Who are those in charge of Nigeria?

In the run up to the 2015 presidential election, my main worry was about the shadowy person(s) behind Buhari who will wield real power and authority in the country. I was not deceived. Those fronting Buhari were aware of his shocking lack of knowledge and incapacity to govern a complex and diverse country like Nigeria. But they found his near mystical reputation indispensable to capturing power and they rode on it to get to power. They didn’t disappoint. Right from the beginning and despite public assumption that Buhari was in charge, those figures took over, exploiting the President’s ignorance, lack of understanding of economics and most complex issues of governance, as well as vulnerability due to old age, to completely take over governance and policy decisions in the country. What makes the takeover by this shadowy group more complete is the tendency of the President, a highly provincial man himself, to over-trust and over delegate authority to his close aides and associates – appointed or not – who are mostly his relatives and or people from his part of the country. Stories abound of these powerful individuals determining key appointments. It is an open secret in the country that what is needed for a job, a connection or contract with the government is to get to meet a member of this powerful group.

President Buhari empowered this group early in his administration to be the clearing house and policy centre of his government. If there was any doubt as to the role of this powerful group, the President himself cleared that doubt during a retreat organised by the Presidency for the then Ministers-designates. The President ordered that “all communications and appointments from you (ministers) to the Presidency should be routed through the office of the Chief of Staff as it is the normal (procedure) in this presidential system.” In effect, ministers are not allowed access to the President and must pass any communications through his Chief of Staff and also receive instructions through that same medium. One can only imagine how powerful Abba Kyari has become since then. Naturally, and as is usual in our climes, this untrammelled and extreme power without accountability breeds corruption.

There is currently a strong allegation that Abba Kyari demanded and collected N500 million as part of a deal to reduce the hefty fine of over $5 billion imposed on MTN by the NCC for contravention of a SIM registration directive. Despite being cleared by the Presidency, MTN got the fine reduced and the issue has long been settled with the Nigerian authorities.

So complete is the takeover of the government by this shadowy group that even Buhari’s wife felt completely sidelined and left out of the scheme of things that she was forced to take the unprecedented step of going public with her discontent when she accused a powerful cabal of hijacking her husband’s government.  “Things are not going the way they should…” “Nobody thought it’s going to be like this”. “They [the cabal] don’t know our party manifesto, they don’t know what we campaigned for, they don’t have a mission, they don’t have a vision of our APC,” she angrily told the BBC late last year.

But if she was expecting her outburst to change anything, it achieved the exact opposite as her husband firmly reminded her, in Germany, that she “belongs to his kitchen, his living room and the other room” and should have no business with or role in governance.

Then Buhari fell ill and had been confined to his London home, or hospital, since then. News emerging from there is that these powerful aides now control access to the President and have effectively shut out family members, friends and senior government officials, including the President’s wife. The Daily courageously named the aides to include the President’s nephew, Mamman Daura; the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Domestic Affairs, Sarki Aba; The President’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari; and Personal Assistant to the President; Tunde Sabiu. According to The Daily, “The few people that have seen the President only saw him because they agreed to it. If they didn’t, it would never have happened, apart from Governor Amosun, whom everyone knows is one of Buhari’s best friends.”

But Mamman Daura, the President’s nephew stands out. According to John Paden, Buhari’s biographer, Daura is a life-long inspiration and confidant to the president who guided him all through his formative years. Daura reportedly encouraged Buhari “to settle down and take his studies seriously,” and to join the army in 1961 and Buhari has always held him in great awe since then. Although Daura holds no political office, his powers are so great and so wide he is considered as the de facto ruler of Nigeria. It is also no secret he is behind virtually all the decisions of the President. So great is his influence that the President was forced, in October last year, to correct that he is in charge, not Mamman Daura.

Although the President did the right thing by handing over power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and, although the latter now performs the function of the President as Acting President, one cannot deny or minimise the influence of these individuals. One can see them hovering menacingly over the Acting President and sitting right next to him in council meetings.

The bigger picture here is the threat posed to Nigeria’s democracy by the constant hijack of power by an unelected and shadowy cabal who, though wields great powers, are not accountable for the powers they wield. As Olu Fasan, a respected political economist and public commentator asserted recently, “nothing undermines democracy and good governance more than shadowy people who wield so much power but are unaccountable.” In saner climes, parliament, who constitutionally performs oversight functions on the executive, will publicly name and quiz such individuals and protect the Presidency from being hijacked. But how do we expect Nigeria’s two-chamber parliament to perform such functions when even the heads of these chambers are more engrossed in fights to retain their offices and will readily trade the independence and control of the parliament to the presidency just to retain their positions?

Christopher Akor