Ebun Francis
Mrs. Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari has denied an online media report that she is colluding with some government officials at the Nigerian High Commission in London to waste scarce government resources each time she visits the United Kingdom.
The online report had on Thursday reported that the High Commission spends a minimum of £7,000 to host Mrs. Buharitri each time she visits the UK.
But the wife of the President denied the report on Friday and challenged those behind the story to come with concrete and credible evidence to substantiate their claim. In statement by Adebisi Olumide-Ajayi, her special Adviser on media, the President’s wife said that her delegation had never exceeded her three children, her Aide-De-Camp and her personal physician and that the Nigerian High Commission never catered for her needs based on her husband’s position that public offices must be separated from the private lives of the occupants.
According to the statement , “The Nigerian Commission in London has never offered any favour, either monetarily or materially, to her (the President’s wife) or her so-called entourage on any of her trips to London.
“The State House in Abuja caters for her meal when necessary, and other healthy food or variety needed by her children are her personal responsibility.
“It is on record that the Nigerian Commission in London does not receive Aisha Buhari at the airport with any official distinction or privileges as was accorded other first ladies before her.
“Her drivers are privately arranged without any recourse to the embassy staff.
“She has never complained or raised dust about any of these acts by the High Commission because of the understanding, as clearly spelled out and practised by her husband, that public office must be separated from the private lives of the occupants.
“She has always been an advocate of good governance where officials of government are responsive and appealing to their constituents. It therefore baffles the imagination that one could believe she would collaborate with any government official, however highly placed, either at home or abroad, to shortchange the Nigerian people.”
Mrs Buhari therefore challenged the authors of the report or any member of staff of the High Commission to provide concrete evidence to contradict her position as it concerns her trips to London.