Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has revealed that former President Muhammadu Buhari became a stranger in his own government after assuming office.

Speaking during an interview with Seun Okinbaloye on Mic On Podcast, Dalung stated that Buhari was used to eliminate former President Goodluck Jonathan and his government.

Dalung believes that Buhari was barely aware of what was happening in the country. He cited an example of how he had to inform him about the worsening crisis of insecurity going on in the country.

According to Dalung, it was during a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that he informed Buhari about the dispute between the EFCC and the DSS, which had held a community hostage for three days, a situation which was all over the news.

He stated that most times, his advisers and appointees failed to alert him on situations happening in the country, as he believes the government was hijacked from Buhari.

Dalung said, “I’m utterly disappointed, what we told Nigerians was not what had happened. We lied, we should admit, we lied to Nigerians. We deceived Nigerians. We were a replica of what we were accusing the PDP of.

Buhari was also used and dumped. Buhari’s charisma was needed at the time by the political elite to eliminate Jonathan and shortly after Buhari had taken over power, these sets of political elites marched and hijacked government. And Buhari was a stranger in his own government. And I can corroborate this.

I went to see the president in 2020, when I was out of office. I told him, Mr President, this wasn’t what we told Nigerians that I have conscience. We campaigned and convinced Nigerians and when I look at the type of investments the common people put in our government, and here we are today with insecurity. When we came in, it was only the northeast, as of 2020, it was not even possible to travel from Abuja to Kaduna and I dared him, I said to him, Mr President, if you disbelieve what I am saying, let me join you, we drive from Abuja to Daura and I promised him that if bandits do not attack him, I will go and die in exile.

I briefed him about the hardship and to be very fair, the president expressed surprise. From my own judgment, some of the things I said were things he was hearing for the first time. I’m not surprised such has happened. Because even when we were in government and it happened, it was me at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that informed him. When DSS and EFCC were dagger drawn in Asokore for three days, they held the entire environment hostage, the president didn’t know. It was everywhere, the press, print media etc.

For this particular incident, where the president was in Nigeria for three good days and we went to the FEC meeting and I was expecting the issue to be on the agenda, the first thing we will look at, until we finished our meeting, it was not there. I had to introduce it through AOB and the president was completely in confusion, listening to what I was saying. And at the end of the day, we even left without any closing prayer because he was completely angry. When he left, on my way to my office, I saw those two agencies directly under his office. Holding a community hostage for three days because of whatever interest they have and the president didn’t know. There was no security at his table, the national security adviser could not inform him.
For me, Buhari’s integrity was needed to eliminate Jonathan and his government.”

Watch the video below,