The death on Friday, 17th April, of the Chief of Staff to President Buhari has opened a vista of commentaries and eulogies about a man who dominated the inner pantheon of Aso Villa as the unofficial head of the ruling oligarchy. Following the several power tanctrums in Aso Villa, especially from the First Lady, a lot of insinuations dugged Abba Kyari’s path during his life time, as the undisputed commander-in-chief of the cabal. The outward impression of him was one of a defacto or “surrogate” president in President Buhari-led government. He was seen as a Chief of Staff who approximated and appropriated so much power unto himself because of the huge leadership gap of his principal, whose taciturn style, flourished Kyari’s political adventurism. I have read so many well written orations about the late Kyari. I have also seen a pattern in some of the narratives which attempted to deify him as one guiltless soul, that was so result-driven and loyal, and yet, very unmaterialistic. I would not call those narrations as public relations stunt because there is nothing else to sell on behalf of a dead man, but some of these writers did not do Kyari any good for not dissecting his persona to the knowledge of Nigerians when he was alive.
They made some Nigerians formed their opinion of him as someone who was acquisitive, materialistic, power drunk and defacto president who ran the presidency like a mafia gang and members of jacobian scandal club. He was perceived as corrupt on the one hand, and also largely nepotistic like his principal, in the course of dispensing power and its crazy aphrodisiac, to the extent that reference was made of his daughter who got appointed as the Vice President of the Sovereign Wealth Fund. He was austere in his public outing, preferring to operate more as the unseen hand behind the power pendulum in Aso Villa. Typical of most Chiefs of Staff, they are hardly seen or heard, they hardly speak in public, but they direct the flow of presidential directives to achieve the predetermined results on behalf of their principal. At a time when Nigerians were alerted by the First Lady, Aisha Buhari that her husband had been held hostage by those she did not see during the campaigns in 2015, Abba Kyari and Mamman Daura became the easy reference as the founders and executors of the operations of the cabal. Any discourse about an existing cabal became an item in the menu list of Abba Kyari, who, public knowledge perceives, succeeded in scheming out the elected Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo. It is possible that providence is working for the cerebral professor, because there were already silent whispers pointing in the direction that he may be shown the exit door and supplanted by another South West nominee as VP; as a punishment for not being totally loyal when he displaced the erstwhile Director General of State Service, Lawal Daura ostensibly without president Buhari’s nod.
The action taken by VP Osibanjo, did not go down well with the cabal, so we learnt, because as Acting President, Osibanjo was alleged to have taken the decision without express permission from his boss, the President. In response, Osibanjo’s successor to Lawal Daura, the most senior personnel at that time, a Southerner, was shown the exit door with the appointment of a much junior retired officer from the North. I also see a litany of defences for Kyari on the stalemated MTN case concerning huge unpaid charges that were due to the Federal Government. I saw an attempt to absorb him of any complicity in the transaction, by his own admittance that he was not a member of the committee set up to carry out conclusive investigation on the matter. The ordinary man on the street knows that Abba Kyari, as Chief of Staff, called the shots in the presidency to the extent that Aisha Buhari had to accuse Garba Shehu of being a disloyal spokesman ostensibly because the latter takes directive from Kyari and Mamman. I do not quarel with those who maintained friendship with him to know an aspect of the late Chief of Staff, but they should also know that every mortal has many parts. In the chronicle of all the alphabets from A to Z, a man may be so nice and good to 15 of the alphabets and be bad and compromising to 11 remaining alphabets. That to me, seem to be the burden of an Abba Kyari, who held the Aso Villa with so much power and gravitas.
Drawing reference from all the eloquent testimonials about him from being a first class intellectual, a “seasoned administrator”, a “great thinker”, an avid reader of contemporary books, it was a huge disservice to the nation that under him as a confidant and loyal Chief of Staff in the last five years, Nigeria has unadmirably drifted from bad to worse. Yet, we gloat him as one of defining intellect and workaholic in a government that looks so uninspiring in every material particular. Where was Abba Kyari when president Buhari earned the nepotistic tag, as an immoral badge to describe the skewed appointments that come from the inner sanctuary of Kyari’s office? Why would Abba Kyari allegedly deny the Ministry of Health the power to make its own procurement, instead, directed the Ministry of Agriculture to handle same, simply because he didnt like the face of the outgone Minister of Health. How can we have such a Cambridge University product, a Lawyer, an Editor and Boardroom guru, and we were kept in the dark about the health status and several medical tourisms of the president at the expense of taxpayers money? Being loyal does not imply that one should not aggregate the collective interest of the nation when decisions are to be taken. Being loyal should convey a stronger responsibility on the Chief of Staff to properly play the role of advisor-in-chief in key decision making process, that would fulfil the collective aspirations of the citizenry.
From his credentials rolled out by his salesmen so to speak, it is obvious Kyari was engrossed in the politics of the Villa than the quality and substance that he was made of. I am finding it difficult to lay my hands on any cutting edge initiative that he took to help place his principal on a stronger pedestal in the leadership equation of this presidency. At a time when we suffer huge leadership deficit, an Abba Kyari ought to have been an elixir. Such a man could not have been in Aso Villa, yet president Buhari would be avoiding public engagement with Nigerians like plague. Such a man could not have been in the Villa, yet the nation’s economy is dithering and akwardly struggling to walk straight from bad policy or no policy at all. In Buhari’s first tenure, there was no standing ecomomic team to lead the charge under a fluctuating economic reality. A man’s substance and his intellectuality should not pander to eye-service, favouritism, nepotism, selective amnesia, taciturnity and snail pace approach to governance to the extent of almost inching towards leadership inertia. No, we could not have had a man like Abba Kyari in the presidency, and NNPC will award contracts running into several billions without the knowledge of the then Minister of State, Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu. We could not have had a man like Kyari in the presidency, and APC leadership crisis would fester for so long without any discernible intervention until when it almost polarised the country. A man like Kyari could not have usurped the functions and responsibilities of the National Security Adviser, as exposed in that leaked memo, yet you eulogised him in such superlative adjectives. His action did not convey any loyalty to the nation or to the president who appointed him. His conduct should naturally help consolidate initiatives of his boss, and facilitate the simplification of the herculean responsibilities of his principal, expand the catchment to cover the entire country rather than constrict them by sheer nepotism.
His death, no doubt, has yet again brought to the fore, another leadership lesson: that power is simply emphemeral. Watching the almighty and powerful Abba Kyari being lowered to the ground without sirens, gunshots, ornaments, diamonds or gold is a reminder that everyone is actually powerless before God. By virtue of his position, influence and power, he could as well buy life, if it were possible to so do, but the mystery of life and death, remains at the realm of the almighty creator. This is why it is crucial, expedient, desirable and tellingly instructive for leaders and indeed humanity, to apply the right temperament in their human undertakings, especially when they have raw political power in their hands. Everything about life is sheer vanity upon vanity. I do hope his death will also consciously remind those foot soldiers of the cabal, that life is like a candle light in the wind. They should sit back and refocus their energy for the collective good of all. Their decisions should not only be patriotic and purposeful, they should always look at the bigger and broader picture that would impact on our collective destinies rather than building stronger individuals that would take their so-called power with them to the grave. Even though I am aware that the scramble for Abba Kyari’s successor is on already, I will advocate for a stronger presidency, stronger institutions that will outlive the occupants of offices in the overall interest of Nigeria. This is the way to go in a 21st century world, and especially in a country that appears detained in corruption, under-development and incompetent leadership.
To be continued…..
NB: Prince Kassim Afegbua, a former Commissioner for Information and Orientation in Edo State wrote in for The New Diplomat from Abuja.
