Zulaihatu Was My Life – Husband Of Buhari late Daughter

Captain Junaidu Abdullahi, widower of the late daughter of former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,   Hajiya Zulaihatu, has described his wife’s death as the most painful thing to happen to him.
Abdullahi, who finds it difficult to come to term with the loss of his wife, spoke with our correspondents at the residence of the Buharis in Kaduna yesterday.
He said: ‘’It is not an easy thing to lose a wife who has just given birth to a child. Regrettably, the new baby boy will now grow up without his mother who brought him to this world.
“This is the most difficult and hardest moment for me. It is a very painful experience one can imagine. It is very difficult for me at this moment to say anything. My heart is heavy and I really don’t have a word to express my feelings. Maybe with time, my heart will be healed.”
The widower also described his late wife as a very kind, caring, religious persons, saying that it was also worthy of note that she was very close to her father.
Abdullahi said: “He (Gen. Buhari) talks to her almost every day. He will call her and tell her of any decision he intended to take.
Her father so much trusted her, and always consulted her as a kind of father-daughter affair. I respect the love he had for her and the love she had for Gen. Buhari. I will really miss her, only time will tell. I pray to Allah to reward her with Aljannah Firdaus.’’
The late Zulaihatu’s cousin, Hajiya Binta Ahmed Dauda, also paid glowing tribute to the deceased, saying she would be greatly missed by the family.
She said: “She is my cousin, and the best friend one can ever have. She always called her friends, relatives as she had time for all. She always smiled and all her younger ones depended on her.
“We have been together for the past 25 years, we were very close.  We attended Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) together.
Although she was a year ahead of me, she left her friends in school to stay with me but she was always in touch with her friends. Magajiya accommodated me and everything of hers we shared.
“There is nothing I can say except to pray for her. May Allah join our faces in Aljannat.”
Hajiya Dauda continued: “She (Zulaihatu) listened to all, visited all and always looked at her wrist watch whenever she came to my house, and I can recall the moment I asked her, ‘you have started watching your  wrist watch,’ she would smile and reply, ‘ Binta, I  want to visit someone, a friend or a relative.’
Meanwhile, prominent personalities have paid condolence visits to Gen Buhari at his Kaduna residence and the widower. Some of the symphatisers included Kaduna State Governor Patrick Yakowa and the Shehu of Borno, Alhaji Garbai El-Kanemi, former Speaker, House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Masari, Senator Ahmed Mohammed Makarfi, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, Col. Hamid Ali (rtd), Buba Galadima, Abba Kyari, Musa Bello, Dr. Mahmud Tukur, Ibrahim Kure, Haruna Sa’eed, Senator Abu Ali, Hon. Mohammed Ali, Hon. Bala Inusa, Tukur Mamu. And AVM Muktar Mohammed.