First lady Aisha Buhari has publicly scolded her husband, President Muhammadu Buhari APC regime’s “progressive” discrimination against women participating in the country’s governance at local, state and federal levels.

Mrs Buhari demanded that Mr Buhari and his party sign a pact ahead of the 2023 general elections to ensure Nigerian women have opportunities to be in elective and appointive offices. The first lady has not always shied away from publicly criticising her husband and the APC regime.

The Nigerian first lady used the Monday launch of the APC Women Presidential Campaign to rebuke Mr Buhari and his party.

“Permit to voice out our concerns for the progressive decline in the involvement and participation of women in elective and appointive positions at all the three tiers of government,” she declared. “Our clamours and cries over the years have remained unattended to, especially at the levels of (the) legislative arm of government.”

Mrs Buhari then insisted that the president’s party sign a pact to guarantee women will have a significant say in the future.

“For this reason, our movement has no option than to ask the party leadership to sign a pact with Nigerian women. We have no option than to sign a pact with Nigerian women that will spell out the good policies of the party towards women for documentation and follow-up purposes,” the Nigerian first lady explained. 

She added, “Women will begin their assignments with one target in mind: deliver the presidency of APC in 2023. This is attainable because it has been done twice in 2015 and 2019.”

Mr Buhari, who had infamously retorted publicly before a global audience that his wife’s place was in the kitchen and “the other room” was conciliatory on Monday.

He admitted that throughout his political journey and “my tenure as president,” women “have remained the most loyal and supportive group in my mission for a better Nigeria despite the challenges.” 

“It is in this regard that I hereby direct the honourable attorney general and minister of justice in conjunction with (the) honourable minister of women affairs to work closely with the office of the first lady in ensuring that important legislations that can be brought before the National Assembly in furtherance of entrenching constitutional change and legal change and creating a level playing field for our women to be carried out assiduously,” Mr Buhari stated.

He appealed to his wife and other APC women leaders to support “our presidential candidate, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and vice-presidential candidate, Senator Kashim Shettima.”

However, Mr Buhari claimed that “my administration has continued to listen to the strong voices of our women for gender justice, social inclusion, and adequate participation in the affairs of their country and in accordance with global, regional, and national conventions, agreements, protocols, and policies to which Nigeria is a signatory.”