Former Youth and Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, says the cabals around President Bola Tinubu are more dangerous than the clique around former President Muhammadu Buhari.
The former minister was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.
Dalung, who was a minister during Buhari’s administration, said Buhari was a stranger in his government as members of the cabals took over the running of the administration.
The ex-minister said while members of the cabals around Buhari were not too educated, the powerbrokers around Tinubu are sophisticated, ambitious, and educated, with sound knowledge of power dynamics.
Dalung cited the capacity of members of the cabals around Tinubu to manipulate power, build barricades around the president, and stifle information and human traffic from the president.
In July 2024, Tinubu, who narrowly won a keenly contested election in February 2023, and was sworn in on May 29, 2023, said he was not answerable to any cabal or moneybag.
However, Dalung said, “Of course, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government had cabals. That is known and that I have attested to. But I am saying that President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabals were made up of people who were not quite informed, with little experience in politics, public administration, and governance. And so, their activities were more or less limited to their parochial view of understanding power relations and exchanging hands to help themselves with the public purse.
“But President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabal is made up of sophisticated and ambitious group of people who had a long history in power. They are experienced, they are educated, and so they have sound knowledge of what power is.
“And since they are an ambitious set of people, the presidency will suffer more than that of President Muhammadu Buhari because of their capacity to manipulate power, their capacity to also build security barricade around the president and stifle information from getting to the president except that which they wanted, and then the control of those they would want to access the president.
“These cabals are masters, and therefore, are more dangerous than any cabal in the history of this country.”
