If there was any pain, or regret, that former President Muhammadu Buhari took with him when he left office, it was his administration’s inability to resolve the daunting security challenges massed against the country before his administration expired on May 29, 2023. It was one regret the later President took to his grave.
The revelation was made by a man who was in the thick of it all and who should know: Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023), Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
While fielding questions on Channels Television, during the station’s flagship political programme, Politics Today, on Monday, he sensationally disclosed that the late Nigerian leader was seriously unhappy that he could not resolve the country’s security challenges before he left office.
Gambari, an iconic scholar-diplomat who previously served as Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations (1990 to 1999), and minister of external affairs (1984 to 1985) lamented that although Buhari made significant progress in degrading Boko Haram and reclaiming territories once held by insurgents, lingering insecurity in other regions weighed heavily on him.
“One of the things that pained him the most is that he was unable to do more about the security situation in the country before he left.,” he told the anchor, Seun Okinbaloye.
“He did a lot by making sure that no territory of Nigeria was under Boko Haram.”
The former Chief of Staff, however, noted that the persistence of banditry and violent attacks in the North-West and parts of the North-Central regions remained a major concern for the former president.
“The situation in the North-West, in the North-Central, even in banditry, it pained him a lot,” Gambari continued, “And he felt, ‘I’ve done everything I can for these people.’ He even said at some point that maybe the base was not good enough.”
Gambari also responded to a claim by the Minister of Defence, Gen. Christopher Musa (also on Channels Television) that the recently aborted coup plot against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu actually started before the expiration of the Buhari Administration.
Pointedly, Gambari said he was unaware of any such intelligence reaching President Buhari through his office.
“Honestly, I’m not aware of that,” he declared. “The president had many sources of information. The Chief of Staff is probably a principal one, but not the only one. He could have received information that I was not privy to.”
The former Chief of Staff also explained that Buhari, as a former military head of state who later became a democratically elected president, maintained strong ties with the armed forces but “operated within constitutional limits.”
Gambari offered insights into Buhari’s leadership style, describing him as “loyal to individuals who contributed to his personal and political development.”
He stated categorically that those who benefited most from Nigeria were often the least committed to its progress.
On the issue of power dynamics, Gambari stated that every president has a cabal, noting that the cabal under Buhari knew their limitations.
On pre-2023 presidential politics, the former Chief of Staff said He also revealed that Buhari never believed in imposing a successor, and that he strongly maintained that the choice of presidential candidate be left to party and the electorate to decide.
