Nigeria: Aisha Buhari reveals the exact causes of former President Muhammadu Buhari’s death

Former Nigerian First Lady Aisha Buhari has revealed the exact circumstances of her husband’s death, former president Muhammadu Buhari, saying he died of pneumonia and not of cancer, as some rumors had suggested.

This revelation appears in the official biography of the former head of state, “From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari”, written by Charles Omole, in which Aisha Buhari emotionally recounts her husband’s final days. Having died in mid-2025 at a London clinic, Buhari was later repatriated to Nigeria, where he was buried in Daura, his hometown in Katsina State.

According to his wife, the former president’s final moments were particularly harrowing. “The last days were difficult. He spent a few days in intensive care, then on the medical ward, before being transferred to the recovery room. The last three days were the hardest,” she says in the book.

Aisha Buhari attributes her husband’s fragile health to his military past. Long exposed to extreme conditions during his service, notably for more than two years in humid areas of the country’s south, Buhari reportedly saw his lung health deteriorate over time. The book also notes that medical tests, including sputum analyses, never revealed any trace of cancer, confirming that pneumonia was indeed the cause of death.