Aisha Buhari and Mrs Osibanjo
The Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government has appointed several aides for the “Offices of the Wife of the President” and that of the Vice President’s wife, despite his promise to scrap the offices.

Buhari, in an interview he granted to Weekly Trust in December 2014, had said he would not have an office of the first lady should he emerge as president. He gave as his reason the fact that such office is not provided for in the constitution, and suggested that the Ministry for Women Affairs should be allowed to play its role unhindered.

Aisha Buhari, following this statement, also gave her word that she would abide by whatever the constitution stipulates, and said she would perform her traditional duties only as the wife of the president.

It’s arguable these assurances contributed in no small measure to the All Progressives Congress’s victory at the polls in the year that followed — especially given the unpopular record of Patience Jonathan, the erstwhile first lady.

However, more than three years into the administration, The ICIR can confirm that, though linguistically the office of the first lady has been abolished, the federal government has spent taxpayers’ money to sustain, as called, offices of the wives of the president and vice president.

EIGHT SPECIAL ASSISTANTS, TWO PERSONAL PHYSICIANS

A publication by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF), which listed crucial appointments made by the administration, included seven special advisers, 48 senior special assistants, 47 special assistants, and 16 personal assistants.

Out of these 118 advisers and assistants, ten have been in the exclusive service of the wives of the president and the vice president.

Appointed on June 1, 2015, were Abiodun Adelowo, Personal Physician to the Wife of the Vice President; Tayo Basirat Fakorede, Special Assistant on Special Duties to the Office of the Wife of the Vice President; Susan Chagwa, Special Assistant on Household & Social Events to the Office of the Wife of the Vice President; Koko Iyamu, Special Assistant on Administration to the Office of the Wife of the Vice President; and Mosope Olasebikan, Special Assistant on Media & ICT to the Office of the Wife of the Vice President.

The following month, on July 2, 2015, Hajo Sani was appointed as Senior Special Assistant on Administration to the Office of the Wife of the President; Mohammed Kamal Abdulrahman was appointed as Personal Physician to the Wife of the President; and Hadi Uba was appointed as Special Assistant on Administration II to the Office of the Wife of the President.

After two years, on May 24, 2017, two additional appointments were made: Omolayo Akinfala was appointed Special Assistant on Protocol to the wife of the President, and Fadi Rose Audu became Special Assistant on Domestic Matters to the wife of the President.

Out of all ten political appointees, one, Susan Chagwa, was stated by the OSGF to have resigned from office. The date of resignation was not recorded, and it is not stated whether or not she has been replaced.

VIOLATION OF CAMPAIGN PROMISE

The remuneration package laid down by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) provides for special assistants and personal assistants to various office holders, such as the president, vice president, and ministers.

The document, however, fails to specify exactly how much goes to these assistants; rather it states that the figure will be provided, “tbp”.

However, it is conceivable that the ten special assistants to the wives of the president and vice president earn as much as special advisers, therefore by the end of July, 2018, N4.4 billion will have gone to them as basic monthly salaries and allowances.

APPOINTMENTS SHROUDED IN SECRECY

While the presidency has announced the appointments of some special assistants and publicly organised swearing-in ceremonies for others, the appointments of aides to the wives of the president and vice president on different days have evidently been kept secret.

The appointment of Hajo Sani, Senior Special Assistant on Administration to the Wife of the President, found its way into public knowledge only because the University of Maiduguri Class of ’78 placed an advert in the newspaper to congratulate her. And this happened a month and two weeks after the appointment was made.

NOT MUCH HAS CHANGED

In January, 2015, when Aisha Buhari stated the activities she would be inclined to perform as traditional duties of a president’s wife, she mentioned receiving guests, visiting orphanages, helping the less privileged, malnourished children and so on. However, since her husband assumed position as the country’s number one citizen, she has gone on to do much more.

In August, 2015, Punch reported [though the web page is no longer available] that the president’s wife has been operating from the Office of the First Lady located inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The paper further reported that asides the title preference, nothing significant has changed from the previous administration. Just as under her predecessor, Aisha’s office is occupied by staff members, aides, security details and protocol officials, attached to her.

Her office has also organised several events, including a thank-you dinner in honour of APC women and youth, children’s day celebration, eid-el-fitri children’s party, national workshop on war against abuse, and, in conjunction with a UK-based private firm, a seminar on protocol, etiquette and security for wives of state governors.

Leaked invitation cards to some of these events and lecterns used by Aisha in the past to deliver speeches have on them an official seal for the “wife of the president, federal republic of Nigeria”.

OFFICE OF FIRST LADY UNCONSTITUTIONAL

The ICIR went through the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to confirm if truly there is no statutory office for either the first lady or the wife of the president. In all 320 sections of the law and the schedules that follow, there is no single mention of the words ‘wife’ and ‘lady’.

Femi Falana, Senior Advocate of Nigeria and human rights activist, has also confirmed this. “The post of the First Lady is not a creation of the constitution,” he said, in an interview.

“In other words, there is no mention or reference to the post in the constitution or any other statute in the land. So, the question of assigning responsibilities to the office does not arise. In the first and second republics, there was no office of the First Lady.

“Even under successive military regimes up to the Muhammadu Buhari/Tunde Idiagbon era, the post was unknown. It was under the Gen. Ibrahim Babangida junta that the wife of the military president created the post, albeit illegally. There was no decree to back it up.”

Source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/277980-buhari-ignores-own-promise-appoints-10-aides-for-office-of-wife-of-president-vp.html

Baba has a case of selective amnesia.

Op must be an ipob pig.,trying 2 dicredit pmb at by means.pmb is God sent,u ppl cant do him anything..pmb till 2023

APC - All Promises Cancelled

not only is pmb the most hypocritical president ever, he also has some of the most shameless supporters

This article was published by Premiumtimes but all these indecent copy-pasters who lack the skill and also lack the ability to put in effort, will pass it off as theirs with no reference whatsoever to the original. These academic crimes should be punished.

This is the source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/277980-buhari-ignores-own-promise-appoints-10-aides-for-office-of-wife-of-president-vp.html

Hmmm

How anybody still supports this man is beyond me.

Buhari does not mean well for Nigerians. #BUHARITODAURA2019#

Hardened Criminal

Please just get your PVC ahead of 2019 Election

Una surprise?



Me am not because Buhari know say him time don expire for ASO ROCK so dem want enjoy the last one .... trust Aisha now ....
The other room

people go just die ontop this matter

It is only fools that buhari can deceive with his integrity bulshit

All I have to say is


2019 is few months away.

Only fools believed him in the first place.

If Buhari deceived you in 2015, you can be forgiven...
But if you allow him deceive you again in 2019, then....

Useless old unqualified lying terrorist general

Mr INTINTEGRITY my nyash..
@APC mod I didn't call anybody name oo

Madridguy, I was happy for you earlier this month. You've suddenly gone back to zone B ward again. why?

See what booboo has done again now.

THIS IS NIGERIA. YOU ARE WELCOME

Buhari and APC understands Nigerians very well.
thats why he can do whatever the furck he likes from now till 2019.
All he and APC needs to do is to share bags of rice and tin tomatoes and a few dollars
and some brand new election promises...............................................................................................

and Nigerians will forget everything that happened since 2015 and vote for him
with loud shouts of SAI BABA.

Nigerians easily forget.

Buhari carry on till whenever nigerians regain sense jooor, nothing do you.

.Even after mr.integrity promised do away with office of first lady??.....Useless terroristic scammer!!..

This is the most useless, most corrupt and most evil government to ever grace the seat of power in Nigeria!!

Buhari the terrorist and his jan.jaweed followers no go die well aswear!!

Buhari is a liar! He lied about his WAEC certificate, lied about his age and lied about everything, yet his deluded followers still call him Mr integrity. Madness!

The first thing I did was to check the source , and as anticipated, it's Premium Times!

Can Premium Times maintain this tempo and fit in the shoes of Sahara Reporters? Time will tell.

As for PMB, he isn't very much different from past rulers. The only thing he enjoys is the hero worshiping in the North and perhaps the image laudering by the media in the South.

boostdom:
This article was published by Premiumtimes but all these indecent copy-pasters who lack the skill and also lack the ability to put in effort, will pass it off as theirs with no reference whatsoever to the original. These academic crimes should be punished.

This is the source: https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/277980-buhari-ignores-own-promise-appoints-10-aides-for-office-of-wife-of-president-vp.html

you sound more pained than premiumtimes

The annoying thing is that it is even the educated zone Bs that believe him without any iota of doubt. I wonder why they went to school.operation educational certificate withdrawal from all zone Bs

anyone still shouting "Sai Baba" has mental problem that requires urgent attention.