Remembering Abba Kyari By abiodun KOMOLAFE

Abba Kyari, CFR, OON! Remember him? Kyari was the Chief of Staff (CoS) to former
President Muhammadu Buhari. Born on September 23, 1952, he served in that prestigious
position between August 2015 and April 2020.

While in office, little was actually known about Kyari in the public realm. Unfortunately too, his
name actually symbolized an uncanny error of namesake. The Borno State-born lawyer and
banker shared a name with somebody who once had a favourable public perception, until Satan
smiled; and the ‘super cop’ lost it!

Kyari died on April 17, 2020, following complications from COVID-19.

In the case of the former President Buhari’s top aide, there’s no doubt that the man saw it all and
had it all! However, going by media reports after his demise, Kyari was a highly misunderstood
and misrepresented person. As a matter of fact, everything about him was misrepresented in the
Nigerian space, even beyond. Even his friends and acquaintances who posthumously were trying
to outshine one another in their tributes to the dead did not help matters. It was Geoffrey
Onyeama who tried to bail him out.

However, had he put together, say, a beautiful piece to set
the record straight while his friend was alive, Kyari would have secured respite from the deluge
of negative impressions hanging on his neck at the time. Had he and others alike done at least
one quarter of what they did after his death, maybe the depiction would have been different.
From observation, Kyari died with his brilliance unacknowledged in Nigeria’s sociopolitical
space; and that was painful. He had a trumpet but he refused to blow it. He refused to announce
his achievements to the world and he paid dearly for it. That he allowed “false allegations” and
“all the defamations” to have their way while his sojourn on earth lasted was not a sign of
strength, more so as his silence was misconstrued for consent. Wherever the late legal luminary
is now chanced to wander, he’s most likely to be regretting his inability to dispute some negative
comments when opportunities presented themselves. After all, there’s no repentance in the
grave!

In human organizations, madness and humanity go hand-in-hand. While what happened to the
late CoS was an unforgivable error, that the Nigerian press also failed to do some digging deep
into his life to avoid misinforming the public is no longer news; and it’s something that should
make the Fourth Estate sad. Kyari was so erroneously portrayed that, even if the angels had seen
him, they’d just have condemned him to hellfire. The more reason the media owes it a duty to
watch it and do a thorough job before putting pen to paper. It’s not a bad thing to paint a man
black. It’s also not that it’s wrong to be black; only that the media has to be sure that what it is
putting out for public consumption constantly swims in the river of truth. This is because the
masses depend on what it pushes out to them. But if it is writing errors, they become errors that
are ‘very errorian’; and that becomes a problem! Abba Kyari was a victim during his time. Who
knows whose turn it will be tomorrow? Unfortunately, many Nigerians who have also heard that
Kyari was a bad man might have even died; and they went away with that sad impression!

Kyari’s final journey from Mother Earth has taught us many lessons. A couple who tied the
nuptial knot in the presence of only the priest and the matchmaker will not be crucified for not
inviting more people as guests. Likewise, a man who’s also vowed that it’s the president who
must preside at his wedding reception can now see that nature has its way of enforcing its laws.
Indeed, that only few people attended Kyari’s internment in an age of COVID-19 rage did not
make it less of a burial. After all, he who buried his father with only 8 people present at his
graveside has buried his father; and the man has gone! Most importantly, if we have less of
‘owambe’ fanfares accompanying social functions, maybe the make-it-by-force struggles which
now define our world will become subdued.

Like the Abba Kyari in all of us, people say, ‘let me not talk about what I am doing or my
achievements’. But what’s wrong with it, especially, when what they are doing is right? Since
nobody will do it for them, why don’t they blow it for the future to judge them right or wrong?
Why not blow the trumpet so that issues can be put in proper perspectives, even after they are
long gone?

Without doubt, those who remember Abba Kyari from their personal perspectives will read
meanings to this write-up. Those who didn’t know him might be wondering why it’s so
important for yours sincerely to bring him back while perception-compliant Nigerians will
understand that this intervention is about ‘one blowing one’s trumpet’, especially when one’s
trumpet is good and enhanced, and it’s in one’s hand. Take it or leave it, we live in a society that
doesn’t help anybody! Even when one has lofty goals and objectives, it still gives one sandbags
that constrain one.

A Yoruba proverb says: ‘Bi omode ba subu, a wo iwaju. Bi agba ba subu, a wo ehin wo’ (Upon
falling, a youngster looks ahead (for help), an elder looks back (for the cause). Well, the problem
with looking down is that it is deliberate. It is also decisive to look up because changing position
to look down is a big trouble. In our fated clime, everybody is just following trends. But nothing
is as frustrating as trends. Contrary to thoughts that nothing seems to be working, the truth is that
Nigerian society is loaded but no one knows the direction in which things are tilting. When
circumstances take their toll, they reduce a perfect man to a man of yesterday. Of course, such a
situation cannot but saddle one with sober reflections. But the reality of sober reflections is that
they tell one the truth about oneself. They reduce one to one’s original self even as they don’t
give room for falsehood. Instead, they make something that’s so big become so small which, in
any case, is not a crime.

Beyond partisan considerations, government and governance in a democracy are the products of
the consent of the governed. However, democracy is like a dictatorship; it also has its
inconsistencies. For instance, I have argued elsewhere that former President Olusegun Obasanjo
would always want to take Nigerians through how many sheep and cows he left behind when he
was relinquishing power to his choice of successor in 1979. He would want to entertain us with
how he met not only a treasury riddled with the bullets of debts but also task our tolerance with
the miracle of debt forgiveness during his second coming. Unfortunately, the former president
has never for once made the mistake of either telling Nigerians the shape of the burden of debt he
handed over to the former President Shehu Shagari on October 1, 1979, or the size of the
estacodes and accompanying expenses the taxpaying Nigerians had to carry on behalf of our

debt-cancellation seekers who practically turned the airspace into their offices, post 1999. This is
in addition to the hymns of the loots repatriation without the accompanying stanzas of their
judicious use. That’s how successive leaders have been faring in office; and it’s a shame!
Abba Kyari attempted to be different but, again, this is Nigeria!
May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, continue to rest Abba Kyari’s soul!

*KOMOLAFE writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria ([email protected])