Inside Buhari’s Presidency: Why Corrupt Ministers Walked Free And Kinsmen Were Shielded

The late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha Buhari, has offered rare insight into the emotional strain and political pressure that shaped his reluctance to dismiss underperforming officials during his time in office.

In From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha Buhari explains the factors that, in her words, “haunted” the presidency, particularly the retention of ministers and service chiefs who had “outlived their usefulness.”

According to her, Buhari’s hesitation was deeply rooted in the fear of being branded authoritarian, a reputation he acquired during his military regime in the 1980s. She recalled that he often said, “If I remove him, they will say I am this and that. Better the devil you know.”

Aisha Buhari also referenced the impact of age on performance, noting that declining effectiveness was inevitable over time. She revealed that some officials exploited her husband’s reluctance to act, adding that her own standard was simple: “If a man ‘eats’ but still delivers at least 50 percent, keep him. But if he both ‘eats’ and cannot perform, then he must go.”

The book’s author, Dr. Charles Omole, confirmed that members of the Buhari family acknowledged this unwillingness to remove aides as a significant weakness of his administration.

One of the most striking disclosures concerns Buhari’s state of mind in the period leading up to his death, particularly as the Tinubu administration initiated investigations into several senior figures from his government, including former Attorney-General Abubakar Malami, ex-ministers Hadi Sirika and Umar-Farouq, and former Accountant-General Ahmed Idris.

Aisha Buhari revealed that her husband was deeply troubled by these developments. She recounted that when some of his allies were asked to step aside for investigation, Buhari appealed to the new government on behalf of his kinsmen, seeking to protect them from scrutiny because he still depended on them for personal assistance.

She further disclosed that in the months before his passing, Buhari became increasingly withdrawn. The book recounts how she was advised to return to Daura to stay with him, with the warning that her presence would allow investigations to proceed unhindered. She declined, saying she had no desire to confront people she described as illiterate at her stage of life.

The account adds that Buhari later stopped communicating with household members for several days and barely ate. Eventually, Aisha learned that he had quietly intervened, pleading for leniency for his relatives under investigation.

In his final months, she said, he spoke sparingly, avoided eye contact, and appeared weighed down by regret. “Everything I warned him about came to pass,” she remarked, describing how shame, duty, and affection defined his final days—a man who had always prided himself on personal integrity.

Buhari’s presidency was marked by the longest-serving service chiefs in Nigeria’s recent history, appointed in July 2015 and replaced only in January 2021, despite sustained public criticism over worsening security conditions.