most appointees not known to president - Aisha Buhari Speaks

President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha, has
weighed in on the ongoing crisis rocking the ruling
All Progressives Congress, APC, saying the row has
become a serious worry for the administration.
“Many people have started dividing the leadership of
the APC and that is really making us feel not too
good,” Mrs. Buhari said in an interview with BBC
Hausa.
A part of the interview was aired Tuesday. The full
interview will be aired on Friday.
The first lady said those behind the crisis felt
aggrieved that they laboured for, and helped the APC
to power in 2015, but received no compensation.
“They are doing that because they felt have laboured
for the party and deserved to be compensated,” Mrs.
Buhari said. “People who do not have voters card
are those who are given appointments and enjoying
the government.”
Her unusually public remarks about politics came
amid an unfolding clash between a former governor
Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, and the national chairman
of the APC, John Odigie-Oyegun.
The latest infighting stemmed from a disagreement
over how the party’s candidate in the upcoming
gubernatorial election in Ondo State emerged.
Mr. Tinubu, in a scathing statement, accused Mr.
Odigie-Oyegun of engaging in fraudulent
manipulation of the primaries.
Mr. Oyegun denied the allegations, and accused Mr.
Tinubu of falsehood, and of waging a media war
against him.
The APC, a coalition of four former political parties,
came into existence in 2013. The alliance was aimed
at challenging the then Peoples Democratic Party,
and possibly wrestling power from it.
Mr. Tinubu, who led one of the former parties,
Action Congress of Nigeria, was widely credited as
the architect of the APC victory in the 2015 elections
– the first opposition win at the federal level.
The party began to face internal crisis early after the
polls, as different leadership factions struggled for
available positions in the cabinet and National
Assembly.
Mr. Tinubu’s candidates for the positions of Senate
President and House of Representatives Speaker, lost
out.
The Ondo election crisis is the latest manifestation
of the lingering feud.
Mrs. Buhari said the power tussle resonated in
varied ways that majority of her husband’s cabinet
members were not known to him – meaning they
were foisted as part of the power grab.
She added: “Among all the people he selected, if he
is asked among 50 people, he does not know 45. I
don’t know them despite staying with him for 27
years”.
For those behind the crisis, which was affecting the
administration, she said “What I am afraid for them
is the rebellion of 15 million people”, ostensibly in
reference to the number of the people who voted for
the president.
Asked whether her husband knew those creating
problems for his administration, Mr. Buhari said,
“Whether he knows them or not, those who voted
for him know. There is nothing I will tell him. He
can see”.
When asked whether her husband planned to run
for a second term in 2019, Mrs. Buhari said she did
not know. But said for her personally, “I have made
up my mind about that”.