Former First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has recounted how her husband, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, allegedly became suspicious of her following rumours within the Presidential Villa that she was plotting to kill him.
She also disclosed that the health challenge which compelled Buhari to embark on prolonged medical leave in 2017 stemmed from a breakdown in his feeding routine and poor nutritional management, rather than poisoning or any mysterious ailment.
Aisha Buhari’s account is contained in a newly released 600-page biography titled From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, written by Dr Charles Omole and launched at the State House on Monday.
The 22-chapter book traces Buhari’s life from his early years in Daura, Katsina State, to his final days in a London hospital in mid-July 2025.
According to the biography, the former First Lady had long supervised Buhari’s meals and supplements at fixed hours, a regimen 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.”
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 book revealed that Mrs Buhari convened a meeting involving close aides, including the physician, Suhayb Rafindadi; the Chief Security Officer, Bashir Abubakar; the housekeeper; and the Director-General of the Department of State Services, to outline the feeding 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 reportedly collapsed amid rumours and suspicion within the Villa.
“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, adding that the President began locking his room, altered his habits and, more importantly, “meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped.”
“For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals,” she added.
The deterioration, the book noted, culminated in Buhari’s two extended medical trips to the United Kingdom in 2017, totalling 154 days, during which he transferred power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Upon his return, Buhari admitted to being “never so ill” and having received blood transfusions.
Buhari’s absence, Omole wrote, “sparked rumours, speculation, and even conspiracy theories.”
Mrs Buhari dismissed claims that her husband was poisoned, maintaining that the crisis was triggered by the loss of a structured feeding routine.
Her position, Omole noted, is that “loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis.”
In London, doctors reportedly prescribed a stronger supplement regimen.
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,” the book stated.
The former First Lady described the recovery as rapid, saying, “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 read.
Omole noted that while critics viewed Buhari’s reliance on UK hospitals as evidence of Nigeria’s weak health system, a more compassionate view recognised the need for specialised care for a man in his 70s after years of underinvestment in healthcare.
He also highlighted Buhari’s practice of formally handing over power during medical absences, which he said preserved institutional order.
The book further painted a picture of deep mistrust within the Presidency.
Mrs Buhari alleged surveillance, including the bugging of the President’s office and playback of private conversations, claiming fear and conscience “contributed to taking his life.”
She also dismissed long-standing rumours that Buhari had a body double, popularly referred to as “Jibril of Sudan,” describing the claim as absurd and attributing its spread to weak strategic communication by the government.