Malam Abba Kyari

Malam Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Buhari died on Friday 17th in a Hospital in Lagos after battling with the coronavirus. He died in the course of national service having contracted the disease during an official visit to Germany. He must have received the best medical care that Nigeria can provide. But he […]

Malam Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Buhari died on Friday 17th in a Hospital in Lagos after battling with the coronavirus. He died in the course of national service having contracted the disease during an official visit to Germany. He must have received the best medical care that Nigeria can provide. But he could not be saved. May his soul rest in peace and may the Good Lord forgive him all his sins.

Abba was born in Borno State, lived his early life in Maiduguri and led  the normal Muslim life in his surroundings and under devout parents. Even before becoming old enough to be enrolled into the primary school for his western education, he had started learning the Arabic script and the basics of Islamic religious education, Expectedly, he was being brought up to be a good Muslim child of good character.

However, his secondary education unexpectedly took a different turn from the normal  for a Muslim child from Borno of all places. It  was to a Christian missionary school at Wusasa in Zaria. The school was Saint Paul’s, Wusasa where early Northern Christians were tutored.

Not only was the environment at Wusasa quite unfamiliar to the young Kyari,  the student mix was very different from that he was used to in Maiduguri. The students at Saint Paul’s were a mix of the many tribes that made  up Northern Nigeria.

As was to be expected, the majority  of the students were not from the Hausa speaking Muslim population, but from the non-Muslim and non-Hausa speaking northern minority ethnic groups.

The years he spent in Wusasa must have imparted in him a better understanding of the Northern society and better prepared  him for the role he was destined to play in his country as a leader.

Obviously, Kyari mixed and adapted well to his new environment. In adult life, he used to fondly and regularly recall his life experiences at Wusasa and the diversity of friendships he made as he progressed in life.

He received his higher education in the United Kingdom in the Universities of Warwick and Cambridge, receiving  degrees in Sociology and Law  and being called to the Nigerian Bar. He took courses in reputable institutions in Switzerland and the United States in the course of developing  his career.

His university education and life exposed him to different world experiences and the expectations that formed his world view. In both Warwick and Cambridge,  he must have made valuable contacts and friendships with fellow students from around the globe.

His career trajectory widened his social and political horizons made him understand  the nature and diversity of the Nigerian communities and the interdependence of  peoples and nations.  He had practised law and administration, acquired banking and management experience and lived in many parts of the country working and understanding how to manage people and resources at the heights he reached.

His life and professional experience must have made him  understand that any one in  responsible positions and operating at the highest policy making level cannot afford to be selective and nepotic in the discharge of his national responsibility.

On becoming the Chief of Staff to President Buhari, in 2015, Abba Kyari must have deeply reflected on the burden of the office he was coming into and his duty to the President, to the nation, that is the people of Nigeria and to his God.

Although, I have earlier in life occasionally interacted with Abba Kyari, it was not until the political years of the Yar Adua and Jonathan dispensations that we became close. The Kyari I got to know is not a Loner. He was a man always in search of new  friends across the divides and developing  new and varied company; a man in search of social justice and political solutions, a man who loved to engage in free and unfettered debate of issues. He was a man of realism who was blessed with a rich and practical mind.

In his office as Chief of Staff and an influential person in the Buhari Administration, he was criticised and accused of running a cartel of an insular faceless group. I do not pretend to know the composition and the operational modes of the cartel. But the conclusion I can draw is that any form of administration has, from the beginning of time, formed  small tight working  groups that influence the decision making processes  of  the government or institutions they serve. In  this, they may also serve their own personal interests. I cannot think or believe that Abba Kyari abused his privileged office.

Such groups are given different names: the mafia, the cartel, the kitchen cabinet and many other such names. They all do no more than their assigned duties require of them; that of processing the submissions that daily arrive their desks on their way to the desk of the president.

It is their duty to ensure that all the information made to the president is available and is correct before submission to the president to enable him  make an informed decision.

In the  course of discharging their duty they may likely and often do discover that some vital information is not disclosed, some time deliberately suppressed. In making such disclosures, they inevitably  make enemies of the ministers and heads of agencies  and other interests within and outside the government.

In any case, the final decision is the collective decision of the cabinet not a cabal or any other group or person. I am pretty certain that Abba Kyari had the capacity to discharge his responsibilities to the president to whom he was  loyal. From what I got to know about him, he was competent, loyal and patriotic servant of Nigeria. I cannot believe that it could even be possible for him to abuse his office.

In the end, the execution of government lies in the hands of the ministers and other executors of government policies and programs not any cabal or kitchen cabinet.

The quality, professionalism and impartiality of the public service system as well as   the quality and leadership commitment of the cabinet ministers to whom the president has delegated his powers over their portfolio assignments determine how government policies are executed .

May the soul of Malam Abba Kyari rest in perfect peace

 

Ahmed Joda.