Aisha Buhari, former First Lady of Nigeria, has revealed that the late President Muhammadu Buhari once believed rumors circulating within Aso Rock suggesting she intended to harm him. She recalled that the former president “began locking his room” amid the false claims.
Her account appears in the biography, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, authored by Dr. Charles Omole and launched at the State House on Monday.
Aisha Buhari clarified that her husband’s health struggles were not due to mysterious ailments or poisoning but were largely linked to mismanagement of his meals, medications, and supplements. She had long supervised his diet and regimen, ensuring that a slender man with a history of malnutrition maintained his strength.
“Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support. He doesn’t have a chronic illness. Keep him on schedule,” she said, emphasizing how critical timing and care were for his wellbeing.
However, she recounted that gossip and fearmongering disrupted this routine. “They said I wanted to kill him. My husband believed them for a week or so,” she said. As a result, Buhari “began locking his room, changed small habits, and crucially, meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped. For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals.”
The former First Lady’s revelations shed new light on the challenges Buhari faced in his final year, highlighting how misinformation and internal politics within Aso Rock affected even the daily care of the nation’s leader.
