•Seven strong men around Buhari
Masters of intrigues, plots
‘They’re vestiges of Kaduna Mafia’
FLASH BACK
Once upon a time, Nigeria was under the influence of a
group known as the Kaduna Mafia. It was a group of politicians, young
intellectuals, top civil servants, businessmen and high ranking military
officers from the northern part of the country.
It was believed to had operated from Kaduna, the capital city of the defunct Northern Region.
They
were so powerful that no key decision of the government, including
appointments in the civil and security services could be executed
without their knowledge.
The Kaduna Mafia held the levers of
power and influence in Nigeria right from the 1966 counter-coup down to
the rebirth of democracy in 1999.
They toppled every government
that did not have their imprimatur during that era and any attempt to
topple governments installed by them was treated as a rebellion and
brutally crushed.
Many of its members were educated at the famous
Barewa College and possesed a certain level of managerial competence.
They were known for their intelligence, commitment to the traditional
values and socio- political and economic interests of Northern Nigeria.
The
group thrived on a robust network of alliances among northern
aristocrats and top government functionaries who favoured the group’s
northern and Islamic bent. Although it operated like a cult and had no
open register, some famous names associated with the group include,
Adamu Ciroma, Mamman Daura, Ibrahim Tahir, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, Mahmud
Tukur and Mohammadu Buhari.
THE CABAL
In the last two and
half years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, a lot of
strange and unimaginable things have happened around the corridors of
power.
Although many Nigerians from across regional divides made
enormous sacrifices to ensure that All Progressives Congress (APC) won
the historic election that brought Buhari to power, his famous “I Belong
To Everybody and I Belong To Nobody” declaration in his inaugural
address was a shocker to many of his benefactors who thought they were
equal stakeholders in the new administration by virtue of their sweat
and toil during the electioneering campaigns.
By the time, Buhari
made his first set of appointments, political pundits were quick to
identify that he actually belonged not to every Nigerian. It soon became
apparent that his words and actions were guided by an informal group he
had assembled to work with him.
In essence, those who are
familiar with this shadowy group believe that they are behind the many
controversial appointments of the Buhari administration. They are the
brains behind the absolute secrecy surrounding the health of President
Buhari and his frequent trips abroad to seek medicare.
They are
the Cabal, a congregation of very close family members, trusted friends
and political associates. They share a common ideology of holding
strongly to political power and advancing the economic interests of the
group and the North. They are an offshoot of the once dreaded Kaduna
Mafia.
Earlier in the year when President Muhammadu Buhari’s
health deteriorated and he was flown abroad to receive medical care, a
member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Dr. Junaid Mohammed, had
accused some key officials of the Presidency of manipulating the
situation for their own selfish reasons.
Mohammed, a medical
doctor and former member of the House of Representatives, argued that by
denying Nigerians free access to the President and keeping the status
of his health as a secret, the officials whom he referred to as the
cabal in Aso Rock were working behind the scene to feather their own
nests.
According to him, the cabal was an offshoot of the once
dreaded Kaduna Mafia which held sway in the 1980s, adding that, its
members were exploiting the poor health status of the President by
getting him to sign away huge contracts worth billions of dollars.
In
an exclusive interview with Sunday Telegraph, Mohammed named one Mamman
Daura, said to be a nephew to President Buhari as the head of the
cabal. According to him, Daura is being assisted by Alhaji Abba Kyari,
the Chief of Staff to the President. He also named the then Secretary to
the Government of the Federation , Mr Babachir Lawal, as a member of
the group.
Mohammed said Nigerians should not blame anybody but
Buhari himself and the people he brought into power for whatever mess
his administration is recording because “these people” will continue to
hold Buhari and the whole of Nigeria captive.
First Lady, Hajia
Aisha Buhari, had an interview with the BBC, Hausa Service, where she
alluded to the presence of a group who have held her husband captive.
Although she did not give any names, her description of the modus
operandi of the group perfectly tallies with what Junaid Mohammed had
told the world.
Members of the cabal have unfettered access to
the President and they are usually abreast of his thinking and policy
directions. They are his ardent supporters who do the odd jobs to
safeguard the regime. They have their hands in every pie and have been
fingered in most controversies, scams and scandals that have bedevilled
the current administration.
Profile of those Nigerians believed to be member of the Cabal in Aso Rock.
•MAMMAN DAURA
Alhaji
Mamman Daura, is an uncle to President Muhammadu Buhari. Although Daura
is two and half years older than the President, the nephew-uncle
relationship has been extremely close and dates back to their childhood
years. For the two men, it has been bond of blood and mutual respect.
It
is said that Buhari had always listened to and confided in Mamman Daura
because of the mutual trust both men had cultivated over the years.
However, critics say the relationship is too close for comfort because
it has practically made Mamman Daura the defacto President in the
current administration.
Daura is said to have studied Economics but went into journalism and rose to become Editor of The New Nigerian in the 1970s.
When
the then Major Geberal Muhammadu Buhari overthrew the democratically
elected government of President Shehu Shagari in 1983, Daura was one of
the few people that Buhari trusted enough to give principal advisory
roles. He later served as Head of the African International Bank and
also chairman of the board of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
Mamman
Daura is alleged to have influenced most of the controversial
appointments President Buhari made since the administration came into
power. Daura was the one who singlehandedly brought up Abba Kyari, the
current Chief of Staff to the President. No doubt, he simply brought
into his uncle’s administration, his foster son.
He has no
official portfolio in this administration but reportedly maintains an
office in one of the guest houses in the Villa, popularly referred to as
the Glass House. He parades a large retinue of staff and a fleet of
official cars.
The story was told of how the wife of the
President (Aisha) and her children once confronted Daura and blamed him
for all the negative image the government had acquired, warning him to
stay away from their husband and father. Perhaps, what they do not know
is that Aisha may have known her husband for about thirty nine years but
Buhari and Daura have maintained their bond of brotherhood for nearly
more years.
•ABBA KYARI
Abba Kyari was born in 1938. He
had his early Education at Borno Middle School and Barewa College,
Zaria. He holds a Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the University of
Cambridge and the University of Warwick in Law and Sociology. In 1959 he
enlisted in the Nigerian Army as an Officer Cadet and attended the 12th
Regular Officers’ Training School, Teshia, Ghana from March 1959 –
September 1959.
Kyari proceeded to the Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot, England where he had training from October 1959 to March 1960.
He
held various appointments in the army, including Platoon Commander and
then Transport Offices in the 1 Brigade Transport Company,
Second-in-Command and then Commander in the Nigerian Army Artillery,
Commander of 1 Brigade, Kaduna and Commanding Officer 5th Battalion,
Nigerian Army, Kano. In July 1967, General Yakubu Gowon appointed Abba
Kyari Governor of North-Central State after it was formed from the
Northern region during the military regime of Yakubu Gowon.
Although
his regime was not tolerant to the media, he was among the top brass of
the military who subtly advocated for a return to civilian rule during
the Gowon era. After retirement from the Nigerian Army, he was appointed
to the Board of Directors of First Bank of Nigeria, Standard Alliance
Insurance and Merchant Bank of Commerce.
He became Chairman of
Gamah Flour Mills and of Alif Engineering and Construction. He has also
worked with the New Nigeria Development Company, New Africa Holdings,
African International Bank, United Bank for Africa, Unilever, and Mobil
in various capacities over the years. Kyari led the Northern delegates
to the 1994 National Constitutional Conference, and was appointed
Chairman of the National Defence Committee of the conference. He was
appointed the new Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari on August
27, 2015.
Today, Kyari can safely be considered as the third
person in the triumvirate of the Buhari administration. Although he is
not from Daura by birth, he is by his adoption and association over a
long period.
He is reputed to be the only person outside Buhari
and Mamman Daura who knows the true health status of the President. It
was the duo of Kyari and Mamman Daura who shuttled between Abuja and
London during President Buhari’s prolonged medical vacation which lasted
104 days.
The first major scandal linked to him was the alleged
N500m bribery involving officials of a major telecommunications firm
which was in breach of Nigeria laws and doomed to go bankrupt if it paid
the huge fine imposed on it by the Nigeria Communications Commission.
Although,
Kyari has denied any link with the said transaction, the
telecommunications firm had since moved on without undergoing the full
penalties it was meant to hear for flouting the rules on registration of
SIM cards Since Kyari is the clearing officer to the President and
receives mails on his behalf, every leaked memo is a scandal in his
office. He has not been at ease since a memo from the Minister of State,
Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, leaked into the social media.
The
most recent episode of a leaked memo was the salvo fired by the Head of
Service of the Federation, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, in response to the
query issued to her on the Maina scandal.
The alleged altercation
between Kyari and Oyo-Ita at the Council Chambers just before the
Federal Executive Council meeting has gone viral on social media.
•LAWAL MUSA DAURA
Lawal
Daura was born in Daura, Katsina State, on August, 5, 1953. He attended
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria from 1977–1980 and started his carrier
in the State Security Service (SSS) in 1982 where he rose to the rank of
Director. He was the Deputy Director, Presidential Communication,
Command and Control Centre, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, between
2003 and 2007.
He also served as State Director of the SSS at
various times in Kano, Sokoto, Edo, Lagos, Osun and Imo states. He
attended various professional courses both home and abroad including the
National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos.
His
appointment to head the secret police was greeted with a lot of
criticisms apparently because of the fact that he hails from the same
village as President Buhari.
Many Nigerians viewed it as an act
of nepotism but some others dismissed the objections as unnecessary
distraction. He is credited with the conflicting security reports which
have kept the appointment of the Acting Chairman of the EFCC in jeopardy
till today.
If Daura were not part of the ministers serving in
the inner temple, if he were not part of the privileged group running
this administration, he would long have been shown the way out for
daring to submit security reports nailing a nominee of the President who
was due for confirmation by the National Assembly.
•HAMMED ALI
Colonel
Hammed Ibrahim Ali (rtd) was born on January 15, 1955. He was Military
Administrator of Kaduna State, Nigeria from August 1996 – August 1998
during the military regime of General Sani Abacha. He is married and
blessed with 4 children.
Ali holds a Masters degree in Criminology.
After
retirement from the Nigerian Army, he became Secretary of the Arewa
Consultative Forum, a northern lobby group, He was appointed as the
Comptroller-General of Customs on August 27, 2015.
Prior to his
appointment as the helmsman of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Ali was
the Chief of Staff to General Muhammadu Buhari throughout the period of
his repeated attempts at the presidential election on different
political platforms. Ali has been in the news several times for the
wrong reasons.
It was he who lifted the ban placed on rice importation through the land borders by the previous regime.
The
policy somersault led to a reversal of fortunes for rice farmers in the
country. Much later, Ali succumbed to the public outcry that trailed
his pronouncements and eventually the ban on rice importation was
restored. He had a running battle with the Senate after the upper
chamber of the parliament summoned him to respond to some issues in
respect of his job.
He did not only shun the summon but when he
reluctantly did show up, he appeared on mufti to the chagrin of the
lawmakers who politely sent him away and gave him a fresh date to return
in his official uniform. Ali has since gone to court to halt the
parliament from interrogating him and compelling him to wear the
uniform.
He recently relaunched the Buhari Support Organisation (
BSO), a common platform of the over 600 pressure groups mobilising
towards the re-election of President Buhari in 2019. Critics of the
regime have said that Ali jumped the gun when he launched the second
term for President Buhari when the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) had not declared electioneering campaigns open. He is a
member of the cabal, one of the untouchables and it is unlikely that
INEC will impose any sanctions on him as it threatened to do when
Governor Ayo Fayose launched his own campaign.
•ABDULRAHMAN DAMBAZZAU
Abdulrahman
Bello Dambazau was born on March 14, 1954. He is an indigene of Zaria
in Kaduna State. Dambazau had his secondary education at Barewa College,
Zaria, where he finished from in 1974. He then proceeded to the
Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna, where he was member of the 17 Regular
Combatant Course. In June 1977, he was commissioned as a Second
Lieutenant into the Infantry Corps of the Nigerian Army.
In 1979,
Dambazau also attended the US Army Military Police School, Fort
McClellan. Dambazau later went to Kent University where he obtained a
Bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice in 1982 and a PhD in Criminology
from the University of Keele in 1989.
Dambazau served as a
Military Police officer, an Aide De Camp to the Chief of Army Staff in
1979. He also commanded military police units and then served as a
Special Investigator from 1984 to 1985. It is worthy to note that
Dambazau was made a Registrar of the Nigerian Defence Academy from 1993
to 1999. He also worked as Chief Instructor, Support Weapon Wing of the
Infantry Centre and School from 1999 to 2001 and later as Directing
Staff at the National War College from 2004 to 2006.
From
2007-2008, he subsequently served as GOC-General Officer Commanding 2nd
Division, Ibadan. He was appointed Chief of Army Staff by President
Umaru Yar’adua in 2008.
In October 2015, his name was forwarded
as one of the Ministerial nominees to be screened by the National
Assembly. He is currently the Minister of Interior under the current
regime. Dambazzau has been fingered in many deals and plots of the
current government including the ‘Mainagate’ scandal.
He is
believed to have worked closely with the Attorney General of the
Federation (Malami), the Director General, DSS (Lawal Daura ) and the
Federal Civil Service Commission to secretly reinstate Alhaji
Abdulrasheed Maina into the Civil service.
•ABUBAKAR MALAMI
Abubakar
Malami, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was born on April 17, 1967, in
Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State. He is an indigene of Kebbi State and had his
early education at Nassarawa Primary School, Birnin Kebbi from 1973 to
1979 and later, College of Arts and Arabic Studies. He proceeded to the
Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto where he studied Law between 1987 to
1991.
Abubakar Malami then proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, in 1992 where he was called to the Nigerian Bar.
He
then obtained his Masters Degree in Public Administration from the
University of Maiduguri in 1994. Between 1995 and 1996, he worked as
Magistrate Grade II in the Kebbi State Judiciary. He was a member of the
Local Government Election Tribunal for the 2003 Election and National
Publicity Secretary, Muslim Lawyers Forum of Nigeria from 2002 to 2004.
He
served in various capacities, including being a state counsel and
magistrate in Kebbi State and teaching law at the Usman Dan Fodio
University before going into private legal practice. He was also the
National Legal Adviser to the defunct Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC) and was one of those who worked closely to advance the interest of
the All Progressive Congress (APC) especially the candidacy of
President Mohammadu Buhari over the years.
Indeed, he was the
Lead Counsel of the Legal Team of the defunct CPC right from the Court
of Appeal to the Supreme Court, when he was the National Adviser of the
CPC.
He was a member of the defunct CPC Merger Committee that
negotiated the formation of All Progressives Congress together with the
defunct ACN, ANPP and factions of APGA and DPP. He had been one of the
consistent members of the opposition right from 2003 till the victory of
the APC in the general elections in March 2015.
He sought for
the nomination as the Governorship candidate of the APC for Kebbi State
but withdrew from the race due to pressure from elders of the party.
Before his appointment as the Attorney General and Minister of Justice,
he was a private legal practitioner with a track record of demonstrated
ability to lead diverse and complicated litigations.
His
unparalleled performance in the legal profession resulted in his
conferment with the respected rank of a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)
in the year 2008.
After the successful outcome of the 2015
presidential elections which was won by APC, Malami was nominated by
President Buhari to serve in the 19- man transition committee of the All
Progressive Congress. He was sworn in as the Attorney-General of the
Federation and Minister of Justice on the 11th November, 2015.
Malami
has been doing a yeoman’s job for the cabal and the government of the
day He has perfected a style of issuing legal advice to save whom the
cabal wants saved and send to the gallows whoever the regime wants
crucified. His roles has again brought to the fore the clamour by
constitutional lawyers and members of the civil society on the need to
separate the office of the Attorney General of the Federation and the
office of the Minister of Justice.
Source: NewTelegraph
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