Society Gists

Photos of the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Buhari, trying to shake hands with the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, have gone viral, with Nigerians reacting differently to the photographs.

The photos formed major discourse on Facebook and Twitter.

Aisha Buhari and Alaafin

The photos, which were posted on the monarch’s Facebook page on Tuesday, showed Mrs. Buhari trying to shake the hand of the king at an occasion in Borno State.

Oba Adeyemi is the Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri.

Since the photos went viral, they have elicited various reactions from social media users, some of whom felt the monarch snubbed the wife of the president, while others thought her shaking hands with the monarch was disrespectful.

Abdussalam De’eburnian, on the monarch’s Facebook page said, “Iku baba yeye (Alaafin) fears a woman’s handshake.”

But Abayomi Oloyede and others did not see the photos as being funny. Oloyede accused Buhari’s wife of bad manners in trying to give the monarch a handshake.

He said, “No manners because she is the President’s wife. Yoruba people respect the culture. Can she do that to Emir of Kano or the Emir of Katsina?”

Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose’s media aide, Lere Olayinka, commenting on the photos, said on Twitter, “Can Aisha Buhari greet the Emir of Daura with a handshake as she is doing here to the Iku Baba Yeye, Alaafin of Oyo?

Eze Eziokwu, @Tomyboiz, said, “Aisha Buhari is very disrespectful. How can she extend a hand to the great Alaafin of Oyo?”

Sega L’éveilleur, @segalink, said it was a “Sacrilege; how uncouth can you be, trying to shake the Alaafin? Do you shake your Emirs?”

However, Ayo Ajibola in a Facebook post, commented, “We are from different tribes, different cultures and different traditions. I really don’t know much about the Hausa. But please let us stop all the propaganda geared at causing division.”

Some others were concerned about whether the monarch snubbed the president’s wife’s handshake.