The wife of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari says she may not back her husband at the next election unless he shakes up his government.

 

Aisha Buhari told the BBC in a interview published on Friday that her husband did not know most of the government officials he had appointed, and that many had been nominated due to the influence of a few people.

 

Her husband, a 73-year-old former military ruler, was elected last year after a campaign largely fought on his pledge to crush the Islamist militant group Boko Haram and crack down on corruption. He has not said whether he will seek re-election in 2019.

 

Nigeria, which has Africa's largest economy, is in recession for the first time in 25 years, largely due to a fall global oil prices, which has slashed the state's main source of income.

 

"He is yet to tell me but I have decided, as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again," she said in the interview.

 

She said people who did not share the vision of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), had been appointed to senior positions because of the influence wielded by a "few people".

 

"The president does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don't know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years," Aisha Buhari said.

 

On the issue of whether the president was in charge, she said: "That is left for the people to decide."