I lost two children to sickle cell anaemia — Buhari

The president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has revealed that he lost two children to sickle cell anaemia from his late first wife, Safinatu Buhari.

Safinatu was a Nigerian teacher and First Lady of Nigeria from 1983 to 1985. She was the first wife of Muhammadu Buhari.

She met Muhammadu Buhari at the age of 14 and they married in 1971 when she was 18. They had 5 children namely; Zulaihatu (deceased), Magajiya-Fatima, Hadizatu-Nana, Safinatu Lami and Musa (deceased).

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When Muhammadu Buhari’s government was overthrown by Ibrahim Babangida, she relocated to Kaduna with her children. However, they divorced in 1988.

The President made this statement during the feature of a documentary titled, ‘Essential Muhammadu Buhari’ shown on Friday night at a private dinner organised by his family and very closed associates to celebrate his 80th birthday tagged “Celebrating A Patriot, a Leader, an Elder Statesman”.

Buhari stated how he made a conscious effort that his next wife, Aisha, had to have the AA genotype so ‘his children will not inherit the ‘S’ from his AS genotype’

President Buhari said he had insisted that his second wife must be AA genotype so that his children will not inherit the S from his AS genotype, having lost two of his children by his late wife to sickle cell anaemia.