President knows Aisha doesn’t belong in kitchen – Ibidapo Obe

monjola sotubo

October 20, 2016 12:52 PM

Buhari made the comments after his wife said that his government had been hijacked by a cabal.

Chief Justice of Nigeria Mahmud Mohammed swears in Muhammadu Buhari (C) as Nigeria's president while Buhari's wife Aisha looks on at Eagle Square in Abuja, Nigeria May 29, 2015. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde/File Photo

Professor Akin Ibidapo-Obe has said that President Muhammadu Buhari was only joking when he said his wife, Aisha

Buhari made the comments during a trip to Germany after his wife said that his government had been hijacked by a cabal.

Professor Ibidapo-Obe, who’s the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lagos, made the comments during an interview with Vanguard. He said:

What do you make of Mr President’s response to his wife’s interview with BBC Hausa which is already generating so much controversy?

Buhari’s response was not right because, you know, in Concept of the African Woman, we do understand that the African woman is a strong voice that must be expressed. But people have the misconception that the African woman is a voice that must be suppressed. But that is not true.

But was Aisha right to have chastised him in public on international media? There is nothing right or wrong about it. It’s left for us to make our conclusion but that should not be whether it’s right or wrong. Will it be better for her to bottle everything in and then explode at the wrong time or whatever? Let her express herself and let Buhari either take a cue from that and make whatever adjustment that he needs to make.

You don’t put a woman through such expansive education and exposure and then tell her that her role is in the kitchen and in the bedroom. I want to believe that our president was just merely being merry; in a lighter mood. If he indeed felt that her role was really in the kitchen, how would she have had a Masters Degree in International Relations and all?

In your own view, would you say the place of the African woman is still in the kitchen and should any man be saying such in the 21st century?

I told you the president only said that as a form of joke. The reality of the president’s attitude to women is the fact that Aisha has gone through the educational grooming and international exposure. That is the reality of Buhari’s perspective; not when he now cracks a joke and we say “haa, this is how it goes”. Anybody can say that! That’s not a matter of perception.

The reality of what Aisha has gone through in terms of educational exposure, in my opinion, is the true view of Buhari’s perception of women. If you allow your wife to have education and exposure and then you just look at her and say her place is in the kitchen, even when it’s not as if she doesn’t fulfil those roles in the home, that cannot be taken as a serious comment.

In fact, it is not derogatory because whether we like it or not, she is in charge of those duties in the home. We shouldn’t over-blow what Buhari said. Beyond his words in Germany, the President has expressed his opinion and view of womanhood by his action of allowing his wife to have proper exposure educationally and internationally.

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