Former Chief of Staff to the late Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Gambari, has revealed that the former president was deeply pained by his inability to completely tackle Nigeria’s security problems before the end of his tenure.
Gambari made the disclosure on Monday while speaking on Politics Today, a programme on Channels Television.
According to him, although Buhari took some solace in the successes recorded against Boko Haram, lingering insecurity in other parts of the country weighed heavily on him.
“One of the things that pained him the most is that he was unable to do more about the security situation in the country before he left,” Gambari said.
“He did a lot by making sure that no territory of Nigeria was under Boko Haram.”
Gambari noted that continued banditry and violent attacks, particularly in the north-west and parts of the north-central, remained a major source of concern for the former president.
“The situation in the north-west, in the north-central, even in banditry, it pained him a lot,” he said.
“And he felt, ‘I’ve done everything I can for these people’.
“He even said at some point that maybe the base was not good enough.”
Addressing rumours of coup threats toward the end of Buhari’s administration, Gambari said he was unaware of any such intelligence reports.
“Honestly, I’m not aware of that,” he said.
“The president had many sources of information. The chief of staff is probably a principal one, but not the only one.
“He could have received information that I was not privy to.”
Gambari added that Buhari, who served Nigeria both as a military ruler and as a democratically elected president, maintained a strong relationship with the armed forces but strictly respected constitutional boundaries.
He also said Buhari valued loyalty and remained committed to individuals who played important roles in his personal and political life, noting that every administration has an inner circle, but Buhari’s understood its limits.
Gambari further observed that those who benefited most from Nigeria were often the least invested in its stability.
On the 2023 general election, he said Buhari rejected the idea of handpicking a successor, insisting that leadership decisions should be left to party members and the electorate.
Buhari governed Nigeria as an elected president from 2015 to 2023, after previously ruling as military head of state between 1983 and 1985.
He died on July 13, 2025, at the age of 82, following a prolonged illness.
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