President Muhammadu Buhari has responded to the explosive BBC interview with his wife, Aisha, where she questioned his leadership, by saying she belongs to “his kitchen”.
Buhari, who is on a state visit to Germany, reacted to the interview during a joint press briefing with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The AP news agency says he laughed it off and said: “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.”
The President also said that he has much more political experience, AP reports.
“So I claim superior knowledge over her and the rest of the opposition, because in the end I have succeeded. It’s not easy to satisfy the whole Nigerian opposition parties or to participate in the government.”
In the BBC interview, Aisha Buhari said the president “does not know” most of the top officials he has appointed.
She suggested the government had been hijacked, saying a “few people” were behind presidential appointments.
Buhari was elected last year with a promise to tackle corruption and nepotism in government.
His wife’s decision to go public with her concerns will shock many people, but it shows the level of discontent with the president’s leadership, says the BBC’s Naziru Mikailu in the capital, Abuja.
Asked to name those who had hijacked the government, she refused, saying: “You will know them if you watch television.”
On whether the president was in charge, she said: “That is left for the people to decide.”
Mrs Buhari, who at 45 is 23 years her husband’s junior, said he had not told her whether he would contest the 2019 election.
Her grandfather was Nigeria’s first defence minister.
“He is yet to tell me but I have decided as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again.”
