By Austin Ogwuda
BARELY six months after leaving office after serving for two terms of eight years, the immediate past President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari, has at last, confessed that his administration was run by a certain powerful cabal while held hostage.
He made the startling revelation during an interview with the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, monitored by The Pond News in Asaba, Delta State capital.
Asked by NTA Reporter if a cabal actually hijacked his administration, Buhari confessed thus, “it must have been. Nigerians are extremely difficult. People know their rights. They think they should be there, not you, so they monitor virtually every step. And you have to struggle day and night to ensure that you are competent enough.
“God gave me the opportunity to serve my country but I did my best. But whether my best was good enough, I leave people to judge”, said Buhari.
Recall that on the 25th of December 2018, President Buhari challenged the wife’s outburst that her husband was held hostage by cabal, demanding that the wife should provide convincing evidence for the claim that his government was run by a cabal.
Buhari while speaking then during that interview with Voice of America, Hausa Service countered the wife’s claim.
The wife, Aisha Buhari, during an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation, Hausa Service, had first alleged that her husband was being controlled by a cabal.
According to her, “The President does not know 45 out of 50 of the people he appointed and I don’t know them either, despite being his wife of 27 years. Some people are sitting down in their homes folding their arms only for them to be called to come and head an agency or a ministerial position”.
She had threatened not to campaign for him (husband) if things continued that way while the President dismissed that statement saying that his wife belonged to the kitchen and the “other room”.
Also speaking at a leadership summit in Abuja earlier in that same December 2018 ( digging into the archive), the audacious Mrs Buhari challenged Nigerians to fight the “two or three people who have dominated this government”.
She said, “Our votes were 15.4 million in the last (presidential) election and after that only for us to be dominated by two people… this is totally unacceptable.
“If 15.4 million people can bring in a government and only for the government to be dominated by two people or three people, where are the men of Nigeria? Where are the Nigerian men? What are you doing?
“Instead of them to come together and fight them, they keep visiting them one after the other licking their shoes I am sorry to use those words”.
Buhari likewise, dismissed it in a chat with VOA.The Reporter had asked him “have you heard of the word cabal? So many people have spoken about the cabal; alleging that there are a few people in charge of this administration, that you are not the one in charge. Even your wife said something about this recently?
In response, President Buhari said, “That’s her (my wife) business. It shows I am a real democrat. What they are saying is different from what is happening. They (those making these allegations) should come out and say those things they feel were stage-managed by the cabal, which I was forced to do. They should mention just one thing”, Buhari stated.
