Former Chief of Staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, has revealed previously unknown details about the inner workings of the Buhari presidency, shedding light on how influential individuals circumvented official channels to gain direct access to the president.

 

Speaking in a candid interview aired Friday on Channels Television’s Inside Sources, Gambari, who served as Chief of Staff from May 2020 to May 2023, disclosed that despite President Buhari’s public insistence that all communications be routed through the Chief of Staff, some insiders bypassed this directive by exploiting personal familiarity and informal access.

 

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

 

Although he made efforts to centralize the flow of information, Gambari acknowledged that President Buhari did little to discourage the practice. “He never stopped them,” he noted. “But the advantage I had was that the memos came back to me.”

 

Gambari commended some top officials, particularly former Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, for adhering strictly to protocol. “Even the Vice President, to his credit, always passed his memos through me,” he said, adding that several ministers showed the same discipline.

 

The former diplomat also addressed one of the most persistent narratives of the Buhari era — the influence of a powerful “cabal” operating within and around the presidency.

 

“Every government has a cabal,” he stated. “They may call them a kitchen cabinet; they may call them a think tank. But 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.”

 

He emphasized that while such informal groups exist in every administration, their level of influence varies. “Some have more powers than others, but I’m bold to say that every government has a cabal of some kind or another,” Gambari said.

 

Gambari’s remarks come in the wake of President Buhari’s death last Sunday at a clinic in London, United Kingdom. Buhari, who served as a military ruler in the 1980s before returning as a democratically elected president, led Nigeria from 2015 to 2023 across two terms.

 

He appointed Gambari as Chief of Staff following the death of Abba Kyari in April 2020. The role placed Gambari at the heart of presidential decision-making during the final years of Buhari’s tenure.

 

The interview has sparked renewed debate about informal power structures within Nigeria’s leadership, raising fresh questions about transparency, accountability, and the enduring influence of behind-the-scenes actors in the country’s democratic institutions.