Former First Lady Aisha Buhari has revealed that her husband, the late President Muhammadu Buhari, began locking his room amid rumours in Aso Rock that she planned to k!ll him. She also explained that the health crisis which forced Buhari to take 154 days of medical leave in 2017 stemmed from a disrupted feeding routine and mismanaged nutrition, not from any mysterious illness or poisoning. Her account appears in a new 600-page biography, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, authored 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 hours in a London hospital in mid-July 2025. According to the book, Mrs. Buhari had long supervised her husband’s meals and supplements at set times, a routine that helped “a slender man with a long history of malnutrition symptoms” maintain his strength. She recalled, “Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support. He doesn’t have a chronic illness. Keep him on schedule.” The biography states, “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.” To ensure Buhari’s wellbeing, Mrs. Buhari coordinated with close staff, including his physician, Suhayb Rafindadi, the Chief Security Officer Bashir Abubakar, the housekeeper, and the SSS DG. She described the regimen: “Daily, cups and bowls with tailored vitamin powders and oils, a touch of protein here, a change to cereals there. Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support.” However, the routine was disrupted by gossip. “Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to k!ll him,” she recalled. Buhari reportedly believed the rumours for about a week, locking his room and altering small habits, while crucially, “meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped.” This mismanagement of his nutrition eventually led to Buhari’s two extended medical trips to the United Kingdom in 2017, totaling 154 days, during which he ceded authority to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. Upon his return, Buhari admitted to being “never so ill” and having received blood transfusions. Mrs. Buhari dismissed claims that she plotted to poison her husband, insisting that the crisis arose from the loss of his routine. In London, doctors prescribed a stricter supplement regimen. Initially hesitant, Buhari was gradually brought back on track by his wife, who “slipped hospital-issued supplements into his juice and oats.” The turnaround was swift: “After just three days, he threw away the stick he was walking with. After a week, he was receiving relatives,” the book notes. “That,” she says, “was the genesis, and also the reversal of his sickness.” Omole noted that while critics argued Buhari’s reliance on UK hospitals highlighted deficiencies in Nigeria’s health system, a “more compassionate perspective” recognises that a man in his 70s may require specialised care “not readily available in Nigeria” after decades of underinvestment. He also highlighted Buhari’s practice of handing power to his deputy during absences, ensuring “institutional propriety, even during personal health crises.”
