Solomon Dalung, a former Minister of Youth and Sports, has spoken out about the impact of cabals in Nigerian politics, stating that a powerful group seized control following President Muhammadu Buhari’s victory in 2015.
On Sunday’s Mic On Podcast, Dalung defined a cabal as “a group of ambitious people who were also appointed by the same president to help him govern, but they will run his presidency at his own expense and interest.”
He said that immediately after Buhari’s election, a formidable faction appeared from “nowhere,” marginalizing people who had campaigned for the president.
Dalung stated, “When the president was proclaimed victorious, I was with him in his office. I went to visit him that evening. The very day, I was blocked from going into his house, and this was the same place as the last night of the previous day, I was there till 2 a.m.
“I was blocked until I had to make calls before I was allowed to go in I was able to make calls to assess Buhari before I was allowed. So, from that day, the cabal had taken over.”
Dalung further criticized the situation, stating that the people who truly worked for Buhari “went celebrating” and left the president vulnerable.
“These people, who understood power, took over and ran the government to their interest until eight years were gone,” he said.
When asked about cabals in the current administration of President Bola Tinubu, Dalung suggested the dynamics had shifted within the ruling All Progressives Congress.
“It is the same APC we formed, but it is now more sophisticated. The party has become a complex political architecture, more like a zoo,” he remarked.
