Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is on the receiving end of lots of outrage after he dismissed his wife’s criticism of his government by saying that she needs to know her place. “I don’t know which party my wife belongs to but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” Buhari told reporters. The Nigerian president was answering a question about an interview his wife gave to the BBC in which she warned she might not support him in the next election unless he shakes up his government.
The 73-year-old president went on to say that he can “claim superior knowledge over her” “because in the end I have succeeded” in politics. Ironically enough, Buhari made the statement during a news conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of the world’s most powerful women. When he uttered the statement, Merkel apparently “glared at him before laughing briefly,” according to the Independent.
Nigeria’s presidential spokesman later went on Twitter to characterize the comments as nothing but lighthearted humor. “Politics sometimes should be spiced with humour,” he wrote. “Those of us around him know there is never a dull moment with him.”
Yet no one was really buying the explanation. Daniel Bekele, the head of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division wrote that “Africans were deeply shocked over sexist and offensive remarks today by one of Africa’s few democratically elected presidents.” The president may try to say it was all a joke but “under the veneer of his smile, he actually looked intent on crushing his wife’s resolve for daring to criticize him in such a public manner,” wrote Bekele.
