Buhari locked his room over gossip that I wanted to kill him, says ex-first lady Aisha

Aisha Buhari, wife of late former President Muhammadu Buhari, said her husband began to lock his room after the Aso Rock gossip mill churned that she planned to have him killed.

The former first lady said Buhari believed the grapevine and altered some of his habits.

According to Punch, Aisha narrated her experience in handling Buhari’s health challenges in a 600-page biography titled: ‘From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari’.

The biography, which was authored by Charles Omole, director-general of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research, was launched at the presidential villa in Abuja.

Many high-profile persons and political chieftains, including President Bola Tinubu, attended the launch.

In the book, Aisha said Buhari’s 2017 health crisis was not a mysterious ailment or the effect of poisoning, but began after a broken feeding routine and mismanaged nutritional habits.

The former first lady said she had long managed her husband’s meals and supplements at specific hours, adding that the regimen helped Buhari to maintain stability.

“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 reads.

When they moved to the villa, she said she convened a meeting with close staff including Suhayb Rafindadi, the physician; Bashir Abubakar, the chief security officer; the housekeeper, and the DSS DG to explain the plan.

After some time, the plan was discontinued.

“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,” Aisha was quoted as saying in the book.

“Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him.

“My husband believed them for a week or so,” she said, adding 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.

Aisha denied stories of plots to poison her husband, adding that Buhari’s health began deteriorating because of “loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis”.

On August 19, 2017, Buhari returned to Nigeria from London after spending 103 days treating an undisclosed ailment.

In 2017, Buhari spent more than 150 days in the United Kingdom for medical reasons — a development that sparked concerns over his fitness for the office of president.

Buhari died in a London clinic on July 13, 2025.