EXCLUSIVE: Why Buhari Welcomed Gen Danjuma To Aso Villa

In what is seen as a clear departure from the past, General T.Y Danjuma returned to Aso Villa today after he was blocked from meeting the president in the last several years by the Cabal whose arrow-head Abba Kyari passed away recently.

Inside sources disclosed this afternoon that Danjuma who came to visit his old protege, President Muhammadu Buhari was blocked from visiting the Villa after he asked for a meeting few years ago to visit the President and used the opportunity of that visit then to advice the president to fire his then Chief of Staff Abba Kyari and some other people working around the President.

Sources said Danjuma told the President then that Kyari and some of the other people around him were incompetent and had become a liability to the President and the administration.

When Danjuma left, the late Abba Kyari found out about what Danjuma had told his principal, the President and with the connivance of other members of the Cabal decided to ensure that Danjuma no longer gets invited to the Villa. The then COS’ grouse was that Kyari was actually the one that scheduled the meeting for Danjuma, only for the retired General to use the opportunity to seek his removal.

In the event, Danjuma did not get any other opportunity to meet the President in the Villa again and only communicated with him by correspondence. It is believed that Danjuma’s critical attitude to the administration grew out of this situation and how the kitchen cabinet of the President decided to continue to snub him.

But Danjuma is well known as one of the few senior military officers whom the President respects tremendously, during and after his military career. In fact, a number of ministers including the current minister of health were nominated to the President by Danjuma. The health minister, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, is known to be married to a relative of Danjuma.

The return of Danjuma to the Villa where he met the President today (on Monday May 18, 2020) is now being regarded as another proof that the Cabal has been truly defeated. It started last week with the selection of Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, a move that has left the Cabal in serious panic, especially because not only were they not consulted before Gambari was picked by the President, but the President rebuffed every move by some of the members of the Cabal for a meeting since after the death of Kyari.

Some in the Cabal had pushed forward former Foreign Affairs Minister Baba Gana Kingibe, a member of the Cabal, to take the position of Kyari, but the President balked. Then Ismaila Funtua, a retired newspaper publisher was again nominated, and the President again refused forcing both of them to hurry to the media to declare they were never interested in the position.

According to a Villa source, “less than one week after Gambari took the job, you see the return of Danjuma to the Villa to visit his protege, expect many more reversals and revelations of the damage the Cabal has caused the president and the country all these years.”