“My Dad’s Private Secretary Was Overbearing, Ministers Feared Him” — Fatima Buhari

Fatima Buhari, daughter of the late Muhammadu Buhari, has revealed that Tunde Sabiu, her father’s former private secretary, wielded excessive power within the presidency, creating fear among ministers and senior officials.

Speaking in From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, a biography by Charles Omole, Fatima said she was recounting what she personally observed and heard while her father was in office. “I am not spreading rumours,” she stressed, “these are things I saw and heard myself.”

According to Fatima, Sabiu, who was also Buhari’s nephew, controlled the flow of documents and access to the president, giving him influence well beyond his official responsibilities. She noted that stories of his power circulated widely, including a clip of a foreign visitor joking that it was impossible to see the president without Sabiu’s approval.

Several ministers, Fatima said, behaved as though only Sabiu could facilitate progress on government matters. “Tunde had a hold on most of the ministers,” she recalled, adding that the administration operated under the fear that offending him could stall or even halt official initiatives. “He made it clear to them that they could do nothing without his involvement,” she said.

While acknowledging that private secretaries naturally have gatekeeping power, Fatima described Sabiu’s behaviour as overbearing. “He was overbearing,” she said. She also recalled moments when her father intervened directly. “In front of me, there’s a time that Baba shouted at Tunde,” she recounted, calling it a rare instance of public correction from a leader who typically preferred persuasion over rebuke.

Despite these interventions, Fatima said the system of access control persisted, allowing those in charge of the gate to impose what she described as a “toll” on governance.

Fatima, a forensic auditor, also raised concerns about alleged forged signatures during the administration. She said she reviewed documents and showed her father examples of signatures that were not his. “Others raised similar alarms,” she noted, “but I could not identify who was responsible.”

She emphasized, however, that the problem of forged signatures was not unique to her father’s tenure, pointing out that previous administrations had faced similar challenges.