Why I will not remarry after Buhari’s demise — Aisha

Former First Lady Aisha Buhari says she has no plans to remarry, describing the decision as pragmatic, not moralistic.

“She will not remarry, she says, almost with a shrug,” she told Dr Charles Omole, author of the new 600-page biography titled ‘From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari’, unveiled at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.

It added, “It is not a moral pronouncement so much as a pragmatic one: she has grandchildren; one husband was enough.”

The 22-chapter work chronicled Buhari’s early life in Daura, Katsina state, until his final hours in a London hospital in mid-July 2025.

It framed her stance as a refusal of cultural binaries that cast widows as either betrayers or saints.

“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 explained.

Outlining the next chapter of her life, the former First Lady says she plans a quieter public life, splitting her time between family, philanthropy 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,” the book noted.

Omole portrayed Mrs. Buhari’s choice as a personal reset after years in the 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.

“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.

“In 2014, she was entrusted with meeting the nation’s expectations; by 2014, she was excluded from acknowledgement,” it further read.

After his divorce in 1988, Buhari married Aisha Buhari (nee Halilu) on December 2, 1989.

Aisha, born in 1971 in Adamawa State, became First Lady when Buhari returned to power in 2015.

They were married for 35 years and had five children.