Former President Muhammadu Buhari was deeply troubled by his inability to fully resolve Nigeria’s security crisis before leaving office, his former Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, has revealed.
Gatekeepers News reports that Gambari made the disclosure during an interview on Politics Today, a current affairs programme on Channels Television.
According to him, although Buhari achieved major successes against Boko Haram, the persistence of violence in other parts of the country remained a source of personal pain to the former leader.
“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 did a lot by making sure that no territory of Nigeria was under Boko Haram,” Gambari said on Monday.
He noted that while insurgents were pushed out of territories they once controlled in the North-East, banditry and violent attacks in the North-West and parts of the North-Central regions continued to escalate.
“The situation in the North-West, in the North-Central, even in banditry, it pained him a lot. 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 added.
Gambari also reacted to claims by the Minister of Defence that there were coup threats before President Bola Tinubu’s inauguration, saying he was unaware of any such intelligence reaching Buhari through his office.
“Honestly, I’m not aware of that. 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,” he stated.
He explained that Buhari, a former military head of state who later became a democratically elected president, maintained close ties with the armed forces but “operated within constitutional limits.”
Beyond security, Gambari described Buhari as a leader who was loyal to those who contributed to his personal and political journey. He also observed that those who benefited most from the country were often the least committed to its progress.
On power dynamics, Gambari said every administration has a cabal, adding that those around Buhari understood their boundaries. He further disclosed that Buhari did not believe in imposing a successor in the 2023 general election, insisting that party members and voters should determine the outcome.
