Even as Chief of Staff, some Ministers bypassed me to reach Buhari – Gambari

Former Chief of Staff to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, has opened up about how a close-knit group of individuals within Buhari’s inner circle bypassed official protocols to influence presidential decisions by smuggling memos directly to him.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Inside Sources on Friday, the former UN special envoy revealed that despite Buhari’s clear directive that all official communications should pass through the Chief of Staff, some individuals exploited their familiarity with the late president to sneak in unofficial memos.

“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, to his credit, always passed his memos through me,” Gambari explained.

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He added, “Several ministers did the same, 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 came back to me.”

Gambari, who took office in May 2020 following the death of his predecessor, Abba Kyari, said some of Buhari’s appointees exploited the president’s accessibility during informal interactions to push their agendas.

Reflecting on Buhari’s leadership, Gambari described the late president as compassionate and deeply committed to his cabinet and the country.

He said this attachment to his team members contributed to Buhari’s unwillingness to remove non-performing appointees, despite growing public pressure.

“Buhari loved his appointees and Nigerians, and he gave his best to serve the country,” Gambari said.

The former diplomat confirmed the existence of a cabal during Buhari’s presidency, likening it to the informal advisory circles, often called kitchen cabinets or think tanks, that exist in most administrations.

“They say there was a cabal—there was. Every government has a cabal. Some have more powers than others, but I’m bold to say every government has a cabal of some kind,” he stated.

He further explained that the cabal’s influence was not unique to Buhari’s democratic rule.

As a minister in the 1980s, Gambari said he learned that military officers in the Supreme Military Council were uncomfortable with the influence Buhari’s civilian advisers had on his decisions, contributing to his eventual ousting in 1985.

“Even in the military regime, he had advisers outside the military, and some of his colleagues didn’t like that,” Gambari recalled.

Muhammadu Buhari, born December 17, 1942, first led Nigeria as a military ruler from 1984 to 1985 before returning as a democratically elected president from 2015 to 2023. He passed away on July 13, 2025, at the age of 82.