‘They Knew His Weak Point’ – Gambari Reveals How Cabal Members Smuggled Memos To Buhari

Former Chief of Staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Gambari, has revealed that some members of the former president’s inner circle frequently bypassed official channels to smuggle memos directly to him.

Naija

Gambari, who served as Chief of Staff from May 2020 until the end of Buhari’s administration in May 2023, made the disclosure during an interview on Channels Television’s Inside Sources programme on Friday.

 “They knew his weak moment, they knew when to smuggle [memos] because they knew him as they interacted with him informally,” Gambari stated.

The former United Nations diplomat said Buhari, upon appointing him Chief of Staff following the death of his predecessor, Abba Kyari, publicly declared that all memos must pass through the Chief of Staff before reaching the president.

He said, “Even the Vice President (Yemi Osinbajo), to his credit, always passed his memos through me, as did several ministers.

“But our people still got their memos to him from behind because they knew his weak point and who to use. He never stopped them. But the advantage I had was that the memos eventually came back to me.”

The former Chief of Staff confirmed that Buhari had a group of influential individuals, often referred to as a cabal, who wielded considerable influence in shaping the president’s views and decisions.

He said, “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).

“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.”