Former First Lady, Dr Aisha Buhari, has disclosed that powerful individuals around her late husband, former President Muhammadu Buhari, turned him against her while he was in office, disrupting the care routine she had managed for years and worsening his health.
Aisha Buhari made the revelations in a new book, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, written by Dr Charles Omole and unveiled on Monday at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja.
According to her account in the book, the former president’s health crisis in 2017 did not stem from poisoning or any mysterious illness, as widely speculated at the time. Instead, she said it resulted from the breakdown of a strict nutrition regime she had supervised long before Buhari became president.
She explained that her husband had lived with symptoms of malnutrition for many years and relied on carefully timed meals and nutritional supplements to remain healthy, a routine she managed while they lived in Kaduna.
However, she said the arrangement changed after they moved into Aso Villa, where presidential aides and security officials took over aspects of Buhari’s daily life.
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Aisha Buhari said she convened a meeting with Buhari’s close aides — including his physician, Chief Security Officer, housekeeper and the Director-General of the Department of State Services — to outline the nutrition plan and stress its importance.
“He doesn’t have a chronic illness. At this age, you care for them like a child. Immune systems are not the same. Add this, remove that. Keep him on schedule,” she was quoted as saying.
She alleged that despite her efforts, some members of Buhari’s inner circle began to spread rumours and instil fear, accusing her of trying to harm him.
“They said I wanted to kill him,” she stated.
According to her, the former president believed the claims for a period and began altering his habits, including locking his room door to keep her out and abandoning the routine that had sustained his health.
She said meals were delayed or skipped, supplements were stopped and Buhari, who was naturally slim and ate sparingly, began to lose significant weight, noting that for nearly a year he reportedly did not take lunch.
Aisha Buhari maintained that her husband was not poisoned and that there was no strange illness involved, insisting that his health deteriorated simply because his nutrition was poorly managed.
She added that when Buhari was eventually flown to London for treatment, doctors prescribed an even stronger supplement regimen than the one she had previously administered.
The former First Lady said she was later told that Buhari had become “state property” and no longer solely her husband, a development she said allowed others to override her role and take control of his care, with serious consequences for his wellbeing.