A former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, said on Tuesday night that the cabals around President Bola Tinubu are more dangerous than any cabal in the history of Nigeria.

As a result of the cabals’ ambition, capacity to manipulate power and build security barricade around the president, Dalung said, the Tinubu presidency will suffer more than that of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The former minister stated these as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Tuesday.

Channels Television reports that Dalung, who was a minister during Buhari’s administration, said Buhari was a stranger in his government as members of the cabals took over the running of the administration. However, the cabals in Tinubu’s government are more dangerous.

“Of course, President Muhammadu Buhari’s government had cabals. That is known and that I have attested to,” Dalung said.

Buhari was Nigeria’s President for eight years between 2015 and 2023.

The ex-minister said while members of the cabals around Buhari were not too educated, the powerbrokers around Tinubu are sophisticated, ambitious, and educated, with sound knowledge of power dynamics.

He cited the capacity of members of the cabals around Tinubu to manipulate power, build barricades around the president, and stifle information and human traffic from the president.

Tinubu was elected President in a keenly contested election in February 2023 and was sworn in on May 29, 2023. In July last year, he said he was not answerable to any cabal or moneybag.

But Dalung said it is not exactly so.

“I am saying that President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabals were made up of people who were not quite informed, with little experience in politics, public administration, and governance. And so, their activities were more or less limited to their parochial view of understanding power relations and exchanging hands to help themselves with the public purse,” Dalung said.

“But President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabal is made up of sophisticated and ambitious group of people who had a long history in power. They are experienced, they are educated, and so they have sound knowledge of what power is.

“And since they are an ambitious set of people, the presidency will suffer more than that of President Muhammadu Buhari because of their capacity to manipulate power, their capacity to also build security barricade around the president and stifle information from getting to the president except that which they wanted, and then the control of those they would want to access the president.

“These cabals are masters, and therefore, are more dangerous than any cabal in the history of this country,” he said.