Beyond Abba Kyari
When an influential public figure dies, he ought to be laid to rest, and allowed to rest. The trouble, as Mallam Abba Kyari’s family must have found out in the past week, is that when the adjective, public, appears in the subject, it is particularly loud in death. The loudness of those who take control […]
When an influential public figure dies, he ought to be laid to rest, and allowed to rest.
The trouble, as Mallam Abba Kyari’s family must have found out in the past week, is that when the adjective, public, appears in the subject, it is particularly loud in death.
The loudness of those who take control of the narrative may appear, and apply, in assessments I would broadly classify: the noble, the ignoble, and the controversial.
As a Nigerian contributor of 45 years’ standing, I know that in Nigeria, the first category rarely appears for Nigerians to celebrate. Personally, in the past 20 years, I have recorded in this category only Alhaji Shehu Musa, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), and the irrepressible human rights legend, Gani Fawehinmi.
To avoid a tedious story, I will skip the “ignoble” category today, and move on to the “controversial.” I have recorded a few of those as well, choosing to challenge certain claims of character and patriotism following the passing of the former Chief of General Staff Mike Akhigbe and former PDP bigwig Tony “Mr. Fix-It” Anenih.
There are people for whom the tribute of a public official, when he dies, is a complicated subject.
Not me. Because the deceased—whether he was elected, appointed or self-appointed—pens his own tribute on the day he assumes duty, for publication when he dies.
It is on that first day he writes his own tribute, whether he knows it or not. Because that first day—and they never know that—is in some sense also the last day in office. Sometimes, it triples as the last day of life.
That is why that first day, as that glittering army of worshippers swirls, eager to show the new power the reaches and bounties of office—indeed the limitlessness of his reach—the trick ought to be to walk across the room to the clock on the wall, and stop it.
The new power ought then to turn around and say to the adoring crowd: “Get up from your knees, all of you. Tell me, suppose it all ended here now, how would I be remembered? What would I be remembered for?”
Well, when we are handed that chalice, we tend to forget to make that pause. We turn around, and away, electricity in our veins.
Last week, Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari, whose principal expertise now appears to be in the drafting of obituaries, kicked off the celebration of Kyari, describing him in self-serving superlatives.
But Kyari’s is the one he should not have bothered about not only because his story of the success or importance of his Chief of Staff is the story of his own lack of presence, indeed his colossal collapse as president.
Whether Kyari—an unelected official—was good or bad, effective or ineffective, is beside the point. The Chief of Staff is a creation of the president, and can only reflect, the world view of his appointer.
In the end, Buhari’s statement is not really about Kyari, but about himself, both men being in front of Nigeria’s most pretentious government on record. If Kyari is the star and achiever Buhari describes, what did he achieve?
In a way, that would be an unfair question, because he was only working on Buhari’s farm.
To take one example, Buhari talks about Kyari’s true focus [being] “the development of infrastructure and the assurance of security for the people of this nation”. Buhari’s Kyari must have failed then, for in five years, there remained such a dearth of infrastructure that even in Abuja, there is no hospital capable of treating Buhari’s ear infection; as there was none to accommodate Kyari.
And “security”? Did security matter so much to Kyari he became an obstacle to security? Was Kyari not the one that NSA Babagana Munguno directed the nation’s service chiefs to stop accepting directives from last December, affirming that he had “ruptured our security and defence efforts”?
For five years, Kyari had a front row seat as Buhari has scoffed at Nigerian law, disrespected the judiciary, ignored every electoral promise, and entrenched nepotism as standard procedure.
The narrative is that Kyari was so dedicated to his principal we have to forgive his ignoring of nation. That is no patriotism; at best it is sport, a performance of convenience.
On character, everyone offering a testimony talks about how well they knew Kyari personally and how good he was. I have no reason to disbelieve them. But the test of character is never whether, or how well, a powerful individual gets along with friends or family: some of history’s worst fiends “lived normal” lives at home.
Did you notice that Buhari somehow managed to pen in this tribute two of the craftiest sentences in Nigeria’s political history? “In political life, Abba never sought elective office for himself. Rather, he set himself against the view and conduct of two generations of Nigeria’s political establishment – who saw corruption as an entitlement and its practice a byproduct of possessing political office.”
“Set himself against”? Did he defend principle or character in the case of the MTN fine where he was alleged to have helped himself to a hefty N500m bribe?
Some people say he ignored it so as to protect Buhari. That is convenient, because again, it sounds deeply like arrogance.
Beyond himself, what about the cases involving Chief of Army Staff General Yusuf Buratai; Minister of Internal Affairs Abdulrahman Dambazau, Kano State Governor Abdulahi Ganduje, APC chairman Adams Oshiomhole, or such former federal officials as Abdulrasheed Maina, Babachir Lawal and Ayo Oke?
What about the officials who annually pad the budget or deploy its monies into their private pockets, loot resources such as those of the Global Fund, in response to which the Buhari government swears investigations? What about the repeated looting of humanitarian assistance?
Did Kyari “set himself” against any of these revelations? If not, did he look the other way in order to protect Buhari even as Nigeria became such a laughable country?
The truth is that it was Buhari’s government, not Kyari’s. If Buhari wanted to elevate Nigeria, Kyari could not have stopped him. If Buhari wanted Nigerian children to attend good schools, Kyari could not have stopped him.
The Nigerian tragedy is precisely that: we often define success in governance in terms of our individual access. If you have access, at least access to someone who does, the system is held to be working.
In my view, Kyari found access, and forgot the mission. His vision became limited to the executive jet.
But this is exactly the way officials pen their own obituary that first day. Because on the last day, it is published, sometimes savagely, by others
Kyari may have been brilliant, as they say, but he was lacking in spirit. Because it is by the spirit that a man serves.
Nonetheless, Kyari is yesterday. But his passing does not resolve the storm in the horizon for Nigeria hidden in, and by, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kyari has gone to sleep, but Buhari cannot afford to go to bed.
[This column welcomes rebuttals from interested government officials].
@SonalaOlumhense