Men who control Buhari

Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff
Alhaji Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to the President, has been playing critical roles in the Presidency. He constitutes a major power broker in the Villa. The Chief of Staff has the ears of the President and influences numerous decisions in the Presidency, including appointments and award of contracts. He plans Buhari’s schedules, who to see, and who he should or should not see; plans his movements, including foreign travels, medical leave and working visits.

Apart from the traditional roles of a Chief of Staff, Buhari made it mandatory that ministers must go through Kyari, if they desired any contact with him. Invariably, all ministers report to the Chief of Staff. This is in clear departure from what was obtainable in the recent past, when ministers had unfettered access to their principal, the President. Reports have it that the President seldom decline signing any document Kyari presents to him.

As he walks a distance of about 100 meters from his office to the President’s office, at intervals, Kyari, always holds tenaciously to office files that may contain national secrets. He does not release his documents to anybody, including his security aides.

Governor Nasir El-Rufai
Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State is a key de facto political adviser to President Buhari. El-Rufai reportedly screened the list of ministerial appointees, decided on who President Buhari should approve his nomination before the submission of the list to the National Assembly for ratification. El-Rufai has been a political associate of Buhari from the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) unto the formation of the APC. He is believed to be a financial backbone of the President from the CPC, and played crucial role in the negotiation for the alliance of political parties that formed the APC. He is one APC member the President does not ignore at all time.

Babachir Lawal, SGF
Babachir Lawal, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, occupies a powerful position on the ladder of Nigeria’s seat of power.

Lawal, by virtue of his position, serves as secretary to important government organs, such as the Federal Executive Council, FEC, and the Council of State. He is also responsible for policies of the federal government being implemented by ministers.

The SGF is one of those who determine what the President should or should not do in decisions relating to appointments and award of contracts. He has close working relations with the Chief of Staff.

The SGF uses the federal might to overwhelm politicians from the North East and his home state, Adamawa.

Very outspoken, he does not hide the big influence he wields in the administration.

Lawal Daura, DG, DSS
Daura is another strong man in the Buhari administration. The DSS DG controls the strongest coercion agency of the federal government.

His profile rose significantly in the violent prosecution of corruption war, beginning from Colonel Sambo Dasuki in the Arms money scandal to the recent invasion of residence of serving judges and arresting the judicial officers.

He was appointed by Buhari in July, 2015. Lawal has a clear mandate to re-organise the DSS, which is believed to have been dragged into the murky waters of politics ahead of the 2015 general elections. Hoes words are as good as the words of the president and are obeyed without questioning.

However, under him, officials of the DSS were stripped of their constitutional roles of protecting the President.

Daura, who has a close relationship with the Buhari, joins the president often times for the Friday Jumat services that always hold inside the mosque close to the President’s office.

Mallam Abubakar Malami, AGF and Minister of Justice
Abubakar Malami SAN, Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister for Justice, has been a strong force in the Buhari administration. He has remained a portent tool for power struggle in the party. His profile rose highly in the prosecution of the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) and the prosecution of the senate leadership for forgery charges.

The number law officer in the Buhari administration has zealously interpreted the laws to suit specific objective of the federal government in every given instances. He has taken certain unprecedented actions with boldness and courage, not minding the consequences. He has come to a level that his works are becoming laws under the present administration and the President believes him with finality.

In 2015, Malami contested for the governorship ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kebbi state but lost to Atiku Bagudu, who is now the incumbent governor of the state.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun
Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State has been a political ally of President Buhari from the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) since 2002. He contested governorship elections and lost in Ogun State before the formation of the APC.

Amosun is believed to be an alternative South West leader President Buhari is considering in the plot to exclude Asiwaju Bola Tinubu from domination of the zone’s politics. The Ogun Governor was highly influential in the appointment of ministers and heads of other federal agencies.

Amosun has high political capital and was elected Senator for Ogun Central District of Ogun State 2003. In April 2007 he made an unsuccessful bid to be elected governor of Ogun State. He ran for Governor again in 2011, and this time was elected on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He contested the office and was re-elected for a second term on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015.

The Ogun governor is a good confident of President Buhari in the South West.

Mohammed Babagana Monguno
Mohammed Babagana Monguno, a retired Army Major General, is the National Security Adviser (NSA) to the President. General Monguno was Chief of Nigeria’s Defence Intelligence Agency from July 2009 to September 2011 before his appointment into this sensitive position in the Presidency.

His influential role in the Presidency, at a point, pitched him against the Chief of Staff in supremacy battle. Monguno is a reinforcement factor to the DG of the DSS. The President relies on him on sensitive security matters.