How Cabal Foiled Daura's Sack Before Buhari's Vacation

 

Contrary to insinuations in certain quarters that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo took unilateral decisions on matters of state while his boss, President Muhammadu Buhari, was on a 10-day vacation in the United Kingdom (UK), Sunday Tribune learnt at the weekend that Osinbajo and Buhari had worked closely in the last two weeks on the decisions taken by his deputy.

 

Buhari and Osinbajo, it was learnt, had reached an agreement on the decisions taken by his deputy in his absence the past two weeks that the Vice President governed in acting capacity.

 

Sources in the corridors of power revealed to Sunday Tribune that though the president was on vacation “he and the VP were in contact by phone to discuss important state matters and compare notes.”

In all their interactions the president, sources revealed, had always encouraged the VP to do the needful and take charge effectively.

 

Furthermore, the sources confirmed the existence of a powerful cabal in the government. For instance, it was disclosed that less than two weeks before the president departed for the UK on vacation, there was a decision already reached to replace the former Director-General, Department of State Security (DSS), Lawal  Daura, who was later fired by Osinbajo after the DSS’s siege to the National Assembly.

 

The decision however did not see the light of day when some influential backers of the sacked DG rallied together to frustrate the plan. But unknown to many of the backers both the president and vice-president had always discussed the need to review the appointments of some of the security chiefs, including the sacked DG.

 

Even regarding the overhaul of the SARS, which the Acting President announced recently, top sources in the Villa explained that the matter had featured prominently in regular interactions of both Buhari and Osinbajo and also interactions by both of them with the Inspector-General of Police.

 

Sources disclosed further that even  the decision of the National Economic Council to set up a committee to work with the Inspector-General of Police and find ways to decentralise police operations was part of the discussions and plans that both the president and the vice-president had gone over many times.

 

Said a top presidency source, “ it is really pointless to try to attribute some of this decisions in a manner that suggests that maybe the president would not have taken them or that it was just one arm of the presidency responsible for them. The president and his deputy are far much closer than any other set of leaders the country has produced at least since 1999 if not even beyond.

“There is hardly a move the VP would make without first securing the blessing of the President and both of this gentlemen have developed mutual trust and confidence in each other and this is beneficial for the country,” a top presidency official said last night.

 

-Culled from Nigerian Tribune.