By the time President Muhammadu Buhari turned up at the jummat prayer at the Presidential Villa Mosque on Friday, a lot of Nigerians were probably eagerly waiting to see him take the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, as his second wife.
What they were expecting, however never happened, which put to rest rumours making the rounds that the President would marry the 44-year-old minister on Friday at the Central Mosque, Abuja at 2pm.
Since Wednesday, social media had been awash with the rumours of Buhari’s wedding, with several blogs latching on the fake news. Common to all the blogs which reported the rumours was the claim that a source in the Presidency informed them of the purported wedding.
Posted earlier on Twitter and Facebook was an invitation card which read, “The families of the late Alhaji Buhari Daura and that of late Alhaji Umar Farouk cordially invite…to the wedding Fatiha and ceremony of their children, Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) and Hajiya Sadiyya Umar Farouk scheduled to take place as follows: Date: Friday, October 11, 2019; time: 2.00 pm; venue: Central Mosque, FCT, Abuja, Nigeria.”
Considering how the card looked bland and the wedding rumour turned false, the invitation card was never designed by either the Dauras or the Farouks.
Even though no such wedding held, it created a lot of buzz on social media, especially on Twitter.
In fact, #TheWedding was the most trended hashtag on Twitter as of Friday evening, followed by #BUSA19. Other hashtags created for the ‘wedding’– #PresidentialWedding, #BUSA2019 and #BuhariWedding – were the 10th, 11th and 20th respectively among the top 20 trending topics of the day.
As the ‘wedding’ hashtags trended, several photos of President Buhari wearing what looked like a groom’s suit showed up. Another showing Ms Farouq in ‘pre-wedding photoshoot’ also went viral.
Nigerians also on social media uploaded their pictures in traditional attire saying they were ready for the ‘presidential wedding.’
One Twitter user was said to have written a joke out of it: “(Festus) Keyamo will give us the legal backing for the #PresidentialWedding. MURIC (the Muslim Rights Concern) will give us reasons why #TheWedding will help Nigerians. Lai Mohammed (the Minister of Information and Culture) will tell us how it will attract foreign investors. (Vice-President) Yemi Osibanjo will give us religious backing.”
Amid all these, a video purportedly showing the President’s wife, Aisha, allegedly querying why a room in Presidential Villa was locked upon her alleged return from London surfaced on the Internet. “Why would you close the door, what did I do to you? This is the Villa, we have over 200 soldiers guarding us, also 200 policemen. Enough is enough. Let me know when I will leave this place. Enough is enough,” the ‘First Lady’ was quoted to have said angrily, according to Punch.
Aisha has not been in the country for two months now, since the completion of the Hajj. She reportedly left for Saudi Arabia, where she went in company with her husband, to London at the completion of the religious pilgrimage in August.
The First Lady was said to have been absent during the mid-August Eid-el-Kabir celebration in Daura, Katsina State, even though his husband was around to welcome world leaders such as the President of Guinea, Alpha Conde.
When all this was going on, the supposed new wife, Sadiya Farouq, tweeted from New York, the United States on Friday, calling for an end to poverty.
“On October 17, join us as we #WalkOutPoverty. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is commemorated to encourage active participation by all to respect the rights & dignity of people living in poverty. #WalkOutPoverty #EndPoverty #Children @ossap_sdgs,” the minister tweeted via her handle, @Sadiya_farouq. (Photo: The Nigeria Voice)