Amid scandal that she diverted funds obtained from donors and that her husband misappropriated public funds whilst serving at the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), Aisha Yesufu has announced a visit to Peter Obi in a move believed to rally the supporters of the candidate to her defence.
The self-proclaimed activist has struggled under the spotlight shone by critics on her conduct in the last elections and the public service records of her spouse, Mr Aliyu Osigwe Yesufu, whose tenure as the General Manager of Finances at the NHIS ended controversially.
Aisha faces accusations of receiving and diverting donations made by hundreds of Obi’s supporters in Nigeria and the diaspora during the elections. She has ignored calls to give a public account of how much was received in donations and how the sum was expended.
Questions have also emerged about how the Yesufu family managed to afford millions in school fees, expensive holiday trips abroad and other lavish lifestyle choices at the time her husband was a public servant on a median salary.
Unable to explain the widely perceived discrepancies, Aisha Yesufu challenged her critics to file a lawsuit against her husband for wrongdoing. But the call has been dismissed as a cheap deflection ploy, especially as Aisha herself is known for insisting on the blacklisting of other public servants on the suspicion of theft and corruption, without a formal legal process or conviction.
Hushmummy, an epithet used by one of her critics in a recent brawl to draw parallels between Aisha Yesufu and notorious fraudster Ramon Hushpuppi Abbas, rose to the top of Nigeria’s Twitter trend-chart yesterday as other users condemned what they saw as Aisha’s failure to clarify biting questions on her husband’s history and her own opaque fundraisers.
Reeling from the public humiliation, she promptly announced a return to Nigeria today and a visit to Peter Obi, likely to rally the politician’s supporters to her defence in the online showdown.