Under a President Muhammadu Buhari administration that has made it difficult for people, even those within the government, to loot the country’s commonwealth, Abba Kyari’s job as Chief of Staff to the President, is not one that anyone should admire.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Garba Shehu rightly captured the reasons for this when he said, “I will say that the problem Malam Abba Kyari has with most people is that he, like the President he serves, will not throw money at people in order to please them.”
This, surely, is bad news for those who feel a sense of entitlement to the nation’s purse. In a country like Nigeria where most of the elites survive on government patronage, why would anyone be happy with a Chief of Staff like Abba Kyari.
Has anyone wondered why the Chief of Staff has suffered a barrage of sponsored attacks in the media as well as sponsored street protests in an attempt to malign his person?
The reason is simple. Kyari has done quite well to protect President Buhari from some hawks whose negative influences have played key roles in wrecking many administrations in the past.
If he was allowing them access to the loot, to them, “he would have been the best man for the job”
To get back at him, they go to town with all sorts of false tales about the man. Unfortunately, they have built false hopes, believing that they can have the man cowed by sponsoring endless insults and criticisms against his person.
As it is said, what makes a man tick is his ability to develop a thick skin against any unfavourable weather. Abba Kyari has ignored his detractors, focusing instead on helping the President revamp our ailing economy.
In the traditional presidential system, it is the primary function of a Chief of Staff, which may vary according to the needs and desires of each President, to supervise key State House Staff, control access to the office and the person of the President, manage communications and information flow and this includes that which binds the relationship with the two other arms of government.
Abba Kyari’s tasks requires professionalism and grit. It requires stepping on people toes. But worst, as the Chief of Staff, he doesn’t have the privilege of having to explain or defend himself when he comes under attack most times, for unjustified reasons.
Kyari has in recent times come under barrage of attacks. With the recent being his alleged misunderstanding with the National Security Adviser (NSA), a compatriot who wrongly felt he was amassing too much power as Nigeria’s President’s Chief of Staff.
It is not surprising that rarely has anyone written an article in defence of Kyari.
Garba Shehu said, “As CoS, Malam has refused to keep cash imprest and has turned down a monthly grant of N200 million customarily given to the office. This is money freely spent because they were not required to account for what they did with it.’’
Prior to the 2019 election, Abba Kyari in an article titled, “Nigeria Changing for The Better, Failed Elites Have Every Reason to be Terrified” admitted that “government is not easy,” while also raising concerns on how the opposition has attempted to use “banks of paid-for praise singers” to sell wrong and baseless narratives of the President Buhari administration
He wrote, “In a world dominated by instant communication and unregulated social media, the politics of who shouts loudest is increasingly the voice that is most widely heard, often with little or no reference to the facts.”
Since his appointment, Kyari has been a strong pillar of the Buhari administration. It is no surprising that those who seek to attack the President Muhammadu Buhari administration have usually taken aim at the red cap bureaucrat.
Those who know him, describe him as a man who is penchant for thoroughness and perfection. Kyari’s competence is not in doubt and his loyalty to the President is so strong that he has shown his willingness to take a bullet for the administration, without even complaining.
Instead, his resume gives one conclusive prove that President Buhari couldn’t have made a better choice for the office of Chief of Staff.
Trained at University of Warwick in England where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology, he also possesses a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law from the University of Cambridge. He was called to the Nigerian Bar after attending the Nigerian Law School in 1983. In 1984, he obtained a master’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge. He later attended the International Institute for Management at Lausanne, Switzerland and participated in the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School, in 1992 and 1994. These are the best universities one could attend anywhere in the world.
After such a brilliant academic career, Abba Kyari worked in a couple of blue chip firms where he acquired management skills and gained a lot of corporate experience. He worked for the law firm, Fani-Kayode and Sowemimo for some time after his return to Nigeria. From 1988 to 1990, he was Editor with the New Africa Holdings Limited Kaduna. In 1990 he served as Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Resources in BornoState. From 1990 to 1995, Kyari was Secretary to the Board of African International Bank Limited.
Writing on Malam Abba Kyari, a good friend of his for many years, Professor Emmanuel Yaw Bennett of the University of Ghana, pointed out that the Chief of Staff to the President is operating on three cardinal principles, the first of which is that “he will not allow anyone to mislead the President through misrepresentation. Secondly, that he will not allow the President’s integrity to be violated, and thirdly, that he will not allow Nigeria’s interests to be subordinated to any other consideration.”
Kyari is not a politician, and without a doubt, the decision of President Buhari to appoint him is due to his commitment to help rebuild the Nation’s economy. This I believe he is doing without fear or favour
The former war-time British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill once observed that truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may seek to destroy it, but there it is. Against this background, self-seeking and relevant-seeking opportunists who do not wish the Buhari-led administration well, should realize that no degree of blackmail can detract and derail a focused-driven technocrat whose Creed and hallmarks are excellence and diligence.
Leo Ekpenyong Esq, is a legal practitioner and communication scholar
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