Aisha Buhari, former first lady, says the late President Muhammadu Buhari began locking his room after gossip at Aso Rock suggested she intended to kill him.
The late president’s wife recounted her account in a 600-page biography, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, written by Charles Omole, director-general of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research.
She added that Buhari believed the rumours and changed some of his personal habits.
“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 reads.
When they moved into the presidential villa, Aisha Buhari convened a meeting with staff including Suhayb Rafindadi, physician; Bashir Abubakar, chief security officer; the housekeeper; and the DSS director-general to explain the feeding plan.
The former first lady said the routine was eventually disrupted.
“When the Presidency’s machinery took over our private lives, I 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,” she said.
“Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him. My husband believed them for a week or so,” adding that Buhari began locking his room, altered small habits, and crucially, “meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped.
“For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals.”
The former first lady also dismissed claims that Buhari had been poisoned, saying the crisis arose from the loss of his routine.
“Loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis,” she said.
Buhari returned from London to Nigeria on August 19, 2017, after spending 103 days seeking treatment for an undisclosed condition.
In 2017, Buhari spent more than 150 days in the United Kingdom for medical attention, prompting questions about his ability to carry out presidential duties.
The former president passed away in a London clinic on July 13, 2025.