Nigeria’s First Lady, Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, has recalled how she helped her husband deal with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, after the civil War and the electoral losses he suffered.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Armed Forces Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Centre, AFPTSDC, organised by the Police Officers’ Wives Association, DEPOWA, Mrs Buhari said the experience was not an easy one.
According to her, the need to help the president overcome his experiences at the early stage of their marriage made her become a physiotherapist.
She said: “My husband served the Nigerian Army for 27 years before he was overthrown in a coup d’état.
“He fought a civil war for 30 months without rehabilitation; he ruled Nigeria for 20 months and was detained for 40 months without disclosing the nature of his offence.
“One year after he came out from detention, we were married, I clocked 19 years in his house as his wife, legitimately.
“I suffered the consequences of PTSD, because having gone through all these, and at the age of 19, to handle somebody, who was a former Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces, to tell him that he is wrong is the first mistake you will make.
“So, at the age of 19, I had to figure out how to tell somebody of his calibre that he was wrong or right and that was the beginning of my offence in his house, and contesting elections in 2003 and failed; in 2007 and failed and in 2011, the same thing – all without rehabilitation – I became a physiotherapist.”
