our Girls" movement was arrested
after meeting the First Lady at the presidential villa.
"Maybe she misunderstood her role as the First
Lady," suggested Ifendu.
"There's no official role for the First Lady in Nigeria.
It's not in the constitution," added Ransome-Kuti.
Instead, it often depends on what weight the
president gives it.
"What we are hoping for is more decorum from the
office of the First Lady," she said.

Will she fight for women rights in nigeria like mama peace ? ?

I don't think buhari will allow mrs aisha to run any first lady office... He didn't allow his late wife(safiya) to run any office when he was the head of state... I believe buhari really like the privacy of his family, he's not someone that loves exposing his family to the public.

May God bless our president-elect

not my business!