My father suspected his Aso Villa office was bugged

Fatima Buhari, daughter of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, has revealed that her father once believed his office in the Presidential Villa was under secret surveillance.

Fatima disclosed this in a new book, From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, written by the Director-General of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research, Dr Charles Omole, and unveiled in Abuja on Monday.

In the book, she revealed that the suspicion led her and her late father to communicate by writing notes rather than speaking.

She added that there were occasions when Buhari feared conversations in his office were being monitored, prompting unusual precautions during their interactions.

The late former president’s daughter recalled one such meeting in which her father avoided speaking altogether and instead relied on gestures to communicate, signalling that they should write down their messages.

“He touched his cheek, like he had a toothache, and signalled that we shouldn’t talk. We wrote notes to each other, like spies in a film,” she said.

According to her, the former president believed listening devices had been planted in his office at the Villa and warned her to remain cautious, noting that he himself was always on guard.

The book presents the episode not as theatrics, but as a coping mechanism in an environment where trust was strained and privacy uncertain.