Former Chief of Staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, has disclosed that despite Buhari’s directive that all official memos must pass through his office, some members of the president’s inner circle secretly bypassed him to reach Buhari directly.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Friday, Gambari said certain appointees exploited what he described as the former president’s “weak point” to deliver memos informally.
“They knew his weak moments, they knew when to smuggle (memos) because they knew him as they interacted with him informally,” Gambari revealed.
Gambari, who served as Chief of Staff from May 2020 to May 2023 following the death of his predecessor, Abba Kyari, explained that Buhari himself had laid down a clear procedure.
“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 said.
He noted that some top officials complied fully with the directive.
“Even the Vice President (Yemi Osinbajo), to his credit, always passed his memos through me and several ministers,” he said.
However, Gambari admitted that others deliberately went behind him.
“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.
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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.”
Gambari, who previously served as foreign affairs minister under Buhari’s military regime in the 1980s, also reflected on the president’s decision-making style.
He said Buhari was deeply loyal to his appointees and reluctant to fire anyone, even in the face of mounting pressure.