Aisha Buhari's Controverial Interview: BBC Defies Pressure From Presidency, NASS

The Hausa Service of the BBC is defying presssure from the Presidency and National Assembly trying to stop it from airing the controversial interview the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari, granted it.

 A source within the Abuja Bureau of the BBC told Daily Trust that there was a letter from the Presidency asking the Hausa service of the BBC not to air the interview.

The Speaker of the House of Representative, Yakubu Dogara, according to the source, also tried to informally dissuade the BBC from airing the interview.

A son of Buhari's powerful nephew, Mamman Daura, is also said to have called to get the BBC not to  use the interview.

In the interview Aisha Buhari had said those who worked for the president have been abandoned for those who don't even have voters card.

She  also expressed fear of rebellion from the fifteen million people who voted her husband.

However, the source told Daily Trust, the BBC wouldn't backdown on its promise to air the interview as an independent media organisation.

The source said the only condition that can make the service not air the interview is for the interviewee, Aisha Buhari, to decide against it. Even in that case her voice recanting what she had said in the interview would be aired.

Therefore, a part of the  interview will be aired in the service's morning broadcast tomorrow. It will be aired in full on its programme, 'Gane Mini Hanya', on Saturday.

Mamman Daura

Source:Sahara Reporters