President Muhammadu Buhari has demanded evidence for the claim that his government is being run by a cabal.
He spoke in an interview with Voice of America, Hausa Service.
The President’s 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.
She had said, “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 if things continued that way.
The President had dismissed that statement by saying his wife belonged to the kitchen and the “other room.”
But while speaking at a leadership summit in Abuja earlier this month, 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’m sorry to use those words).”
However, during the VOA chat, the interviewer asked Buhari to formally respond to the allegations in the light of his wife’s recent statement.
“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,” the VOA reporter had asked.
In response, President Buhari said, “That’s her 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.”
