By Gideon Njoku
A Pandora box has been opened at the Presidential Villa – Aso Rock. In two separate interviews, Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Buhari, and President Muhammadu Buhari’s niece, Fatima Daura, have confirmed a family feud in the Villa.
It all began when a video, which went viral, showed a scene where an angry voice was expressing frustration that a door was locked against her, and, asking that she be told when the person she was talking to would leave. “Enough is Enough”, she said more than once. And, apparently, referring to the person who live there, she asked: “Is he the President’s son, or his wife?”
The face of the angry woman was not shown. But the voice was identified as that of Mrs Buhari. In this era of anything goes that is the Social Media, not many people believed she was the one. But in two separate interviews, both Mrs Buhari and Fatima Daura confirmed the video as real.
Fatima is the daughter of Mamman Daura, President Buhari’s uncle, and allegedly, a very powerful power broker, who has more than a passing influence on the President.
There have been stories in the past of a no-love-lost relationship between Mrs Buhari and Mamman Daura. She, allegedly, deplores the over-bearing influence he purportedly has on her husband. When she granted an interview referring to a cabal drawing her husband back, many people pointed fingers at Daura.
Yet, nobody could quite confirm how poor the relationship was until the video of an angry First Lady surfaced.
Fatima, surprisingly, admitted that she shot the now viral video. She admitted to leaking it. She says there are more shots. She says the President’s wife was violent towards her and her sister. She said Aisha abused her family. She said Aisha used a metal chair to break the key to a door in the Villa. And she said the chair almost hit her younger sister. She spoke to the Cable.
But Aisha, in her own interview granted the BBC Hausa Service, accused Fatima of being economical with the truth. She said the Daura family flouted the President’s order to quit a house in the Villa for her son. She said she was locked out of some rooms in the Villa. She said Fatima mocked her and laughed at her. And she, also, disclosed that the Security men attached to her stood-by, and watched as Fatima videoed her and mocked her.
Fatima: “If one reasons well, he or she will understand that it is not possible to say that the wife of the President is denied access to get apartment, but let me give a context.
“The apartment in question is called the Glass House. You know that there are several houses and apartments in the Villa. When the President got into office, he gave the Glass House to our father, Mamman Daura.
“You all know that they are friends, and are related, more so, they grew up together like twins. He gave the Glass House to our father that he could stay there. Our dad stayed there for three years now, until when the President’s son, Yusuf, had an accident and went to Germany for treatment. When he returned, The President told our father to move out of that apartment to an even bigger one in the Villa, that Yusuf is going to stay and be treated in the Glass House. The Glass House is closer to the main presidential apartment, and that will make easier access to him by his mother. It is not in her apartment, which is the main apartment.
“On that day, my mom and dad were not around. So, my dad instructed me and my sister, both of us are working, and we go to work every morning, that we should come on a Saturday, and move our belongings to the new apartment as the President instructed.”
As they were there, packing, she said they heard some noise outside, while she was in the inner room. Her sister who was close to the main gate, went to see what the noise was about and, there, was Mrs Buhari.
Fatima: “On getting there, it was the wife of the President. When she came, the door was locked, and she picked a metal chair, and broke the door. My sister that went out was almost hit by the chair. She threw the chair which broke through the door, And almost hit my sister.
“I was so shocked, and afraid of getting there because she was shouting and raining abusive words and saying we should move out of the apartment. That she had never seen this kind of thing before.”
At that point, she said, she had to use her phone to record it for proof. If she didn’t do that, nobody would have believed her because, Aisha, she revealed, was saying she was being suppressed. “So, I recorded it to show to my parents and the Security.”
The President’s wife said Fatima did not say the whole truth. She said the Dauras flouted a presidential instruction. And that Fatima was mocking her and videoing her, while her security aides did nothing. She said she was locked out.
The Presidency says it is investigating the video to confirm its authenticity. But reports quote an unnamed Presidential source as saying that Fatima did not tell the whole story and the truth. The source also said the incident was not recent, and described its release now as mischievous. “She abused the First Lady first, before she reacted”, the source said.
Since the Presidency is investigating, Nigerians are waiting for the outcome, and how it will be handled. But they agree that the incident is bad business for the Presidency.
