African women have nothing to worry about Buhari’s insensitive comments.. Bashir Goth, Special to Gulf News

Nigerian President Buhari’s deplorable comments about his wife only serve as a poor reflection of his ego — they do not take anything away from women’s exemplary contribution to the continent’s history and legacy.

At a time when issues of sexual harassment and women’s rights dominate the narrative of the United States presidential race, it was unfortunate for an African leader of the most populous, most ethnically diverse and most culturally rich country in the continent to insult his wife and in fact all African women before the whole world.

“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room,” said President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, in response to his wife Aisha Buhari’s criticism of his government’s performance.

Buhari’s reaction is an insult to African women and it has left a bad taste in the mouth with African men as well, particularly as Buhari stood beside German Chancellor Angela Merkel, one of Europe’s most powerful women leaders and indeed a wife herself. I can only imagine how much Merkel must have cringed when she heard Buhari’s insulting words to his wife and to women as a whole. British online newspaper Independent reported that Merkel ostensibly “glared at him before laughing briefly”. What else could she have done? As an old Arab adage says: “The worst misfortune is the one that makes you laugh.”

African women have their niche of greatness