Explosive details from former First Lady Aisha Buhari are contained in the new 600-page biography of her late husband, ‘From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari’.
Mrs. Buhari revealed that the late President Muhammadu Buhari “began locking his room” after hearing Aso Rock gossips that she planned to kill him.
She also clarified that his 154-day medical leave in 2017 was not due to mysterious poisoning, but resulted from mismanaged nutrition.
Buhari’s widow equally refuted the long-held rumour that Buhari had a body double, popularly known as “Jibril of Sudan,” as absurd, arguing that poor strategic communication in government allowed simple, banal developments to metastasise into conspiracies.
The book, authored by Dr. Charles Omole and launched this week, chronicles Buhari’s life up to his death in July 2025.
According to the book, Mrs Buhari had long supervised her husband’s meals and supplements at specific hours, a regiment she said helped “a slender man with a long history of malnutrition symptoms” maintain strength.
“Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support,” she recalled, adding, “He doesn’t have a chronic illness. Keep him on schedule.”
It reads: “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 former First Lady convened a meeting with close staff, including the physician, Suhayb Rafindadi; the CSO, Bashir Abubakar; the housekeeper, and the SSS DG to explain the 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 frayed.
“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, revealing that the President began locking his room, changed 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,” she added.
The mismanagement of President Buhari’s nutrition eventually led to his two extended medical trips to the United Kingdom in 2017, totaling 154 days.
During these absences, he temporarily ceded authority to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
Upon his return, the President admitted he had been “never so ill” and required blood transfusions, sparking widespread rumors and conspiracy theories, according to author Dr. Charles Omole.
However, Mrs. Buhari has since debunked any plots to poison her husband, contending that the crisis began with a “loss of a routine” and poor nutrition.
Omole notes that once in London, doctors prescribed an even stronger regimen of supplements to address the issue.
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,” it read.
The former First Lady described the turnaround as swift, noting, “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 stated.
According to Omole, critics said Buhari’s reliance on UK hospitals exposed the failure of Nigeria’s health system.
A “more compassionate perspective,” he wrote, recognises that a man in his 70s may require specialised care “not readily available in Nigeria” after “decades of underinvestment.”
He also noted Buhari’s habit of handing power to his deputy during absences, which, he said, ensured “institutional propriety, even during personal health crises.”
The book also revealed a climate of mistrust around the Buhari Presidency.
Mrs Buhari alleged surveillance, the bugging of the President’s office with listening devices and playback of private conversations, saying, fear and conscience “contributed to taking his life.”
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