No Chief of Staff can create hurdles for Buhari and survive the next day - Presidency
The Presidency has alerted the public on an orchestrated campaign to smear the good name of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari by a section of the press.
Garba Shehu, the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity stated this in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday.
According to him, some allegations being levelled against the President’s COS are indirectly aimed at rubbishing the successes being recorded by the Buhari administration.
He described those behind the campaign as mere blackmailers and extortionists who were bent on creating unnecessary but imaginary division and misunderstanding between President Buhari, Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo and the CoS.
“A careful assessment of some these allegations with a rational mind will show that there is an orchestrated campaign to smear the CoS and indirectly the President.
“If I can speculate on the matter, i will say that the problem Abba Kyari has with most people is that he, like the President he serves, will not throw money at people in order to please them.
“As CoS, Kyari has refused to keep cash imprest and has turned down a monthly grant of N200 million customarily given to the office.
“This is money freely spent because they were not required to account for what they did with it, ’’ he said.
Shehu further noted that when the President was away on medical vacation, the Chief of Staff rallied the Presidency behind Osinbajo because he knew that his boss, President Buhari expected nothing less.
“As Acting President, Vice President Osinbajo enjoyed the support of the Villa Staff and the entire cabinet. Otherwise he would not have succeeded and earn the praises of the President.
`These are just a few among the false and illogical accusations making the CoS larger than life, with the aim of pulling him down. No Chief of Staff including this one can create hurdles for a President and survive the next day.
“The roles and duties don’t warrant the kind of falsehood being spread.’’
Shehu also dismissed the assertion in some quarters that Buhari was being manipulated by the certain cabal in the Presidential Villa.
“It is difficult to understand what anyone wants to achieve peddling such falsehood that the President, himself a former Military General and Head of State and Commander-In-Chief is subject to undue influence and manipulation.
“It is both ridiculous and inconceivable.
“As someone who works very closely with President Buhari, i can testify to how my years of experience as a newspaper editor are often put to the test by the sheer thoroughness with which the President edits every single document brought to his desk.
“Every memo, statement, speech, is subject to his intense scrutiny, right down to the placement of commas and full stops.
“Therefore, alleging that President Buhari signs memos brought to him by government officials or a so-called cabal without reading them, immediately casts doubts on the credibility of the ubiquitous unnamed sources that the reporters of these articles quote.
“But, of course, the President cannot do everything. He cannot micromanage every task.
“That is why he needs close officials, whom he trusts, who will be willing to offend others in the process of ensuring his own safety and wellbeing, and the advancement of his vision for Nigeria.
Shehu advised Journalists with questions to ask concerning the President and the Villa administration to always contact the Special Adviser, Femi Adesina, SSA to the President (Office of the Vice-President) Laolu Akande or himself.
“Where we don’t have your answers, we are ready to obtain as much as we can, the correct responses to your enquiry,’’ he added.
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