Former Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS), Lawal Daura, has blamed some of the shortcomings of the late former President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on individuals around him whom he described as sycophants who betrayed the trust placed in them.
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Daura, who is the vice-presidential candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), made the remarks during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today aired on Monday.
He rejected the characterisation of Buhari’s government as the worst in Nigeria’s history, arguing that such an assessment should be made against a broader examination of the country’s political and governance history.
“Yes, they can say it, but I also want them, the real students of history, to go back from 1995 to 2023, when he exited, and find out which were the worst years. I wasn’t part of the government then,” Daura said.
The former intelligence chief maintained that, while he served under Buhari, his responsibilities required him to remain close to the President and protect the administration.
“And that will show you that I stood by him and I protected that government. Everything started to give way after 2018 since I left office,” he said.
Daura was removed as SSS Director-General in 2018.
According to him, Buhari was surrounded by individuals whom he considered sycophants, adding that he was aware of some of their activities while in office.
“I know the details of what they have done,” he said.
He, however, rejected suggestions that he was a member of a so-called cabal alleged to have exercised influence around Buhari during his presidency.
“No, there is no cabal,” Daura said.
“Even if there was a cabal, the intelligence chief of a country can never be part of a cabal because the schedule I handled made it necessary for me to be close to the president at all times.”
Daura argued that the people he was referring to did not necessarily mislead Buhari, but rather failed to justify the confidence the former President placed in them.
He said one of the major lessons from the Buhari administration was that loyalty, friendship or personal association with a political leader should not automatically qualify an individual for appointment to public office.
According to him, competence, integrity and suitability for a particular responsibility should be properly assessed before appointments are made, especially where sensitive public offices are involved.
“And even if you are to do that, you must also weigh the quality of that person and then maybe place him in an office that befits him or is proportionate to maybe the level of trust you have in that person,” he said.
“But in that situation, an unfortunate situation, I would say, it so happened that people were just, you know, trusted.”
Daura maintained that Buhari’s administration suffered because some individuals were entrusted with responsibilities without sufficient consideration of whether they possessed the competence required for the offices they occupied.
His comments add to continuing assessments of the Buhari administration, particularly the influence of close associates around the former President and the extent to which appointments based on personal trust affected the performance of his government.
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