Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs in Niger State, Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji, has slammed people who have criticised him for giving his second wife an iPhone worth N400,000.
Daji presented the phone to his wife last weekend as a birthday gift.
He has publicised the gesture on Facebook, a development that, however sparked several negative reactions.
Many feel he is been insensitive to the poverty ravaging many while others say he is just being licentious with ends like many other Nigerian politicians.
Reacting to this in an interview with ‘The Nation, Daji described such people as being wicked.
According to him, he is financially competent to buy the woman the phone, saying he had been a local government chairman, among other attainments, before.
He stressed:
“People buy a car for their wife if they have the means so why the condemnation that I bought a phone for my wife. Those reacting to this are just being mischievous, wicked and it is an attempt to tarnish my image because I am a Commissioner.
I did not even know the make of the phone. When it was given to me as a birthday gift, I decided to keep it for my wife’s birthday to give it to her especially as she had earlier indicated interest in it.
And again this is what I do every year for my wives and children even before I became Commissioner. I always make them feel special on their birthday, so I wondered why this is generating so many reactions on social media.
Even the birthday cake was made by my wife’s housemaid as her own gift to my wife. And in all honesty, there was nothing like a party, it was just family members, that is my first wife and her two sisters, my second wife, the children, and my self. There was no outsider there. I wonder why people are so uptight about me presenting a phone gift to my wife. It is my wife we are talking about, there is no gift too big to give to her.
Besides, I have been a local government Chairman before becoming a Commissioner, and before that I have been a big-time lawyer, so buying that type of phone for my wife should not raise eyebrows. I am more than capable to buy it.
Even if I was not doing well before I became a commissioner, at least my seven months salaries since becoming Commissioner, I should be able to afford a phone of N400, 000 for my wife.
“You see, funny enough my first wife’s birthday is coming up soon and I have decided to give her a bigger gift. People should stop seeing all of us as corrupt, I can afford these things, and I can confidently say that I have not mismanaged government’s resources or touched the salaries of local government staff.” he said
