…Reveals Aso Rock intrigues and the untold story of Buhari’s illness
Former First Lady, A’isha Buhari, has offered rare and deeply personal insights into her life after the death of her husband, late President Muhammadu Buhari, while also shedding new light on the intrigue, mistrust and health crises that marked his years in office.
Speaking on Monday at the State House, Abuja, during the unveiling of a new biography titled: ‘From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari’, A’isha said she has decided not to remarry, describing the choice as both moral and pragmatic.
“It is not moralistic for me to remarry”, she stated, adding that she intends to live a quieter public life focused on family, philanthropy and travel. According to her, the next chapter of her life will centre on running the A’isha Buhari Foundation and a cardiovascular and medical centre in Kano, while extending what she called “the same ethic of care that animated my politics into a quieter, more sustainable hospitality”.
Beyond her personal plans, the former First Lady made startling revelations about events inside Aso Rock, particularly during Buhari’s prolonged health challenges in 2017. In the 600-page, 22-chapter biography authored by Dr. Charles Omole, A’isha recounted how rumours and palace gossip led her husband to mistrust her at the height of his illness.
“They said I wanted to kill him”, she was quoted as saying. According to her account, Buhari believed the claims for a short period, began locking his bedroom door, altered his habits and, most critically, stopped adhering to his carefully managed feeding and supplement routine.
A’isha insisted that Buhari’s health crisis, which resulted in two medical trips to the United Kingdom totalling 154 days in 2017, was not caused by poisoning or any mysterious ailment. Rather, she said it stemmed from the disruption of a nutrition regimen she had long supervised, first in Kaduna and later at the Presidential Villa.
“He doesn’t have a chronic illness. Keep him on schedule. Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support”, she said, explaining that Buhari, whom she described as “a slender man with a long history of malnutrition symptoms”, relied heavily on a structured diet and supplements to maintain his strength.
The book details how A’isha convened meetings with key aides, including Buhari’s physician, Dr. Suhayb Rafindaɗi, the Chief Security Officer, Bashir Abubakar, the housekeeper and the then Director-General of the DSS, to ensure continuity of the feeding plan.
That arrangement, she said, collapsed after rumours of a plot against the President spread within the Villa. “For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals”, she lamented.
According to the biography, Buhari later admitted upon his return from London that he had “never been so ill”, and confirmed receiving blood transfusions. A’isha also dismissed long-standing conspiracy theories that Buhari had been poisoned or replaced by a body-double, popularly referred to as “Jibril of Sudan”, calling such claims absurd and blaming poor communication from the Presidency for allowing misinformation to fester.
She further alleged that the atmosphere in Aso Rock was marked by deep mistrust, claiming the President’s office was bugged and private conversations secretly recorded. That climate of fear and paranoia, she suggested, took a toll on Buhari’s health.
In London, however, she said his condition improved rapidly once his nutrition routine was restored. “After just three days, he threw away the stick he was walking with. After a week, he was receiving relatives,” she recalled, describing the moment as both “the genesis and the reversal” of his sickness.
Dr. Omole noted in the book that while critics faulted Buhari for seeking medical care abroad, others saw it as an indictment of Nigeria’s underfunded healthcare system. He also highlighted Buhari’s consistent practice of transferring power to then vice-president Yemi Osinbajo during his absences as evidence of “institutional propriety, even during personal health crises”.
As the former First Lady steps back from public life, her reflections—spanning love, loss, power and suspicion—offer one of the most intimate portraits yet of the human struggles behind Nigeria’s Presidency and the final years of Muhammadu Buhari.
