EXCLUSIVE: Why Buhari Picked Gambari As Chief Of Staff — How Cabal Was Sidelined

No member of the so-called Aso Villa Cabal had an input in the selection of the new Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, top level sources knowledgeable about the selection process disclosed last night.

Precisely, Aso Villa sources indicate that the selection of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari was already a fait accompli as soon as the post became vacant because the President had pencilled Gambari as a potential Chief of Staff since after the 2019 elections in a bid to inject new life into the presidential team and with an eye on his legacy beyond 2023.

However, the odds eventually favored the late Chief of Staff after several Emirs counseled that Mallam Abba Kyari be allowed to continue with the job since he was still much interested and is already well trusted for the job.

In fact Alhaji Mamman Daura who brought Kyari to serious reckoning for the job in 2015 was not as keen on his fate again in 2019, but suggestions that the refusal by the President not to reappoint Kyari after the May 2019 inauguration might shame Kyari and bring him in bad light is why the President did not demur to the counsel of the traditional rulers to stick with the late Chief of Staff.

So after Kyari gave up the ghost on infecting the Corona Virus, the President was in the clear on who to push forward for the top Aso Villa aide slot.

Besides, the revelation of the excesses of the former COS through a memo by the National Security Adviser, according to a presidency source, had weakened the moral suasion of Mallam Abba Kyari in the sight of the President, who nonetheless sought to upbraid Kyari instead of removing him outrightly.

“So when Kyari passed the President needed someone he could trust outside of the so-called Cabal and outside of the group of other well-known contenders against the Cabal, such as the First Lady, Education Minister and Col Hammed Alli and others. But he had come very close to that decision way back after 2019 election as he looked forward to his 2023 legacy narratives,” sources explained last night.

The source explained that what many people don’t understand about the President is that he is not only a process-oriented public official but also very methodical.

Say the sources, “when he had to remove and replace Babachir Lawal as SGF, he settled for the person who came second when he drew up the list in 2015. That again is what happened in the choice of a new Chief of Staff.”

Also unknown to many, while Gambari had not been so visible in the Buhari administration, he has always numbered among the very few people the President always trusted and to whom the President granted unfettered personal access all through the years. But the immediate past, late Chief of Staff did not particularly welcome the relationship between Buhari and Gambari, especially on the official levels.

Now, according to the sources, a new kitchen cabinet is emerging around the President with the emergence of Gambari as the Chief of Staff, with indications that the compact knit of trusted aides of closest advisers would now be dominated by Gambari, the NSA General Baba Gana Munguno, and SGF Boss Mustapha, while many in the Villa now expect an effective synergy with the office of the Vice President unlike under the previous circumstances.

As the new COS reports for work in full today, having just attended only FEC last week, it is believed that remnants of the Cabal have resolved not to allow itself to be consigned and are pulling strings around the new Chief of Staff to draft him and co-opt him. But there is at least one member of the Cabal, who was also keenly interested in the job but lost out and is known to be an arch-enemy of the new Chief of Staff. The Cabal member who was also a former diplomat is said not to be interested in conceding the battle so soon “by drafting Gambari into the circle of the Cabal.”