Fatima Buhari, daughter of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari, has alleged that her father’s signature was forged on official documents during his time in office.
Gatekeepers News reports that Fatima made the claim in “From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari,” a biography written by Charles Omole.
A forensic auditor, Fatima said she personally reviewed several official documents and identified signatures purportedly belonging to her father that were not genuine. She said she showed the documents to Buhari, pointing out the discrepancies.
According to the book, similar concerns about forged presidential signatures had been raised by others during Buhari’s administration.
Fatima, however, noted that the problem was not exclusive to her father’s tenure, adding that previous administrations had also grappled with similar issues of forgery and bureaucratic abuse.
‘Altered Statements, Speeches’
The biography also quoted Fatima as revealing that some of Buhari’s speeches and official directives were altered after he had given approval.
Recounting one incident during an official trip to the United States, the book said Buhari discovered that a speech handed to him had been changed without his consent.
“During a trip to the United States, the president spoke at a small conference. Fatima sat in the hall, watching him read. ‘You were stopping,’ she told him later. ‘It’s unlike you.’ He responded quietly: the text in his hands was not the speech he had approved. Someone had altered it. It was not a rare occurrence, he said. That day, he put the script aside and spoke in his own words,” the book stated.
The author added that the family later came to recognise a pattern in which presidential directives were diluted or rephrased as documents moved through the bureaucracy.
“This was the kind of misrepresentation the family came to recognise: directives diluted in transit, statements rephrased to suit other agendas, the subtle deformation of intent as paper moved from desk to desk. It was not always sabotage; sometimes, it was the slip of a large bureaucracy. However, sometimes it was the work of a clique,” the book noted.
‘Buhari Felt He Was Being Spied On’
The book further revealed that Buhari believed his office and residence at the Presidential Villa were wiretapped, leading him to sometimes communicate non-verbally with his daughter.
“A daughter and her father sit quietly together. He makes a small gesture, touching his cheek as if he has a toothache, and signals that they shouldn’t speak aloud. He believes ‘they’ have a listening device planted (‘like a chip’) in his office at the Villa,” the book said.
According to the account, Buhari and his daughter sometimes resorted to writing notes to each other to avoid being overheard.
“Instead, they write messages to each other on paper, like spies in a film. He warns her to be cautious; he says he is, too. This isn’t melodrama but a way for the family to cope, having learned to mistrust the walls around them,” the author wrote.
The biography added that some security chiefs who served under Buhari reportedly confirmed discovering unusual objects in the president’s office and bedroom during routine security sweeps.
