The cabal and the blame game

A group of men traditionally, and perhaps inevitably, forms around every administration at national and sub-national levels to influence government decisions and bend the arc of important government decisions towards their defined primary objectives–be they ethnic, political, economic, or religious.

Such a group is usually but not always made up of technocrats and intellectuals who parley their knowledge for the privilege of being faceless influencers. They are shadowy and have no name. Usually, when people suspect their presence and influence in government, they invent names that may or may not accurately describe them and what they do but nevertheless serve as their identification – mafia, cabal, etc. No government can truthfully deny the existence of such groups of men who influence its decisions and actions. None can do without them. But they have earned an unflattering reputation as sinister, selfish, and exploitative men, always with evil intentions towards the government they unofficially serve.

The best known of such groups in the country in the sixties through the eighties was the Kaduna Mafia, said to be made up of northern technocrats, intellectuals and retired senior military and police officers. Swings in government decisions were routinely and perhaps unfairly attributed to their sinister influence. When a government decision arrived at in the day suddenly summersaulted at night resulting in a reversal the next day, the mafia was said to have interfered with it and forced a change in the course and the cause of the decision. Every administration is an amalgam of known and unknown groups that together, moves the wheels of governance along the tracks of vested interests.

It is not strange to find such a group, named the cabal, in the Buhari administration. It would be rather strange if such a group did not exist. Every president needs someone to take the rap when things go wrong. The cabal are powerful, but they are also the fall guys. When you blame Buhari’s poor decisions on the cabal, you free him from all blame and all responsibilities. With my tongue in my cheek, I suggest that a cabal serves useful purposes in government.

One man who does not think so is Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna State. He is leading a public outcry against them because he believes they have pushed President Buhari off the track of good decision-making process and good governance down the path of, to borrow from the Supreme Court spokesman, ‘convoluted’ decisions that serve the interests of the cabal more and those of the country much less. It worries him and he believes it should worry the rest of us too because he believes Buhari has surrendered his government to them. And they are making a mess of it to the shame of his party and indeed, that of the president who came into office in 2015 awash in an avalanche of goodwill and well wishes and who has quite remarkably, thanks to the cabal, squandered the promise of change the people believed in.

It is easy to understand why the governor feels frustrated with Buhari in the twilight zone of his administration. This is the time the president and his party should be celebrating their golden time and laying open before the public promises made and promises fulfilled; change promised, and change delivered. Instead, things are falling into pieces with Buhari watching the steady erosion of his own legacies by himself. There is such a thing as a president leaving ashes in the mouths of the people, no matter what the spin doctors may spin. This is a good instance. Blame the cabal.

Part of the governor’s frustration with the cabal is that he was one of the architects of the Buhari administration that designed the road map for it consistent with the promises of both the president and their political party, APC.  But about two years into the administration, the governor needed no one to tell him that things were not going according to that well-laid plan for fundamental changes and governance focus that would positively set the APC government apart from all the governments before it.

Keeping quiet and letting things go from bad to worse was not an option for him. The governor fired a series of letters and a memo to the president, pointing out that he was losing control and some unelected men had stepped into the vacuum created by his absence from his own administration. In one such letter he wrote sometime in 2017, El-Rufai told Buhari:

“In very blunt terms, Mr President, our APC administration has not only failed to manage expectations of a populace that expected overnight ‘change’ but has failed to deliver even mundane matters of governance outside of our successes in fighting BH insurgency and corruption.

“This situation is compounded by the fact that some officials around you seem to believe and may have persuaded you that current APC state governors must have no say and must be totally excluded from political consultations, key appointments, and decision-making at the federal level.

“Overall, the feeling even among our supporters today is that the APC government is not doing well. I am distressed that our government is seen not to be succeeding mostly due to the failures, lack of focus and selfishness of some you have entrusted to carry on and implement your vision.”

The cabal had fenced out the state governors and robbed the president of the advice of experienced politicians in the party and the government who should have ensured that he maintained his focus consistent with the road map for the promised change. By fencing out the state governors, the cabal held the president prisoner more or less to their own plots and plans.

For instance, APC promised restructuring the country to rid it of its federal system in name but a unitary system in fact. To discharge this fundamental promise, the party set up a committee headed by El-Rufai to provide the road map towards restructuring. His committee submitted its report and recommendations to Buhari and the party leaders in 2018. Neither the president nor the party did anything about the report. Apparently, the cabal advised the president to do nothing – and he did nothing – about the report and the recommendations contained therein.

It may not have been the fault of the cabal but that of the president who does not believe in restructuring. One of the fundamental articles of restructuring is second tier policing system or state police to empower the state governors to be truly the chief security officers of their various states. The president looked on as several state governors set up their own security outfits that are state police in fact but not in name. He could care less. But blame the cabal anyway.