MAADA BIO IS OUR EMBLEM OF NATIONAL DIGNITY , BUT THE THINGS HIS WIFE EXPOSES ABOUT HIM IN PUBLIC ARE DEMEANING TO HIM AS PRESIDENT
By Kabs Kanu
Let us face the facts. Some of the things First Lady Fatima Bio says about President Bio in public are very demeaning and unnecessary. What is this woman trying to prove ?
This woman should realize that though he is unfit for the office, Bio is the President of our country. The public does not deserve to know some of the undignified roles the president plays at home , given the mentality of our people and the kind of politics being played in our country. We do not need to know the demeaning things she makes him do at home.
Say what you will, but it is not acceptable for the President’s wife to tell the public that her husband, the president, washes her blood – laden monthly panties and bedsheets for her. The public does not need to know that, even if it is not a bad thing to do. The information is not helpful to the President in our kind of politics .
President Bio is the emblem of our national dignity. Even if these are things he understandably does for love and even if good husbands are supposed to do them and should be applauded for that, she must realize that President Bio is a whole Head of State and not a houseboy, cleaner or laundry boy . She must realize that we have a serious problem of low mentality in our country and the public does not think well of their President if he is the one washing his wife’s stained underpants for her. As a good husband , I laud the president for such loving acts, but is this information good for the president to the public ?
Is this a decent information to bring to the public realm ?
However much we say the world has changed and certain topics are not taboos anymore, we have to acknowledge and respect our traditional mores and values. Our people still cling to our old, traditional values and they should be respected for that. Their rights to adherence to our traditional values and mores should be respected. Our people will not respect a man who washes his wife’s underpants for her . It is one of the demeaning deeds our people, via their perceptions and cultural values , regard as a sign of a man that has sold his dignity to his wife. They are not right to think so but public perceptions are public perceptions. We have to live by them because as we often say, perceptions mirror reality.
We think that Western values are rudiments of human civilization but they are not so, always. Our country is not controlled entirely by Western mores and values. Society has evolved but our traditional African values still supercede some Western values . And this particular one threatens our collective respect for the dignity of our President .That is why such information should not have been brought to the public realm.
But even then, has anyone ever heard a First Lady of any Western country mount a public and state podium and state that her husband , the President, washes her blood -stained underpants for her ?
The President’s wife should be careful about the things that she exposed in public about what the president does at home. While many household chores are dignified, others are not in the public eye.
We agree that the First Lady is trying to let the public know how much her husband loves her but there are other ways to express it. Even if they are wholly not bad, certain domestic deeds must not be publicly associated with the president of a whole country,unless we want to diminish his respect in public.
Also, certain things should be left unsaid. Certain things are legal but they are not expedient for public consumption. The Apostle Paul warned about that in the Bible . 1 CORINTHIANS 10: 33.” ALL THINGS ARE LAWFUL FOR ME, BUT ALL THINGS EDIFY NOT “. Some of the information the First Lady gives the public about the president are not edifying. Even if the deeds being mentioned are not wholly bad, the information is not edifying.
The president deserves his dignity as a human being, though he does not respect other people’s .
Fatima Bio should know that Maada Bio is her husband ( Not her house help) and as head of the home, our society has ascribed roles and perceptions to the head of household, which even if deviated from in the interest of love , must not become public information, because the public might misuse such information. President Bio might be a good husband for such deeds, but to the public, right or wrong, it is perceived as the sign of a foolish man , so controlled by his wife that he has to do undignified chores for her.
President Bio’s wife should be advised to talk- half, lef- half. The public does not need to know everything , especially things that will bring public ridicule to the President, given the nature of our politics.
Ultimately, it all depends on how one looks at it rationally. It might not be bad, after all. But it is our public perception that is the key issue here. How does the public perceive it? How helpful is the information to the public perception of the president ? Should not leaders be governed by public perceptions since politics is a game of perceptions ?
Which ever way one looks at it, the Office of the President is involved and any rational man will also tell you that the Office of the President needs to be protected from public ridicule and must be given the dignity it deserves, even if the holder, by his actions, does not deserve it..
