Aisha Buhari Says Late President Briefly Believed Villa Rumours She Planned to Poison Him

Former First Lady Aisha Buhari has revealed that her late husband, President Muhammadu Buhari, briefly believed rumours within the Presidential Villa that she intended to kill him, a situation that reportedly disrupted his health and daily routine.

The disclosure is contained in a newly launched 600-page biography titled “From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari,” written by Dr Charles Omole. The book was unveiled on Monday at the State House.

According to the biography, Mrs Buhari said gossip and fear mongering within Aso Rock led the President to temporarily mistrust her, causing him to lock his room, alter his habits and stop following the nutrition plan she had managed for him over several years.

“Then came the gossip and the fear-mongering. They said I wanted to kill him,” Mrs Buhari is quoted as saying. “My husband believed them for a week or so.”

She explained that Buhari’s actions during that period had serious consequences for his health. “He began locking his room, changed small habits, and meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped,” she said, adding that for nearly a year, the President did not eat lunch regularly.

Mrs Buhari stressed that her husband’s severe health crisis in 2017, which forced him to spend 154 days on medical leave in the United Kingdom, was not caused by poisoning or any mysterious illness, as widely speculated at the time. Instead, she attributed the episode to disrupted nutrition and poor meal management.

“For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals,” she said.

The former First Lady noted that once Buhari resumed proper nutrition and supplementation in London, his condition improved rapidly. She said he was able to abandon his walking stick just three days after his dietary regimen was restored.

The biography also sheds light on deep mistrust within the Presidential Villa, including allegations of internal surveillance and conspiracy theories such as the widely circulated claim that Buhari had been replaced by a body double known as “Jibril of Sudan,” which the book dismisses.

The 22-chapter work chronicles Buhari’s life from his childhood in Daura, Katsina State, through his military career and presidency, to his death in a London hospital in July 2025 at the age of 82.