Presidency reacts to claims of a 'cabal' in Buhari's government

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity Garba Shehu on Sunday December 22, admitted that there are people in Aso Rock Villa advising President Muhammadu Buhari who have been derogated by Nigerians with the name “cabal”.

Garba Shehu who disclosed this at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Press Corps, stated that elsewhere such people are known as ‘kitchen cabinet’ but in Nigeria they are described as a ‘cabal’ to tarnish their good standing.

The Presidential spokesperson affirmed that there is no government in Nigeria in which some people have not been accused of being a cabal. According to him, it is a regular occurrence because every president must have a secretariat.

Garba said;

“Every president must have people who advise him. It is not a sin, it is not an offence to have people that you take into confidence.

“What is the meaning of cabal? I just googled Thesaurus and among many other definitions, what they are saying is that cabal means ‘conspire, intrigues, mystique, occult, secret. There is no government in this country that we have had that some people were not accused of being a cabal in that government and it is because every administration, every president must have a secretariat.
“Elsewhere, they call it ‘kitchen cabinet’, but in our own country we are being derogatory and we term them cabal so that it will tarnish their own good standing”