Wife Calls Him Out, Nigerian Prez Responds With Low Blow

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari might have to get used to the doghouse after claiming his wife belongs in the kitchen. In a BBC interview aired Friday, Aisha Buhari openly criticized her husband, suggesting a few people have taken over the government and convinced him to appoint their allies to top positions. "The president does not know 45 out of 50 of the people he appointed and I don't know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years," she said. "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." In response, President Buhari told reporters in Berlin, "I don't know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” per the AP.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was meeting with Buhari at the time, gave him "a short glare" and then laughed, according to the AP. Citing his three unsuccessful presidential campaigns before his fourth run in 2015, Buhari continued, "I claim superior knowledge over [my wife] 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." Though Nigeria is struggling with its first recession in a decade and a famine in the northeast of the country, the first lady did commend her husband's government for a decline in attacks by militant group Boko Haram. (The group just released 21 captives.)