Former First Lady Aisha Buhari has revealed in a new biography that her late husband, former President Muhammadu Buhari, started locking his room after rumours spread inside Aso Rock that she was trying to kill him.
Her revelations are found in a new 600-page book called From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari.
Aisha Buhari claimed her husband’s long illness in 2017 was not caused by poisoning, but by missed meals and poor nutrition after they moved to the Presidential Villa. She had managed a strict routine of meals and supplements for him, stressing that elderly care needs “gentle, consistent support”.
She stated the care routine collapsed because of gossip and fear within the Presidency. She claimed, “Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him,”.
The President briefly believed the rumours and began locking his door. She said meals and supplements were stopped, noting, “For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals,”.
The health decline led to his long medical trips to the UK. When he was afraid to take stronger supplements prescribed by London doctors, Aisha Buhari secretly mixed them into his juice.
She described a swift recovery, saying, “After just three days, he threw away the stick he was walking with,” and “After a week, he was receiving relatives,”. She dismissed the conspiracy theories, like the “Jibril of Sudan” story, blaming poor government communication for the spread of these rumors.
