How Cabal Bypassed Me, Smuggled Memos Directly To Buhari - Gambari

 Ibrahim Gambari, former chief of staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, says some members of the president’s “cabal” bypassed official protocol to get memos directly to him, Daily Watch Nigeria reports.

Speaking on Channels Television’s programme, Inside Sources, Gambari said that despite Buhari’s directive that all official communications be routed through the chief of staff, influential individuals within his inner circle found ways to sidestep the order.

“They knew his weak moment, they knew when to smuggle [memos] because

they knew him as they interacted with him informally,” Gambari 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.”

Gambari noted that despite the backdoor channels, many memos still ended up on his desk, allowing him a degree of oversight.

“Even the vice-president [Yemi Osinbajo], to his credit, always passed his memos through me and several ministers, but our people [cabal] still got their memos to him from behind because they knew his weak point and who to use,” he said.

“He never stopped them, but the advantage I had was that the memos came back to me.”

Gambari, a former UN special envoy, was late Buhari’s chief of staff between 2020 and 2023.

Buhari, who died on Sunday at a London clinic, United Kingdom (UK), was buried on Tuesday in his hometown, Daura, Katsina state.

‘EVERY PRESIDENCY HAS A CABAL’

Gambari said the cabal, which is synonymous with a think tank or “kitchen cabinet ” on which a president relies, was not peculiar to Buhari’s presidency.

“They say there’s a cabal or was a cabal — there was, but every government has a cabal. It is what they call them,” he said.

“Some call it ‘kitchen cabinet’, some may call it ‘think tank’. Obasanjo had a group of people, the Aboyades of this world and others, and a small group of people.

“It is the nature of the office of president that they must have some people in and out of government that they can lay their hair down, talk to freely.

“So, some have more powers than others, but every government, I make it bold say, has a cabal of one kind of or whatever name it is called.”