Weekend passing of Mallam Abba Kyari, former chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari must have sent some shrill down the spine of Nigeria’s burgeoning Presidency. Regarded as the most powerful man at Aso Rock Villa, Abuja besides the President, the death of a man perceived by many as the fulcrum or engine room of government, may create a yawning gap.

He was not just the intellectual power house of the administration, shaped its vision but a moderating influence amongst the hawks contending for power at the Presidency and took flaks on behalf of his ailing boss, according to Femi Fani Kayode, former Minister of Aviation who has been Kyari’s friend for 40 years.  Fani Kayode also described the famed red cap chief as a “good man,” who was loyal to his boss and friends and had the ability to explore “back door channels” to reaching out to critics of the government.

That’s why some simply call him the Prime Minister, the power behind the throne or the defacto Nigerian ruler. Kyari no doubt, wielded a lot of power, exuded tremendous influence and was further emboldened by the directive that all Ministers seeking audience with the President had to pass through him.

He was therefore the clearing house for knotty issues of governance. Little wonder, in his Abba Kyari’s Death, End of a Surrogate Presidency and the Coming Chaos, Farooq Kperogi, a known critic of the Buhari administration, says, “With Kyari’s death, Nigeria is now truly leaderless. Buhari is practically in the land of the living dead,” noting that, “Abba Kyari ruled the country on Buhari’s behalf”. Apart from leaving a big shoe to fill, Kyari’s exit may oil the struggle for primacy and pre-eminence by political hawks.

Kperogi’s narration paints a rather foggy future without Kyari. “Sometime in the midpoint of last year, a northern retired general told me Abba Kyari said in private that people who vilify him don’t realize that without him Nigeria would be rudderless and descend into chaos.” Now, he is gone, and the chaos he talked about would start in the coming days and weeks.

But Kyari had a not too chummy relationship with the First Lady, Aisha Buhari who openly accused him of being a part of a cabal that hijacked the government and have been pursuing their selfish agenda.

In spite of his Olympian height, some argue that Kyari was not particularly enthralled to the lure of office. “Abba was very simple and humble. He was also very friendly with everyone. He had very little interest in material things. We had a common interest in politics and I believe it was our socialist political values that cemented our friendship because we were always discussing politics and how to salvage Nigeria right up to his passing,” writes Geoffery Onyeama, Foreign Minister, also a close associate of Kyari for 43 years. . This may be forlorn and reeks of some attempt at deodorising a fallen friend given his alleged involvement in the MTN N500 million bribe scandal and other sleazy deals.

However, Kyari had a predilection for late Dr Ibrahim Tahir, another northern intellectual who died without a personal house and may have been enamoured by the lifestyle of a man he had admired since his secondary school days. Attending Cambridge University where Tahir got a PhD in the late 70s must have been some great fulfilment of this stride.   

In his tribute titled “Ibrahim Tahir: A personal loss,” written in The Guardian of December 23^rd, 2009, Kyari’s affection was evinced by his thought: “He had a naturally generous and feeling heart. He lived for others. He troubled himself very little about material things. His aversion to the tyranny of wealth and material possession was pushed to a whimsical length”. He obviously saw Tahir, a former Minister as a role model and may have struggled to live like him.         

His demise from complications related to Covid-19 has brought home the reality that the virus is really no respecter of status and that citizens need to abide strictly to the regulations outlined by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Federal Ministry of Health to stay safe.

Even in death, Kyari’s eminence and overwhelming influence was visible. His burial saw the sidetrack of most of the protocols outlined for the disposal of COVID-19 corpses which led many to argue that there seem to be different laws for different people in the country. Those who told the citizenry that corpses of those who die from COVID-19 would not be released to their families started singing a new tune.  

In clear breach of directives to private hospitals not to treat COVID-19 patients, Kyari was treated at a private hospital in Lagos instead of the designated isolation centres, raising questions on whether his treatment was properly handled by the medical personal in that hospital. Why did the hospital openly defy the directive of both the NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health?

A government that was eager to wield the big stick against popular actress, Funke Akindele and her husband for holding a party in defiance of the lockdown became numb when it came to Kyari. The government also made mincemeat of its own protocol on COVID-19. More than 100 persons including Ministers and other senior government officials attended his burial at Gudu cemetery at Abuja, putting to shame all the sermon on social distancing.  

A recipient of the national honours of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON), Kyari served as Chief of Staff to President Buhari until his death. He was born in 1952 from the Kanuri speaking tribe in Borno State.

He attended St Paul’s College, Wusasa, Zaria where he was the senior prefect. In 1980, he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of Warwick, and also received a bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Cambridge. In 1983, he was called to the Nigerian Bar after attending the Nigerian Law School.

In 1984, he obtained a master’s degree in Law from the University of Cambridge and later attended the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland and participated in the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School, in 1992 and 1994, respectively.

Kyari 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, publishers of The Democrat newspaper and had a stint as Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Resources in Borno State.

From 1990 to 1995, Kyari was the secretary to the board of African International Bank Limited, a subsidiary of Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

Kyari was an executive director in charge of management services at the United Bank for Africa, and was later appointed the chief executive officer. In 2002, he was appointed a board director of Unilever Nigeria, and later served on the board of Exxon Mobil Nigeria.

In August 2015, Kyari was appointed Chief of Staff to President Buhari.

Kyari was an influential figure within the Buhari administration. During the administration’s first term, he worked mainly behind the scenes to implement the President’s agenda. After Buhari’s re-election for a second term in 2019, he ordered his cabinet to channel all requests through Kyari’s office, further enhancing his influence within government circles, and being labelled as the de facto head of government.

In 2017, following a leaked memo, Kyari became embroiled in a public argument with the then Head of Civil Service, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita who was later removed from office and arrested and is presently facing trial along with others over N3 billion graft.. In 2020, in another leaked memo, Mr Babagana Monguno, the National Security Adviser accused Kyari of meddling in matters of national security and foreign affairs

On March 24, 2020, it was made public that Kyari tested positive for COVID-19 on March 23, following an official trip to Germany nine days before. Kyari died in a Lagos hospital on Friday, 17 April 2020, from complications related to COVID-19.

He is survived by his wife, Kulu and four children.