Former First Lady Aisha Buhari has said she has no plans to remarry following the death of her husband, former President Muhammadu Buhari, describing the decision as practical rather than moral.
“She will not remarry, she says, almost with a shrug,” Aisha Buhari told Dr Charles Omole, author of a new biography on the late president.
“It is not a moral pronouncement so much as a pragmatic one: she has grandchildren; one husband was enough.”
The comments are contained in Omole’s 600-page book titled From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, which was unveiled at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.
The 22-chapter book traces Buhari’s life from his childhood in Daura, Katsina State, to his death in a London hospital in mid-July 2025.
The book notes that Aisha Buhari’s decision rejects social expectations often placed on widows.
“In a culture that sometimes reads remarriage as betrayal or saintliness, her answer refuses both scripts. It is simply a woman naming the contours of her future,” the book stated.
According to the biography, the former First Lady plans to live a quieter life, focusing on family, charity work, and travel.
“Her plans are domestic and cosmopolitan at once. She will holiday with friends and associates. She will dote on grandchildren so they will remember her not as a moving figure behind tinted glass but as a presence in their childhood rooms.”
“She will run her foundation, the Aisha Buhari Foundation, and the cardiovascular and medical centre in Kano that has already completed over two hundred procedures.”
“She will host, collaborate, and extend the same ethic of care that animated her politics into a quieter, more sustainable hospitality.”
Omole described her decision as a personal reset after years in the public and political spotlight.
“If the republic expects a politics of eternal return, she offers a politics of departure instead: let others take the stage; let the house heal,” he said.
The author added that Aisha Buhari’s marriage brought both opportunity and difficulty.
“For Aisha Buhari, her marriage served as both a refuge and a trial.
“It gave her a platform to voice her opinions, only to punish her for doing so. It opened doors to the decision-making spaces, but those spaces became unwelcoming.”
After divorcing his first wife in 1988, Buhari married Aisha Halilu on December 2, 1989.
