Former First Lady Aisha Buhari has recounted how her late husband, former President Muhammadu Buhari, began “locking his room” after rumours circulated within Aso Rock that she was plotting to kill him.
She also disclosed that the health challenges which compelled Buhari to embark on a 154-day medical leave in 2017 stemmed from a disrupted feeding routine and poorly managed nutrition.
According to her, the former president’s illness was neither a mysterious condition nor the result of poisoning.
Aisha Buhari’s account is contained in a newly released 600-page biography, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, authored by Dr Charles Omole. The book was launched on Monday at the State House.
The 22-chapter biography traces Buhari’s journey from his early years in Daura, Katsina State, to his final moments in a London hospital in mid-July 2025.
The book states that Mrs Buhari had for years personally overseen her husband’s meals and supplements at fixed times, a routine she said helped “a slender man with a long history of malnutrition symptoms” remain strong.
Emphasising the importance of discipline in elderly care, she recalled saying, “Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support,” and added, “He doesn’t have a chronic illness. Keep him on schedule.”
It read, “According to Aisha Buhari, her husband’s 2017 health crisis did not originate as a mysterious ailment or a covert plot. It started, she says, with the loss of a routine; ‘my nutrition,’ she describes it, a pattern of meals and supplements she had long overseen in Kaduna before they moved into Aso Villa.”
The former First Lady convened a meeting with close staff, including the physician, Suhayb Rafindadi; the CSO, Bashir Abubakar; the housekeeper, and the SSS DG to explain the plan.
She said, “Daily, cups and bowls with tailored vitamin powders and oils, a touch of protein here, a change to cereals there.”
“When the Presidency’s machinery took over our private lives, she explained the plan: daily, at specific hours, cups and bowls with tailored vitamin powders and oil, a touch of protein here, a change to cereals there. Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support,” Omole narrated.
However, the routine frayed.
“Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him,” the book quotes her as saying.
“My husband believed them for a week or so,” she said, revealing that the President 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,” she added.
The decline ultimately led to Buhari undertaking two prolonged medical stays in the United Kingdom in 2017, lasting a combined 154 days, during which he transferred presidential powers to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
After his return, Buhari acknowledged that he had “never been so ill” and disclosed that he received blood transfusions during his treatment.
Buhari’s absences “sparked rumours, speculation, and even conspiracy theories,” Omole wrote.
Mrs Buhari debunked stories of plots to poison her husband.
Her contention, Omole noted, is that “loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis.”
In London, doctors prescribed an even stronger regimen of supplements, he explained.
Initially, Buhari “was frightened and not taking them as prescribed. So she took charge of his welfare, slipping hospital-issued supplements into his juice and oats,” it read.
The former First Lady described the turnaround as swift, noting, “After just three days, he threw away the stick he was walking with. After a week, he was receiving relatives.”
“‘That,’ she says, ‘was the genesis, and also the reversal of his sickness,’” the book stated.
According to Omole, critics said Buhari’s reliance on UK hospitals exposed the failure of Nigeria’s health system.
A “more compassionate perspective,” he wrote, recognises that a man in his 70s may require specialised care “not readily available in Nigeria” after “decades of underinvestment.”
He also noted Buhari’s habit of handing power to his deputy during absences, which, he said, ensured “institutional propriety, even during personal health crises.”
The book also revealed a climate of mistrust around the Presidency.
Mrs Buhari alleged surveillance, the bugging of the President’s office with listening devices and playback of private conversations, saying, fear and conscience “contributed to taking his life.”
She refuted the long-held rumour that Buhari had a body double, popularly known as “Jibril of Sudan,” as absurd, arguing that poor strategic communication in government allowed simple, banal developments to metastasise into conspiracies.
