‘Buhari Believed Aso Rock Gossip I Planned Killing Him’: Says Late President Buhari wife, Aisha

• Aisha Buhari says late President Muhammadu Buhari “believed gossip in Aso Rock” that she planned to kill him, a false claim that disrupted his meals and supplements and triggered the 2017 health crisis keeping him out of office for 154 days.

Former First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has revealed that late President Muhammadu Buhari “began locking his room” after hearing gossip in Aso Rock that she planned to kill him.

The rumours, she said, briefly convinced Buhari and disrupted his carefully managed nutrition and feeding routine, contributing to the health crisis that forced him to take 154 days of medical leave in 2017.

Her account appears in the new 600-page biography From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, authored by Dr. Charles Omole and launched at the State House on Monday. The book chronicles Buhari’s life from his early years in Daura, Katsina State, to his final days in a London hospital in mid-July 2025.

Aisha Buhari stressed that the health crisis was not caused by a mysterious illness or poisoning, but by the “loss of a routine; ‘my nutrition,’” she said. She had long overseen her husband’s meals and supplements to maintain his strength, but once presidential protocols took over, the routine frayed.

“Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him,” she recalled. “My husband believed them for a week or so…meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped.” She added, “For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals.”

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During Buhari’s extended stay in the UK, doctors prescribed stronger supplements, and Aisha Buhari personally ensured he received them. “After just three days, he threw away the stick he was walking with. After a week, he was receiving relatives,” she said, describing his swift recovery.

The book also debunks longstanding conspiracy theories, including claims of poisoning, surveillance, and the alleged “body double” known as Jibril of Sudan. Omole noted that Buhari’s reliance on UK medical care reflected the lack of specialised healthcare for elderly leaders in Nigeria.