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My husband might have lived if I was in control – Aisha Buhari
For Aisha Buhari, Nigeria’s former First Lady, her husband could probably be alive today, were she fully in charge of managing his health instead of those who took charge at the Presidential Villa, that succeeded in convincing the late President that she was a threat to him.
Her narrative came in new book, where she detailed stories of intrigues within the Presidency leading to a situation, where the former President began locking his room following gossips that she planned to kill him.
Recalling the incident that occurred ahead of his ill-health, which saw the late President, spending a whole 153 days in the hospital in London, the widow, traced the health crisis to the same intrigues, which denied her access to her husband’s affairs, leading to a broken feeding routine and mismanaged nutrition, she had earlier planned and supervised.
Dismissing the contention that Buhari’s illness was a mysterious or poisoning, she said in the new 600-page biography, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, authored by Charles Omole, a Lawyer, Security consultant, Trainer and Strategist to businesses and governments across Europe launched at the State House on Monday.
The 22-chapter book, which chronicles the late President’s early life in Daura, Katsina state, until his final hours in a London hospital in mid-July 2025, narrated how the First Lady, had long supervised her husband’s meals and supplements at specific hours, a regimen she said helped “a slender man with a long history of malnutrition symptoms” maintain strength.
Part of the book read: “Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support,” she recalled, adding, “He doesn’t have a chronic illness. Keep him on schedule. 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.”
Stating how the former First Lady convened a meeting with close staff, including the physician, Suhayb Rafindadi; the CSO, Bashir Abubakar; the housekeeper, and the SSS DG to explain the plan, it added: “Daily, cups and bowls with tailored vitamin powders and oils, a touch of protein here, a change to cereals there.
“When the Presidency’s machinery took over our private lives, she 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.
“Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him. My husband believed them for a week or so. 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 deterioration culminated in Buhari’s two extended medical trips to the United Kingdom, totalling 154 days in 2017, during which he ceded authority to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.
“Upon return, he admitted to being ‘never so ill’ and having received blood transfusions. Buhari’s absences sparked rumours, speculation, and even conspiracy theories,” Omole wrote, adding that the former First Lady, debunked stories of plots to poison her husband.
“Her contention, is that loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis. In London, doctors prescribed an even stronger regimen of supplements. Initially, Buhari was frightened and not taking them as prescribed. So she took charge of his welfare, slipping hospital-issued supplements into his juice and oats.
“The former First Lady described the turnaround as swift, noting, ‘After just three days, he threw away the stick he was walking with. After a week, he was receiving relatives. That, she says, ‘was the genesis, and also the reversal of his sickness.”
The author, added: “Critics said Buhari’s reliance on UK hospitals exposed the failure of Nigeria’s health system. A more compassionate perspective, recognises that a man in his 70s may require specialised care not readily available in Nigeria after decades of underinvestment. Buhari’s habit of handing power to his deputy during absences, ensured institutional propriety, even during personal health crises.”
The book also revealed a climate of mistrust around the Presidency, referring to how the First Lady, alleged to surveillance, the bugging of the President’s office with listening devices and playback of private conversations, saying, fear and conscience “contributed to taking his life.”
She refuted the long-held rumour that Buhari had a body double, popularly known as “Jibril of Sudan,” as absurd, arguing that poor strategic communication in government allowed simple, banal developments to metastasise into conspiracies.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
“Constructive partnership should never be mistaken for constitutional surrender. Parliament does not prove its independence by manufacturing conflict, nor its relevance by opposing for opposition’s sake,” were the words with which Godswill Akpabio, moved to shoot down a groundswell of allegations against the National Assembly as a lapdog to the Executive.
At the opening of the 2026 National Assembly Open Week in Abuja, Akpabio, Chairman of the National Assembly, insisted on collaboration as the basis of engagement, with checks and balances called when absolutely necessary and relevant.
He added: “Our constitutional duty is to support what advances the national interest, to question what requires scrutiny, and to correct what demands improvement. That is the balance we have sought to maintain, and history, I believe, will judge it fairly. The Senate and House of Representatives have worked with uncommon harmony and mutual respect over the past three years.
“Whether you are with us today, following these proceedings online, listening on radio, watching on television, or gathered beneath a mango tree in a village square, this parliament belongs to you.
“Come closer. Attend our public hearings. Read the laws we make. Question us. Challenge us. Encourage us. Democracy flourishes when citizens remain active participants in the work of self-government. The true measure of parliament is not the height of its walls, but the depth of its people’s confidence.”
Arguing that the assembly’s constitutional duty was to serve Nigerians rather than manufacture conflict with the executive, he maintained it would remain accessible to citizens rather than operate as a closed institution.
His words: “Throughout these responsibilities, the national assembly has worked constructively with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, in pursuit of national progress.”
Relating to the participation of Nigerians in the affairs of the legislature, he said, it would never build walls to keep Nigerians out, adding: “They were built to welcome them in — not merely as spectators of democracy, but as its rightful owners. Parliament belongs not to those elected to sit within it, but to the millions whose hopes and votes brought it into existence.
“Parliament was never built to keep the people out. It was built to bring them in, for democracy flourishes only in the confidence of an informed and engaged citizenry.
“Public confidence is earned not by asking citizens to trust institutions blindly, but by embracing transparency and accountability Parliament should never fear informed criticism. Questions strengthen democracy. Transparency strengthens legitimacy. The more Nigerians understand our work, the stronger our democracy becomes.
“We invite Nigerians not merely to observe us, but to engage with us; not merely to applaud where they agree, but to challenge us where they believe we can do better. A parliament that listens becomes wiser. A democracy that listens becomes stronger.”
Giving further details of the achievements of the 10th NASS, Akpabio, apart from commending it for passing more than 100 bills in its first three years, which he described as unprecedented at this stage of Nigeria’s democratic journey, also pointed to other feats.
They included the enactment of the laws to strengthen national security, return out-of-school children to classrooms, modernise the country’s tax system, approve a new national minimum wage, stimulate investment and establish regional development commissions.
Brushing aside the oft-challenged practice of benign approach in the screening and confirmation of public officeholders, Akpabio, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State and former Minister of the Niger Delta, said such tasks had always been met with the seriousness required by the constitution.
He also showcased how the assembly aided Nigeria to regain a seat on the executive committee of the Inter-Parliamentary Union after nearly six decades, describing the feat as a sign of renewed international confidence in the country’s democratic institutions.
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