A tweet by Nigeria’s First Lady, Mrs Aisha Buhari, reacting to footage of her husband, Nigerian President, threatening death to ballot box snatchers, has stirred controversy on Twitter.
Mrs Buhari, who hasn’t been seen in her husband’s campaign train throughout his recent tour of almost thirty states of the country, had said in the past that she may not campaign for him on the grounds that a cabal had allegedly hijacked his government.
The First Lady claimed that a few ‘‘powerful’’ persons were controlling her husband and were allegedly behind most appointments the President makes. She had said if things continued the way they were, she would not follow him to campaign ground’s to seek re-election into office.
She obliviously made good her promise as she was not sighted anywhere around the President through his re-election campaigns.
Mrs Buhari’s controversial tweet today (Monday) has, however, raised speculation that she could be referring to her husband as a ‘military dictator’ when she addressed him in her tweet as GMB (General Mohammadu Buhari), an acronym that was being used to refer to him as a military dictator during his days as Nigeria’s Head of State between 1983-1985.
In the tweet, the First Lady reacted to President Buhari’s directive to the military and the police, asking them to ruthlessly deal with ballot box snatchers in the forthcoming general elections.
Tweet embed:
The President’s words: “I already gave the military and the police (order) to be ruthless. We are not going to be blamed that we want to rig election.
I want Nigerians to be respected. Let them vote whoever they want across the parties’’ adding that, ‘“I am going to warn anybody who thinks he has enough influence in his locality to lead a body of thugs or to disturb the voting system, he will do it at the expense of his own life,” he said.
But the First Lady’s vague reaction to the President’s statement has since drawn reactions on Twitter. While some think she was merely being sarcastic by referring to him as a military general, others assume she’s referring to Buhari as the ‘‘dictator’’.
