Cabal More Powerful Than VP Osinbajo In Buhari’s Govt – says Kokori

 

 

Frank Kokori, a renowned labour unionist, has claimed that the cabal in the Presidency is more powerful in the current Buhari administration than Yemi Osinbajo, who was elected as the country’s Vice President.

Kokori, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the claim in an interview published on Monday while speaking on the controversy surrounding his appointment as Chairman of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) and the subsequent withdrawal by the government.

According to the elder statesman, Osinbajo had in his capacity as acting President appointed him as the Chairman of NSITF, but noted that it was reversed upon President Muhammadu Buhari’s return to the country.

Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, later inaugurated Austin Enajemo-Isire as the NSITF Chairman after refusing to inaugurate Kokori for nearly two years.

Kokori claimed that the cabal does anything they like and attribute such action to the Presidency while sidelining Osinbajo, a democratically elected Vice President.

He said people are taking advantage of Buhari’s old age to exploit the system.

“Buhari has a limitation and that is age. I think that is one of his problems and those people around him—those we call the Presidency, the cabal or the mafia—are exploiting it. They do anything on his behalf and they would write ‘The Presidency says so,’” Kokori told the Punch.

“They dispel positions, like when I was made the chairman of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund by the then acting president, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, when Buhari went abroad. When he came back, they felt that Kokori would be too strong in that position because that is where the workers’ pensions are warehoused and it’s a goldmine for corrupt people.

“In fact, at the last moment, they sold the position to their stooges and you know that struggle. The entirety of Nigerian workers and even the media were backing me, but (the late Chief of Staff) Abba Kyari was in charge. They took the job from me, even though Buhari told me on June 12 that year that “you will resume at the end of the week.”

Kokori revealed that President Buhari had signed off on his appointment and told Ngige to go ahead and inaugurate him but the President’s directive was disobeyed.

“He (Buhari) did everything, but for the cabal. And you can’t reach Buhari anymore; that is one of his weak points. He is one of the most inaccessible Presidents in the history of this country. Without his cabal, we don’t get to see him—except for his ministers who see him during the Federal Executive Council meetings. He does not come out, so you can’t see him.”

The former leader of the Nigeria Union Of Petroleum And Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) stated that the cabal in the Presidency is not allowing Osinbajo, who is the second most senior member of the Federal Executive Council, to utilise his intellect for the betterment of the current administration and country at large.

According to him, the vice president “has brains but cannot use his powers”.

He said: “And they have sidelined the Vice President who has brains but cannot use his powers. He has no powers. Even he can only have powers when the President gives him powers. It’s the cabal that runs the country; the cabal is more powerful than the Vice President. In other words, it is a situation where the Chief of Staff is more powerful than the Vice President and the SSG. Once you are in the cabal, you are more powerful than the Vice President and it’s a shame”