It, however, pointed out that having some people around the President did not start with the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Presidency explained that elsewhere, such people are known as ‘kitchen cabinet’, describing ‘cabal’ as derogatory.
A Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu said this while speaking at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Press Corps at the weekend.
Shehu said that the people being referred to as cabal in the presidency were successful and are making extreme sacrifices serving the government.
“Every president must have people who advise him. It is not a sin, it is not an offence to have people that you take into confidence.
“What is the meaning of cabal? I just googled Thesaurus and among many other definitions, what they are saying is that cabal means ‘conspire, intrigues, mystique, occult, secret.’
“There is no government in this country that we have had that some people were not accused of being a cabal in that government and it is because every administration, every president must have a secretariat.
“Elsewhere, they call it ‘kitchen cabinet’, but in our own country we are being derogatory and we term them cabal so that it will tarnish their own good standing.”
