Prof Ibrahim Gambari, former Chief of Staff to the late ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, has confirmed that unnamed cabal members were taking some steps contrary to the then president’s directives.
Gambari said they went as far as undermining his office by bypassing him to smuggle memos to the former president.
He said this was against Buhari’s explicit directive that every memo must pass through his office as the Chief of Staff.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Inside Sources programme on Friday, Gambari said “They knew his weak moment, they knew when to smuggle (memos) because they knew him as they interacted with him informally.”
He confirmed that upon his assumption of office, Buhari ordered that every memo must pass through him, adding that while some, including then vice president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo complied, the cabal members bypassed him.
“When I came as Chief of Staff to the President, he made a statement publicly. He said all memos must go through the Chief of Staff before coming to him.
“Even the Vice President (Yemi Osinbajo), to his credit, always passed his memos through me and several minister but our people still got their memos to him from behind because they knew his weak point and who to use and he never stopped them but the advantage I had was that the memos came back to me,” the diplomat stated.
He further disclosed that Buhari’s love for the people made him not to sack non-performing ministers despite wide calls.
Gambari, who replaced late Abba Kyari, was Buhari’s Chief of Staff from May 13, 2020, to May 29, 2023.
NATIONAL POST reports that this revelation confirms the outcry from Buhari’s wife, Aisha, that a certain cabal has hijacked her husband’s government.
Prior to the 2019 general elections, Aisha had threatened not to campaign with Buhari if he did not do something about the cabal.
She revealed that the cabal was in charge of everything, including appointments.
Aisha told BBC Hausa that Buhari’s government has been hijacked by cabal who are “behind presidential appointments”.
“He is yet to tell me, but I have decided as his wife, that if things continue like this up to 2019, I will not go out and campaign again and ask any woman to vote like I did before. I will never do it again.”.
“I may not back him at the next election unless he shakes up his government’.
“The President does not know 45 out of 50, for example, of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either despite being his wife for 27 years.”
“Some people are sitting down at their homes folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or ministerial position,” she said then.