Funtua, a close associate of President Muhammadu Buhari, had in January denied being a member of any cabal as alleged by the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, but a ‘cabal myself’.
The Chairman of construction giant Bulet Construction company and former Managing Director of defunct Democrat Newspaper Mallam Ismaila Isa Funtua is dead.
The Katsina state born former President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) reportedly died of cardiac arrest Monday night.
He was a life patron of NPAN.
He is to be buried according to Islamic rites on Tuesday.
Funtua, a close associate of President Muhammadu Buhari, had in January denied being a member of any cabal as alleged by the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, but a ‘cabal myself’.
Funtua, who was a guest on The Morning Show, a programme on Arise Television, had said it was an insult to say Buhari is running his government through a group of people.
He had accused people of using the term cabal in a derogatory manner, saying the president is free to have people he trusts around him.
‘I’m not a member of any cabal, I’m cabal myself,’ he had said.
‘What is cabal? In short, I think it means kitchen cabinet, people that you trust. People you believe will not deceive you, that they can do things in the interest of the country.
‘Nigerians are using it in a derogatory term, not in the real meaning of it. Take a dictionary, what is the real meaning of cabal?’