Recently two first ladies from two different countries and two different continents were in Washington DC in the United States of America. Apparently they were there for different reasons. The one was obvious, the other was uncertain. But the two first ladies shared one thing in common. There was a firestorm from the netizens of their respective countries over the handbags that they were clutching during their visits. The first ladies involved were those Singapore, Ms Ho Ching and Nigeria’s Aisha Muhammadu Buhari. Ms Ho was in US as part of her husband’s state visit to that country. Aisha Buhari, on the other hand, was in US for unspecified reasons.
As I said above their visits were dogged by controversies over their handbags. Ms Ho was initially accused of clutching an expensive pouch (bag) on that visit. In addition Singaporeans were also angry that the Dinosaur-printed pouch was off colour. It was blue in colour. As the controversy raged it was discovered much later that the pouch was indeed not a designer stuff but was made in Singapore by a student in autism-focused school in her country. And the pouch was indeed worth a mere USD11. The bag was designed by 19-year-old student, Seetoh Sheng Jie. When the storm broke and it came to the attention of the principal of that school, Pathlight, Singapore’s first autism-focused school, Ms Linda Kho, she said she was pleasantly surprised that the product of the student of her school was taken to Washington by the first lady. “We were pleasantly surprised and honoured that she chose to bring this bag on her official visit. It gave us such a great mileage for our artist on our Artist Development Programme”.
It will be worthwhile to remind us that in the 1960s Nigeria was ahead of Singapore in all development indices. But today it is the reverse. By all indications and indices Singapore is a first world country while Nigeria remains in the third world.
Now, to our own First Lady Aisha Buhari. As I said earlier our first lady was also in the US and indeed in Washington about the same time. On her arrival at the airport she was spotted clutching a crocodile designer handbag. The net was alive with the picture of our first lady and her designer bag. The wailing wailers went to work to seek information on the details of Aisha’s eye-popping bag. In a twinkle of an eye information started cascading about the handbag. It was claimed that the handbag that our first lady took to the US was worth anything between N50 Million and N150 Million. The focus on the visit shifted from whatever was her mission to debate about the handbag. Part of the problem could be that Aisha’s visit to the US was unusually not pre-announced by the presidency, as it should do. Nigerians woke up to the news and the pictures of our first lady in the US. It must be stated that the first lady’s aides actually started the firestorm by splashing the news of her arrival in the US all over the Internet. Ostensibly her aides were eager to debunk the claim by the governor of Ekiti State, Ayo Fayose that our first lady was a wanted person in the US. Fayose had claimed consistently that Aisha Buhari was the same person named in the Halliburton bribe scandal that rocked Nigeria a few years ago. That Aisha Buhari was indicted in US during the trial of some of the key players in that scandal in America. The said Aisha Buhari was alleged to have wired money in excess of USD150,000 to one Jefferson, a lawmaker in US, who has been tried and convicted for the crime. He is still serving the jail term. So Aisha Buhari was declared wanted.
If the sole purpose of our first lady’s visit to the US was primarily to debunk Fayose’s claim about her being the same Aisha Buhari that was indicted over the Halliburton bribe scandal, then the trip was unfortunate and wasteful. Our first lady has no point to prove since she was sure that she was not the scoundrel who was indicted in that case. Moreover, relevant state agencies and personages in Nigeria have clarified that the indicted Aisha Buhari was an impostor and an identity thief. So our first lady has no reason whatsoever to travel to the US to demonstrate that she was innocent of the crime.
Now, to the issue of two first ladies and their controversial hand bags: While Singapore is far ahead of Nigeria in development index, their first lady demonstrated a disarming humility and patriotism by visiting Washington with a pouch designed in her country by an autism-challenged student which price was said to be USD11. Given the status of her country in global ranking it would not be out of place if she hugged an expensive designer handbag. But she didn’t, rather she patronized a homemade product from a school that I understand she had a hand in founding. Back home, with more Nigerians slipping into poverty on a daily basis on account of the unstable policy of President Muhammadu Buhari, the husband of the authentic Aisha, it would appear incongruous for our first lady to be seen anywhere, whether in Nigeria or abroad clutching a hand bag valued at over N100 Million. Indeed, her husband who is our president has built a reputation over the years as an austere and disciplined man. The least that we expect from our first lady is to be an ambassador of her husband anywhere she goes.
I am not unmindful that the real Aisha Buhari is a businesswoman, perhaps a successful one. It is in the public domain that she owned a beauty salon somewhere in Kaduna, so she has her life to lead. If the salon is that viable and profitable, the then candidate Buhari would not have lamented having to borrow money from a bank to pay for his nomination form from All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2015 presidential election. Some cynics claim that Aisha’s shop in Kaduna is not different from any other shops owned by any other business man/woman in Alaba market. I take the foregoing statement as coming from the clan of wailing wailers. The message that the first lady should take to heart is that she is in the public eye and every of her action and inaction will be subjected to scrutiny. She should not do anything to detract from her husband’s famed reputation.

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