[COLUMN] Dining with the President’s wife in style

All roads led to the old Banquet Hall (now known as the
State House Conference Centre) of the Presidential Villa on
Saturday as Mrs. Aisha Buhari hosted some All Progressives
Congress’ women and youths to a lavish dinner. By the way, I
was reluctant to introduce her by any designation because
while her predecessor, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, was known
and addressed as the First Lady, all the banners mounted at
the venue of the event as well as the programme of the
dinner identified her as the President’s wife.
The purpose of the dinner, according to organisers, was to
appreciate those who contributed immensely to the victory
of President Muhammadu Buhari during the March 28
presidential election.
Trust Nigerians, people who fall under that category or those
who believe they belong to that group trooped to the venue
in their hundreds, thereby over-stretching the arrangements
made.
Different fragrance filled the air as they made their ways into
the tastefully-decorated hall in their different outfits that they
must have carefully selected for the dinner. In their quest to
look trendy, many left no part of their body for imagination. I
saw a lady struggling hard to assist an elderly woman to
cover up her nakedness when the zipper at the back of her
very tight skirt failed her. All eyes turned in her direction.
When it became obvious that the zipper would not cooperate,
she resorted to tying a veil round her waist!
Skimpily-dressed ladies who may not even have voter’s cards
not to talk of being card-carrying members of any political
party also made their presence felt in the hall. They stood up
from their seats at intervals, pretending to be looking out for
somebody when it was obvious to discerning minds and
those of us who are used to seeing them around that they
belong to everybody and owned by everybody (not nobody).
In their wisdom, organisers of the dinner had clearly marked
all the tables. Names of the 36 states of the federation and
the Federal Capital Territory were written on tables for easy
identification by delegations of each state.
Despite this however, some people still found their way into
the wrong tables, thereby setting themselves up for
altercations with protocol officials or those that the tables
were originally meant for.
Words such as “Do you know how we risked our lives for him
(Buhari) to win the election? Where were you when we were
being attacked when we were going from village to village to
campaign?” rented the air as the confusion continued.
Former Governor of Rivers State, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, must
have wormed himself into the hearts of those who attended
the dinner. At every mention of the name of the former
governor who served as the Director-General of the Buhari/
Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Organisation, the hall would
erupt in loud ovation.
Another person that stole the show at the event was a
member of the Lagos State House of Assembly and popular
actor, Desmond Elliot. His introduction attracted a loud
applause. Thereafter, guests, especially ladies started milling
around him to take photographs with their iPhones and iPads.
When Mrs. Jonathan held sway, events of this nature were
not in short supply. What has changed is the nature of
guests. It is now purely an APC matter. While it was the
likes of Hajia Bola Shagaya that were in charge of such
events under Jonathan, pretty faces of people like Mrs.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa were the ones we saw going around to
ensure that the dinner went on smoothly.

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