The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Aisha Alhassan, has said she doesn’t care if President Muhammadu Buhari drops her from the cabinet over her comments on former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
The under-fire minister was in the Presidential Villa on Thursday where she repeated her earlier declaration that she will support Atiku and not her boss, President Buhari in the 2019 elections.
She told State House correspondents that she stood by her comment in a meeting with Atiku and earlier interviews to foreign news services, adding that: “Let the will of God be done.”
The minister was apparently in the Villa at about 2.24pm to see both President Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo but the two men did not meet with her.
Alhassan had, in an interview on the BBC Hausa Service, said that although she held Buhari in high esteem, Atiku remained her godfather who will always have her support for his political ambition.
She also confirmed her statement in a leaked video, where, during a private meeting with Atiku, endorsed the former vice-president.
Also in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, she stated that Buhari had said that he would spend only one term in office.
She said that before the 2015 elections, Buhari promised that he would spend only one term in office to clean up the mess of the Peoples Democratic Party’s government.
It was not clear if the minister was summoned to the Presidential Villa and why she didn’t meet with either the President or Vice President.
Alhassan was seen leaving the Office of the Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, who was said not to be on seat at the time she came.
When asked by State House correspondents to react to media reports credited to her, Alhassan, while walking to her car, referred newsmen to the interview she granted the BBC Hausa Service, adding that her position had not changed.
“No, I have no comment. What will I say now? I have said all in BBC Hausa. Get someone who speaks Hausa very well to translate it for you,” she said.
Asked if her relationship with the President was still smooth, she said, “How will I know? I have not seen the President but I don’t think the President is a naive person.”
On whether she was confident that she could retain her job, she replied, “God gives and God takes. That is all and I have said it all in Hausa. You know that there is an end to everything.”
