Former Chief of Staff to the late President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, has disclosed that certain influential individuals within the presidency bypassed official channels to deliver memos directly to the former leader.
Gambari made this revelation during an interview on Channels Television’s Inside Sources programme aired on Friday.
Gambari, who served as Buhari’s chief of staff from May 13, 2020, until the end of the administration on May 29, 2023, explained that members of the president’s inner circle exploited their close relationship with Buhari to exert influence.
“They knew his weak moment, they knew when to smuggle (memos) because they knew him as they interacted with him informally,” Gambari said.
He added that upon assuming office, Buhari had made it clear that all official communications should pass through the Chief of Staff.
“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,” he stated.
Gambari also commended then Vice President Yemi Osinbajo for adhering to the directive.
“Even the Vice President (Yemi Osinbajo), to his credit, always passed his memos through me and several ministers, but 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 explained.
