- Safiu Kehinde
Former Nigerian First Lady Aisha Buhari has disclosed her late husband and former President, Muhammadu Buhari, suddenly change attitude after believing in rumours of her alleged plot to kill him.
Aisha made the disclosure in the newly launched 600-page biography of the late former President titled, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari.
As quoted in the book written by Dr. Charles Omole and unveiled at the State House on Monday, the former first lady recounted how Buhari had temporarily believed in the rumours within the Presidential Villa suggesting she intended to poison him.
This, according to her, caused him to lock his room and alter his daily habits.
In the book, Aisha disclosed that Buhari’s severe health crisis in 2017 which led to a 154-day medical leave in the UK was as a result of 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 before the rumoured plot to poison the former President which led to his withdrawal from his wife and deterioration of his health condition.
“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, 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,” the book quotes her as saying.
Aisha Buhari stressed that resuming proper supplementation in London led to a swift recovery, with Buhari discarding his walking stick after just three days.
According to reports, the biography also addresses palace mistrust, including allegations of surveillance and debunked conspiracy theories like the “Jibril of Sudan” body double rumor.