There is much to cope with when you are the wife of a sick and/or dying president. There is even more to cope with if said husband has now been evicted from a better working hospital in Saudi Arabia and is now back in the government house, causing commotion and/or being some sort of nuisance to the rule of law that has vested political authority albeit in acting capacity in the Vice-President for the time being. As a woman in the unenviable position of balancing loyalty to a dying man, taking care of said man and his political capital, and keeping sane within a barrage of flak from the citizenry, there must be much to cope with. If we could step back a little from personal disagreement with her personality (which we don’t know much about, except hearsay) and what the government represents, could we perhaps find in Turai Yar’adua a woman of substance who’s just being a loyal wife to a dying husband? I wondered.
Read up the full text of my guest-post on Nigerianstalk.org. It was enlightening even for me.
1
Don Thieme at http://gamoonbat.blogspot.com
I think that the problem is that noone has elected her to office. So it is not appropriate for her to actually make political decisions.
Many of us were concerned about voting for Hillary Clinton for exactly the same reason. We knew that she had a very strong and political husband whose role in the government would be difficult to control.
Posted at February 26, 2010 on 6:30am.
2
Kola Tubosun at http://www.ktravula.com
I think that most of the problem in Turai’s case is based on media perception more than anything else. For all we know, she may just be somebody without the slightest bone for politics and its ways. That was what I tried to do with the article.
The media, and by extension the populace has been very harsh on her, giving her a villainous image which – for all we know – she may not deserve, much like or unlike H. Clinton.
Posted at February 27, 2010 on 12:14am.
3
Jaycee at http://light-her-lamp.blogspot.com
I never thought about it this way. At the end of the day, her suspicious acts may be as a result of trying to be loyal until the very last breath her husband takes. After all, she’s married to him.
Posted at February 26, 2010 on 11:58am.
4
Kola Tubosun at http://www.ktravula.com
Thank you Jaycee for getting my point. If she had behaved differently, we’d be the same people raining abuses on her for deserting a dying man. I’m appalled that even women haven’t given her the benefit of the doubt.
Posted at February 27, 2010 on 12:17am.
5
Sula at http://YourWebsite
The problem with the online tools is that it’s so easy to impersonate another person…
I don’t know much about the (ex?) Nigerian President’s wife (or him for that matters) but I can understand how it would be difficult to cope with all that at once. Heck, it’s difficult to cope being myself sometimes and I don’t have a President Husband! 🙂
Posted at February 26, 2010 on 1:04pm.
6
Kola Tubosun at http://www.ktravula.com
Women married to politicians already have so much to cope with. Now imagine the man in a vegetative state while heading a country as problematic, populous and very patriarchal as Nigeria. The truth is that there is really nothing she can do but to be loyal. The man may recover tomorrow, or not, but history will judge her first by how she treated her dying husband.
Posted at February 27, 2010 on 12:20am.
7
Zeeeee at http://YourWebsite
I like the perspective you are looking at the issue from she may just be a loyal wife. Who knows he may have told her what to do and she is just follwing his wish and being an obedient wife. But on the other hand, even if she is just being a loyal wife, she should be sensitive towards her husbands health and talk him into leaving office.
Posted at February 28, 2010 on 5:21pm.
8
Kola Tubosun at http://www.ktravula.com
Only if he is conscious enough to take such advice… or she bold enough to make such a decision in a household as patriarchal and conservative as a Hausa-Fulani one.
Posted at February 28, 2010 on 5:40pm.
9
Zeeeee at http://YourWebsite
all we know is that since he was brought into the country he has not made any statement and no one has seen him he may just be in a bad condition and not want to show himself moreover I think she is has a strong personality in the houshold and her decisions are listened too in the house cos its not all hausa families that have the conservative attitude
Posted at February 28, 2010 on 5:54pm.
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Kola Tubosun at http://www.ktravula.com
Or maybe she’s exactly as greedy, deft and devious as she is portrayed. I won’t be surprised either. She is human and could be trying to get as much money out of the federal government before the husband is declared dead and she’s thrown out of the government house.
Posted at February 28, 2010 on 6:09pm.
11
Zeeeee at http://YourWebsite
I do not thimk Turai is the problem there is a constitution and if they think the president is not fit then so be it
Posted at March 3, 2010 on 8:04am.