Abuja – Former First Lady Aisha Buhari has disclosed that late President Muhammadu Buhari became increasingly suspicious and fearful after rumors spread within Aso Rock that she was plotting to kill him, a situation that allegedly led him to lock his bedroom door. She also explained that the prolonged illness which forced Buhari to take 154 days of medical leave in 2017 was not caused by poisoning or a mysterious disease but by the disruption of his long‑established feeding routine and poor nutritional management.
The account appears in the newly released 600‑page biography “From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari,” written by Dr. Charles Omole and unveiled at the State House on Monday. The 22‑chapter book traces Buhari’s life from his early years in Daura, Katsina State, to his death in a London hospital in mid‑July 2025.
According to the biography, Mrs. Buhari had for years personally supervised her husband’s meals and supplements at fixed intervals, a routine she said helped “a slender man with a long history of malnutrition symptoms” remain strong. “Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support,” she recalled, adding, “He doesn’t have a chronic illness. Keep him on schedule.”
The book quotes Aisha Buhari describing how the 2017 health crisis began with the loss of that routine: “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.”
She convened a meeting with key aides – including the President’s physician Suhayb Rafindadi, Chief Security Officer Bashir Abubakar, the housekeeper and the Director‑General of the SSS – to outline a nutrition plan. “Daily, cups and bowls with tailored vitamin powders and oils, a touch of protein here, a change to cereals there,” she explained.
However, the routine soon collapsed amid gossip. “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. He began locking his room, altered his daily habits, and most critically, 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 led to two lengthy medical visits to the United Kingdom in 2017, totalling 154 days, during which Buhari transferred presidential authority to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. After his recovery, Buhari admitted he had “never so ill” and disclosed that he had received blood transfusions.
While in London, doctors placed Buhari on an intensified supplement regimen. Initially, the former President “was frightened and not taking them as prescribed. So she took charge of his welfare, slipping hospital‑issued supplements into his juice and oats,” the book stated. Mrs. Buhari described the recovery as rapid: “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 biography also notes that Buhari’s prolonged absences “sparked rumours, speculation, and even conspiracy theories.” Mrs. Buhari firmly rejected claims that her husband was poisoned, maintaining that the real cause was, as Omole put it, “loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis.”
Aisha Buhari further alleged that the presidency was bugged, private conversations were recorded and replayed, and that fear and guilt “contributed to taking his life.” She dismissed long‑standing rumors that Buhari had a body double, popularly referred to as “Jibril of Sudan,” describing the claims as absurd and blaming weak government communication for allowing ordinary developments to spiral into widespread conspiracy theories.
Dr. Charles Omole, the author, acknowledged criticism that Buhari’s reliance on UK hospitals highlighted shortcomings in Nigeria’s healthcare system but argued that a “more compassionate perspective” recognises the need for specialised care for a man in his 70s after “decades of underinvestment.” He also highlighted Buhari’s consistent practice of handing over power to his deputy during medical absences, which preserved “institutional propriety, even during personal health crises.”
The 600‑page volume, unveiled at the State House, offers a detailed portrait of the late president’s life, his personal challenges, and the environment that shaped his final years.
