How cabal smuggled memos to Buhari behind me – Prof Gambari

How cabal smuggled memos to Buhari behind me – Prof Gambari

 

Former Chief of Staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, has admitted that his ex-boss had a small circle of trusted people called cabal that routinely by-passed him to deliver memos directly to the President, despite clear directives to the contrary.

Speaking on Channels TV’s Inside Sources on Friday, Gambari said although Buhari directed that all official communications should be routed through him, some officials took advantage of their informal access to the President.

“They knew his weak moments. They knew when to smuggle (memos) because they knew him as they interacted with him informally,” he said.

He recalled, “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.

“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).”