Aisha Buhari, widow of former President Muhammadu Buhari, has revealed that her husband once began locking his room after rumours spread within Aso Rock that she was plotting to kill him.
She said the former president briefly believed the claims and changed aspects of his daily life, a development that, according to her, disrupted his carefully managed health routine.
The former president died at a London clinic on July 13, 2025.
The former president died at a London clinic on July 13, 2025.
Aisha made the disclosure in a newly released 600-page biography titled From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, authored by Charles Omole, director-general of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research.
The book was launched at the Presidential Villa in Abuja and attended by several dignitaries, including President Bola Tinubu.
In the biography, Aisha dismissed long-standing speculations that Buhari’s prolonged illness in 2017 was the result of poisoning or a mysterious disease. Instead, she attributed the crisis to poor meal management and the breakdown of a nutritional regimen she had supervised for years.
She explained that before moving to the Presidential Villa, she had personally managed Buhari’s meals and supplements at fixed times, a routine she said helped keep his health stable.
“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 states.
After relocating to the villa, Aisha said she met with key aides including Buhari’s physician, Suhayb Rafindadi; his chief security officer, Bashir Abubakar; the housekeeper; and the Director-General of the DSS to outline the feeding and supplement plan. However, she said the arrangement was later abandoned.
“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 was quoted as saying.
She said the situation worsened after rumours began circulating.
“Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him.
“My husband believed them for a week or so,” Aisha said, adding that Buhari started locking his room and altering his habits.
According to her, the most damaging consequence was the disruption of his meals. “Meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped,” she said, claiming that “for a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals.”
Aisha again rejected claims of poisoning, insisting that Buhari’s health declined mainly because of “loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis”.
Buhari returned to Nigeria on August 19, 2017, after spending 103 days in London receiving treatment for an undisclosed ailment. Altogether, he spent more than 150 days in the UK that year for medical care, raising public concerns at the time about his capacity to govern.
