The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, yesterday faulted media reports alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari had cancelled a number of memos and appointments signed off by his former Chief of Staff, Late Abba Kyari.
The report claimed that the late Chief of Staff, who died in April, approved some appointments, without the consent of the president.
“Not surprisingly, these reports have quoted unnamed sources.
“There is not a grain of truth in these reports and Nigerians should please ignore the insinuations behind them,” Shehu said.
According to him, “Buhari was duly re-elected by Nigerians in February 2019.
“He has not and will never cede to anyone else, that power and trust given to him by the Nigerian people.”
How Gambari is faring in Aso Rock
The new Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, is gradually acclimatising and keying into the politics of the presidency.
Gambari is not new to Buhari and governance, being at a time the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) and Minister of External Affairs under Buhari’s military regime in 1984.
As soon as he resumed on May 13, 2020, his first official assignment was the first virtual Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chaired by the president.
So far, he has worked with Mr. President on two virtual meetings of the federal cabinet.
Shortly after the first e-cabinet meeting, Prof. Gambari paid a courtesy call on the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mj. Gen. Babagana Monguno (Rtd.) He was accompanied by the Permanent Secretary of the State House, Malam Tijani Umar.
Sources in the presidency said the visit was a good sign that Monguno and Gambari would work together for the good of the country.
A source said, “This shows that the two personalities are ready to work together for the good of the country. There will be a good working relationship between them. You will recall that the previous experience was not good.”
It would be recalled that the NSA had alleged undue interference by the late CoS, Abba Kyari, in matters of national security.
A day after his resumption, Gambari was part of a quarterly meeting of the National Security Council (NSC). He was on ground when President Buhari received the Malagasy native formulation against COVID-19 from President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea Bissau.
