Former First Lady Aisha Buhari has disclosed that her late husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, temporarily believed gossip within the Presidential Villa suggesting she intended to poison him, causing him to lock his room and alter his daily habits.
The revelation comes from a newly launched 600-page biography, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, written by Dr. Charles Omole and unveiled at the State House on Monday.
In the book, Mrs. Buhari explains that Buhari’s severe health crisis in 2017 – which led to a 154-day medical leave in the UK – resulted from disrupted nutrition and meal routines, not poisoning or a mysterious illness as widely speculated.
She had personally managed his diet and supplements for years, tailoring them to support his health.
“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.
Mrs. Buhari stressed that resuming proper supplementation in London led to a swift recovery, with Buhari discarding his walking stick after just three days.
The biography also addresses palace mistrust, including allegations of surveillance and debunked conspiracy theories like the “Jibril of Sudan” body double rumor.
The 22-chapter work traces Buhari’s life from his early days in Daura, Katsina State, to his death in a London hospital in July 2025 at age 82.
