Nigeria’s first lady Aisha Buhari’s new pictures are fuelling pregnancy rumour across the country, with Nigerians wondering if she is actually expecting a baby.
In one of the photos Mrs Buhari, alongside her husband, President Muhamadu Buhari, was surrounded by security officials, with one of them carrying her handbags.
In a yellow lace kaftan and a brown shawl draped over what appeared like a baby bump, 50-year-old Mrs Buhari tenderly placed her right hand on it.
Another image showed the first couple seated in a plane. A zoom-in on Mrs Buhari shows a full face like that of a pregnant woman, different from her usual robust youthful visage.
A third picture showed the couple on the plane’s stairs, with an apparent baby bump as the first lady gently stepped down the flight of stairs.
“Is Aisha Buhari pregnant or what is in her stomach,” a curious Twitter user @Promise, said.
Another Twitter user, @Solowizzy also commented on the photos, stating, “Nigerians, what do you think about this pictures? Aisha Buhari is obviously pregnant.”
In a hilarious tweet, @Alamin97296003 congratulated 79-year-old Mr Buhari for his “hard work.”
“Aisha Buhari is pregnant. Baba Buhari a hard worker,” the Twitter user stated.
If pregnant, Mrs Buhari, already a grandmother, will be the first president’s wife known to be pregnant while her husband is in power and will likely be the first to give birth in the Presidential Villa.
It is also expected that Mr Buhari’s supporters will use it as a political point that the incumbent president is virile despite being assailed by ill health over the years since assuming power in 2015.
Mrs Buhari’s spokesperson, Suleiman Haruna, did not respond when contacted him for comments regarding the pregnancy rumour surrounding the first lady’s latest pictures.
This month, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie announced the birth of a baby girl at a London hospital.
Before her daughter’s wedding in September 2020, the first lady of Africa’s most populous nation, according to media reports, had been out of the country for a couple of months. There were claims she had relocated to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Some have linked her continued disappearance from the public, especially accompanying her husband, Mr Buhari, to Daura, to domestic squabbles in the Presidential Villa.