Business

‘Aso rock caters for my welfare only, i feed my children with my money’ – Aisha Buhari reveals

Published

9 years ago

January 7, 2017

Sahara Weekly

Love letter to Aisha Buhari Tunde Odesola (Published in The PUNCH on Monday, March 22, 2021) Dear Hajiya, With gratitude to God for a vacation well spent, I, Babatunde Odesola, Esq., heartily rejoice on the safe return of the First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, to Nigeria after spending 4,380 hours in the cozy United Arab Emirates city called Dubai, away from the kisses and cuddles of her aged husband, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and the scrutiny of his ineffective security forces. Hajiya, I love you. Many people don’t know what we share. They don’t know we were both born on February 17. I’ve sorely missed your dazzling beauty in the last six months that you left the warmth of your husband’s bedroom to enjoy the breathtaking wonder of the 9.7-million-population UAE, a country 11 years younger and 12 times smaller than the giANT of Africa, breathless in the fist of your old sweetheart, Pa Buhari. Going by the stunning beauties of their wives and rumoured concubines, Nigerian Heads of State between 1960 and 1999 appeared more adept at capturing the hearts of beauty queens than providing solutions to the problems of the country. From General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi to General Yakubu Gowon as well as General Murtala Mohammed to General Olusegun Obasanjo and the bloody General Ibrahim Babangida along with the roguish General Sani Abacha, Nigerians can’t forget the vivacious appeal of Victoria Aguiyi-Ironsi, the wowing beauty of Victoria Gowon, the angelic grace of Ajoke Mohammed, the eyeful chicness of Stella Obasanjo, the shapely charm of Mariam Babangida, the exotic elegance of Maryam Abacha, and the brainy goddess, Lami, whom General Abdulsalami Abubakar hypnotized for a wife. Hajiya Aisha, your beauty is smashing! I really don’t know how these generals swing it, but I’ve truly never seen a general with an ugly wife. The alluring belle from the popular Majekodunmi family in Ogun, Omolola, belongs to the Okuku general, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, just as Ronke Ayuba, the adorable TV star, was general Tanko Ayuba’s. These generals! They just know how to cock their love guns at ladies’ hearts, aim and pull the triggers. Tell me, irresistible Aisha, how did the old Katsina general ‘toast’ and capture the love of an extraordinary beauty like you at just 18, despite the 28 years age difference between both of you? Is he the lion and you, the jewel? Hajiya Aisha, I welcome you back to the hell you left since last September, after the life-threatening shooting that occurred in your Aso Rock abode, upon your insistence that an untouchable aide of your husband comply with COVID-19 protocols. Permit me to ask, madam, have your security guards, whose arrest you protested online after their shooting combat with presidential bodyguards, been released? Your husband’s mouthpiece, Shehu Garba, promised that the shooting would be investigated. Like every one of the electoral promises made by your husband, however, the outcome of the Garba-promised investigation will never see the light of the day, I’m sure. Lady Buhari, I believe you’ll agree with me that if you, of all people, could be so trampled on in your husband’s administration, the brutal killing of scores of innocent #Endsars protesters at the Lekki toll gate by soldiers, last October, attests to the fascist in your husband. Remember, Hajiya, you stridently raised the alarm some years ago that your husband had been held captive by some unknown forces. You insisted that he was no longer in charge of his government. Madam Buhari, except maybe his cows, your husband had never been in charge of anything - not even in his famed military days when General Tunde Idiagbon took charge and he, Buhari, took the glory. When your husband went to sleep after fulfilling his chronic ambition of becoming a civilian President, his Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, saw his abandoned presidential shoes, dusted and stepped into them snuggly, taking full responsibility of governance. After Kyari’s death, the shoes were, again, empty, and bandit politicians, killer-herdsmen, Boko Haram, brigands and sycophants have taken turns to wear them, spinning the country madly out of orbit towards hell as various miscued criminals now unleash anarchy in the land while your ‘mai gida’ remains cool, calm and collected like a motionless crocodile. My dear hajiya, your husband has failed Nigeria woefully! Out of tune with reality, your presidential husband always avoids the Nigerian press but his countless embarrassing mistakes in public have necessitated concerned citizens to patriotically ask for his medical evaluation. My First Lady, Nigeria’s situation has worsened since you escaped to the Arabian sanity. Now that you’re back into the lawless country your husband heads, I must warn you that Nigeria’s decline into depravity is now full-blown. Please, Aisha, don’t get into any argument with any security guard as you did last year. A human head now costs N8,000 in Nigeria. If you’re lucky and timely, you can even get one for free among unclaimed corpses left to decay along Nigeria’s highways. Life is worthless in the land ruled by your husband, Aisha. Scores of innocent people are now being killed, kidnapped and broken daily across the country, much more than the victims of war in Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Congo. I love you Hajiya Aisha but I don’t love your husband because he’s an outstanding blunder. I love you because you occasionally speak up whenever your space is threatened. Some may say that’s selfish of you - that you need to always speak up against the vipers of injustice brooded by your husband’s administration. They say, “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.” Well, I won’t criticise their opinion. Aisha nee Halilu, do you know that the UAE, like Nigeria, was built with oil money? But the UAE has long left Nigeria behind by diversifying their economy from oil dependency, launching it on science-tech-tourism superhighway. The picture of a rain-beaten church rat placed beside an elephant looms large on the horizon whenever Nigeria is compared to UAE. The wife of my President, the only difference between Nigeria and UAE is leadership, which your husband has tragically failed to give. Nigeria, presided over by your thick-skinned husband, is the strangest country in the world. It’s a place where anyone can disappear without trace. Imagine, a whole you was out of circulation for six months, and there was no explanation from your husband, his friends, relatives and megaphones. Everybody just carried on as if you don’t matter. Aisha, between you and me, I even think they were happy you were nowhere around to squeal on their incompetencies and stagnant governance. During your undisclosed absence, my First Lady, so much water passed under the bridge. African Giant, Burna Boy and Ojuelegba crooner, Wizkid, won Grammy awards. I know your husband sees Nigerian youths as a population of lazybones. I think he’s likely to prefer Dan Maraya Jos music to the music by lazy youths. I was, however, shocked to read a prompt congratulatory message from your husband, extolling the virtues of Burna Boy and Wizkid. Well, I know that the only arm of your husband’s government that’s effective is the ‘Public Service Announcement Department’ that sends out congratulations at the speed of light but sleeps when hundreds of schoolchildren are kidnapped and snores when Fulani herdsmen and Boko Haram kill for fun. When EIGHT persons were killed in suspected anti-Asian shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, last week, President Joe Biden and his deputy, Kamala Harris, flew into Atlanta from Washington DC to commiserate with bereaved families. Over a 100 people have died in various breaches of security across the country this year alone, but our President sits tight in Aso Rock, either unmoved or unaware. Aisha, the masses that prayed for the enthronement of your husband as president are now praying to God to break the country and his government. It’s sad, your husband has failed. Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com Facebook: @tunde odesola Twitter: @tunde_odesola

Aisha, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari has claimed that she feeds her children with her personal money.

She said that the State House, Abuja catered for her welfare only when it was necessary.

According to Aisha, she had not been accorded the official privileges given to her predecessors as the Fist Lady of the country.

Mrs. Buhari’s claims, contained in a rejoinder by her media aide, Adebisi Ajayi on Friday were consequent upon accusation of abuse of privileges at Nigerian High Commission in London leveled against her by Sahara Reporters, an online media apparently on her trip to the United Kingdom recently.

Mrs. Buhari therefore challenged the online reporters to show evidence of their report to disproof her claims.

The rejoinder read thus: “The attention of the Wife of the President, Hajia Aisha Buhari has been drawn to a report in Sahara Reporters where, she was amongst other things accused of abuse of privileges at Nigerian High Commission in London.

“It is not in her interest to join issues with anyone or defend others mentioned in the report, it is however paramount to put the record in proper perspectives as its concern her trips to UK vis-à-vis the Nigerian High Commission in London.

“Aisha Buhari has never traveled to London with a large entourage as was carried in the report. The highest number of people on a trip involves her three kids, ADC, and her personal physician.

“The Nigerian Commission in London has never offered any favor either monetarily or materially to her 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 for staff.

“She has never complained or raised dust about any of these acts by the High Commission because of the understanding, as clearly spelt out and practiced 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 corroborate with any government official however highly placed either at home or abroad to shortchange the Nigerian people.

“These records are not hidden for a non-mischievous reporter who really intends to inform the people and not to disparage the family of the President just to add weight to a report.

“Aisha Buhari would have ignored this, like all of such baseless accusations, but the angle to which the report was presented has a corruption and abuse of privileges connotation which negates the fundamental principle upon which this administration thrives.

“Consequently, Sahara reporter or any of the embassy staff is hereby challenged to provide any concrete evidence either in hard or soft copy to contradict Aisha’s Buhari’s position as it concerns her trips to London.

Business

Nigeria’s Inflation Drops to 15.10% as NBS Reports Deflationary Trend

Published

3 days ago

February 19, 2026

Sahara Weekly

Nigeria’s Inflation Drops to 15.10% as NBS Reports Deflationary Trend

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate declined to 15.10 per cent in January 2026, marking a significant drop from 27.61 per cent recorded in January 2025, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report released by the National Bureau of Statistics.

The report also showed that month-on-month inflation recorded a deflationary trend of –2.88 per cent, representing a 3.42 percentage-point decrease compared to December 2025. Analysts say the development signals easing price pressures across key sectors of the economy.

Food inflation stood at 8.89 per cent year-on-year, down from 29.63 per cent in January 2025. On a month-on-month basis, food prices declined by 6.02 per cent, reflecting lower costs in several staple commodities.

The data suggests a sustained downward trajectory in inflation over the past 12 months, pointing to improving macroeconomic stability.

The administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has consistently attributed recent economic adjustments to ongoing fiscal and monetary reforms aimed at stabilising prices, boosting agricultural output, and strengthening domestic supply chains.

Economic analysts note that while the latest figures indicate progress, sustaining the downward trend will depend on continued policy discipline, exchange rate stability, and improvements in food production and distribution.

The January report provides one of the clearest indications yet that inflationary pressures, which surged in early 2025, may be moderating.

The data suggests a sustained downward trajectory in inflation over the past 12 months, pointing to improving macroeconomic stability.

The January report provides one of the clearest indications yet that inflationary pressures, which surged in early 2025, may be moderating.

Bank

Alpha Morgan to Host 19th Economic Review Webinar

Published

4 days ago

February 18, 2026

Sahara Weekly

Alpha Morgan to Host 19th Economic Review Webinar

In an economy shaped by constant shifts, the edge often belongs to those with the right information.

On Wednesday, February 25, 2026, Alpha Morgan Bank will host the 19th edition of its Economic Review Webinar, a high-level thought leadership session designed to equip businesses, investors, and individuals with timely financial and economic insight.

The session, which will hold live on Zoom at 10:00am WAT and will feature economist Bismarck Rewane, who will examine the key signals influencing Nigeria’s economic direction in 2026, including policy trends, market movements, and global developments shaping the local landscape.

With a consistent track record of delivering clarity in uncertain times, the Alpha Morgan Economic Review continues to provide practical context for decision-making in a dynamic environment.

Registration for the 19th Alpha Morgan Economic Review is free and can be completed via https://bit.ly/registeramerseries19

It is a bi-monthly platform that is open to the public and is held virtually.

Visit www.alphamorganbank to know more.

Business

GTBank Launches Quick Airtime Loan at 2.95%

Published

5 days ago

February 17, 2026

Sahara Weekly

GTCO increases GTBank’s Paid-Up Capital to ₦504 Billion

GTBank Launches Quick Airtime Loan at 2.95%

Guaranty Trust Bank Ltd (GTBank), the flagship banking franchise of GTCO Plc, Africa’s leading financial services group, today announced the launch of Quick Airtime Loan, an innovative digital solution that gives customers instant access to airtime when they run out of call credit and have limited funds in their bank accounts, ensuring customers can stay connected when it matters most.

In today’s always-on world, running out of airtime is more than a minor inconvenience. It can mean missed opportunities, disrupted plans, and lost connections, often at the very moment when funds are tight, and options are limited. Quick Airtime Loan was created to solve this problem, offering customers instant access to airtime on credit, directly from their bank. With Quick Airtime Loan, eligible GTBank customers can access from ₦100 and up to ₦10,000 by dialing *737*90#. Available across all major mobile networks in Nigeria, the service will soon expand to include data loans, further strengthening its proposition as a reliable on-demand platform.

For years, the airtime credit market has been dominated by Telcos, where charges for this service are at 15%. GTBank is now changing the narrative by offering a customer-centric, bank-led digital alternative priced at 2.95%. Built on transparency, convenience and affordability, Quick Airtime Loan has the potential to broaden access to airtime, deliver meaningful cost savings for millions of Nigerians, and redefine how financial services show up in everyday life, not just in banking moments.

Commenting on the product launch, Miriam Olusanya, Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank Ltd, said: “Quick Airtime Loan reflects GTBank’s continued focus on delivering digital solutions that are relevant, accessible, and built around real customer needs. The solution underscores the power of a connected financial ecosystem, combining GTBank’s digital reach and lending expertise with the capabilities of HabariPay to deliver a smooth, end-to-end experience. By leveraging unique strengths across the Group, we are able to accelerate innovation, strengthen execution, and deliver a more integrated customer experience across all our service channels.”

Importantly, Quick Airtime Loan highlights GTCO’s evolution as a fully diversified financial services group. Leveraging HabariPay’s Squad, the solution reinforces the Group’s ecosystem proposition by bringing together banking, payment technology, and digital channels to deliver intuitive, one-stop experiences for customers.

With this new product launch, Guaranty Trust Bank is extending its legacy of pioneering digital-first solutions that have redefined customer access to financial services across the industry, building on the proven strength of its widely adopted QuickCredit offering and the convenience of the Bank’s iconic *737# USSD Banking platform.
About Guaranty Trust Bank

Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank) is the flagship banking franchise of GTCO Plc, a leading financial services group with a strong presence across Africa and the United Kingdom. The Bank is widely recognized for its leadership in digital banking, customer experience, and innovative financial solutions that deliver value to individuals, businesses, and communities.

About HabariPay

HabariPay is the payments fintech subsidiary of GTCO Plc, focused on enabling fast, secure, and accessible digital payments for individuals and businesses. By integrating payments and digital technology, HabariPay supports innovative services that make everyday financial interactions simpler and more seamless.
Enquiries:

GTCO
Group Corporate Communication
[email protected]
+234-1-2715227
www.gtcoplc.com