President Muhammadu Buhari has said that he lost two children to sickle cell disease.
The president disclosed this on Friday at a dinner organised by his family, friends and associates to mark his 80th birthday. Buhari clocked 80 on December 17, 2022, and was away in Washington DC for the United States-Africa leaders summit.
Speaking on his life, Buhari said two of his children, which he had with his first wife Safinatu, died from sickle cell complications.
He said this forced him to perform genotype test when he was marrying his second wife Aisha Buhari in 1989.
He insisted on marrying a wife whose genotype is AA, to avoid having children that will be carrying the disease since his genotype was AS.
Buhari married Safinatu – now late – in 1971 and the had five children together. Musa (late), Zulaihat (late), Fatima, Khadijah (Nana) and Safinatu (Lami).
Dateline Nigeria reports that the late Zulaihatu, also known as Magajiya, was Buhari’s first daughter whom he named after his late mother. She died in 2012 after giving birth to a baby girl through Caesarean Section (CS) at a hospital in Kaduna.
Buhari’s present wife Aisha gave birth to five children and they are all alive. They are Halima, Yusuf, Zarah, Aisha (Hanan) and Amina (Nur). All the president’s children are university graduates and married except the youngest Nur, who is still in school.
It would be recalled that President Buhari, while speaking during the last Eid of Kabir in Daura, Katsina State, said he had told his children, particularly the girls, that they can only get married after getting a first degree.
