Former Chief of Staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, has revealed that members of Buhari’s inner circle routinely bypassed him to deliver memos directly to the president, despite clear directives to the contrary.
Gambari was appointed Buhari’s Chief of Staff in May 2020 following the death of Abba Kyari.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Friday, Gambari explained that although Buhari instructed all official communications to be routed through him, some officials took advantage of informal access to the president.
“They knew his weak moment, they knew when to smuggle (memos) because they knew him as they interacted with him informally,” Gambari said.
Recounting the president’s public instruction upon his appointment, he said: “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 ministers, 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,” he added.
Gambari also spoke about the existence of a power bloc within Buhari’s presidency, often referred to as a cabal.
“They say there was a cabal, there was. Every government has a cabal. They may call them a kitchen cabinet; they may call them a think tank.
“(Former President Olusegun) Obasanjo had a group of people. The Aboyades of this world and others – a small group of people. It’s the nature of the office of the president that they must have some people in and out of government whom they can let their guard down to and talk to freely.
“Some have more powers than others, but I’m bold to say that every government has a cabal of some kind or another, whatever name it is called. So, there was (a cabal under Buhari).”
Reflecting on Buhari’s leadership style, Gambari recalled his earlier experience as Foreign Affairs Minister during Buhari’s military regime, and shared insights into why the president was removed in 1985.
“I was a minister 1884-1985 but I wasn’t privy to why he was removed by his colleagues; they put him there but one of the reasons I’m told was the military people were resenting the fact that Head of State Buhari was now getting a lot of advice and second-guessing the decision of his military colleagues – the Supreme Military Council,” he said.
Gambari further noted that Buhari was fiercely loyal to his appointees and often hesitant to sack them, even under significant pressure.
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