A MUST READ: ABBA KYARI: MAMMAN DAURA’S UNWASHED CLOTHE…. By Hassan Mukhtar PhD
“Talking
straight, Mamman you gave Buhari a bad Chief of Staff and shouldn’t be given
another opportunity to give him another bad one if this is the objective of you
laundering Abba which I believe it is”..... Hassan Mukhtar PhD
Whichever
was the case, there is nothing to laud Abba for”.
“Mamman’s
spirited efforts to wash Abba remains what it is: a wasted effort. The claims
made by Mamman for Abba do not jell with the facts and therefore very unhelpful
to Mamman as to Abba. Abba Kyari is dead; may he find peace wherever he is”.
Some people
say Abba Kyari was Mamman Daura’s foster child. Others say he was his boy while
others that he was just his man. It does not really matter which was which and
which was not, especially now that Abba is dead.
Abba’s
death from COVID-19 elicited many comments across the nation all because of the
very important position he held in the Buhari government – Chief of Staff, and
of course his larger-than-life posturing in that office. Some of the comments
in the media were negative – the sincere ones in my view; some were positive –
the insincere and self-serving one’s in my view.
Mamman
Daura’s comments as the subject of this write-up, was positive like the corona
virus Abba tested to which ended up claiming his life.
I see
Mamman’s efforts to clean up Abba not cleaning him because he was a cloth too
dirty for the soap used. Because the soap could not wash Abba, it left him the
dirty clothe he has always been, fluttering on the cloth-line he was dried
where people still hiss at him and spite him.
I now
make a point by point response on what Mamman Daura wrote on Abba after the
latter’s death:
1.
Abba Kyari – A Great Public Servant. This is the title of Mamman’s piece under
reference.
Speaking
for myself and I believe for many ordinary Nigerians, I could neither see the
public nor the servant in Abba Kyari as chief of staff to the President. A
haughty man who looked at the public with unveiled disdain was no servant. To
be a public servant, a great one for that matter, you must accept the public as
your master and do its bidding. Abba was none of these, at least as COS. He
neither saw the public as his master nor himself as a servant as he rode
roughshod over ministers and heads of agencies. One of the things dear to the
public which Abba is said to have been their great servant, is health.
Abba
killed the ministry of health charged with responsibility of running the public
health sector by forcing the minister of health Isaac Adewole to make his
request for purchase of hospital equipment and supplies like drugs through the
minister of agriculture just because he and the health minister had issues.
He
killed the ministry of health believing he would never need it since he could
always go to London for his treatment. Alas this was not to be. COVID-19 came
to town to ensure it would not be.
With
the arrival of COVID-19, the London Abba was banking on closed its doors
against sick people from outside wanting to come to it for treatment. Abba
caught COVID-19 and could not go to London because the doors of London were
firmly closed against him.
Nigerian
hospitals that would have treated him, he had killed. In the end, he had to
share death with the hospitals he killed.
2. The
first point brings me to how Abba, in the first place, got infected with
COVID-19 – something Mamman did not comment on. Abba went to Germany on an
electricity power matter the minister of power should handle.
This
was vintage Abba who delighted in usurping other people’s offices. He was a
hubristic power monger who believed only he could do the job. This was what led
him to nominate himself as a board member of the NNPC while he was at the same
time chief of staff. This was unprecedented and very ugly. But it was not
reversed.
3. Mal
Abba Kyari was a man blessed with mountainous gifts. True, only that these mountainous
gifts Mamman is referring to are mountainous gifts of wickedness,
vindictiveness, crass opportunism, meanness, spite for others and even betrayal
of his boss – the President.
These
were the mountains I saw about Abba Kyari; not those of Mamman’s imagination
and insinuations. Ministers, departments and agencies of government wrote memos
to the President, Abba sat on these memos refusing to pass them to the
President.
These
memos being on how to move Nigeria forward, Nigeria could not be moved forward
because the President never saw the memos and acted on them. These were acts of
spite and meanness for the authors of these memos and of course betrayal of the
President his boss.
4.
Abba Kyari was a man of uncommon attributes of intelligence, diligence, hard
work, loyalty to friends and worthy causes. Most of these virtues claimed by
Mamman for Abba will ring hollow in the ears of anyone who knew Abba closely so
much that the person may say tell it not in Gath. Abba was intelligent.
Intelligence
if it is really intelligence sounds or shines through results and outcomes.
There is no visible, concrete and measurable achievement that could be
associated with Abba in all the places he worked.
Intelligence
should make a man recreate an institution in a positive way through innovations
he brings to bear on the institution. Mamman in his write-up enumerated a
number of institutions Abba worked before becoming Chief of Staff. These
institutions include: the New Nigeria Newspaper Mamman was editor of, NNDC, the
Democrat Newspaper, United Bank for Africa among others.
In
which of these institutions did Abba Kyari shine as an intelligent man through
brilliant initiatives that repositioned these places.
He was
articulate as a sub-editor of New Nigerian Newspaper, Mamman claimed.
This
bare sentimental statement does not tell anyone anything without showing by
facts and figures how Abba’s articulation articulated New Nigeria, which is now
dead perhaps because of what Abba’s articulation articulated it into.
The
UBA Abba left started gasping for breath like a corona patient soon after Abba
left and may soon suffer a coronary event. NNDC like the New Nigeria Newspaper
is dead; so is the Democrat Newspaper.
All
these institutions where the brilliant man worked are all dead and gone to
where he eventually went; where perhaps for a change, he is applying his
legendary intelligence to turn them around.
A bank
Abba worked which Mamman did not refer to for obvious reason was AIB. Abba
killed the bank. In all the places Abba worked, he was not a rank and file man,
but part of management and so was in a position to deploy his alleged
intelligence to make a difference, but he never did. If he made any difference,
it was to crumble these places.
Diligence,
hard work, loyalty to causes and friends. I can’t see these virtues Mamman
claimed for Abba in the places he worked. Where is diligence and hard work in a
man who sat on memos for months and sometimes even years without passing them
to the C-in-C? What was he ‘diligencing and hardworking’ on when he could not
pass memos to the President? Perhaps the diligence and hard work were to sit on
these memos tightly to ensure they don’t get to the President. Sitting so long
on Ibe Kachukwu’s memo, Abba’s buttocks developed spikes lancing the former
minister of petroleum making him to cry out. I can’t see loyalty to friends and
worthy causes in a man who betrayed his boss and perhaps friend by shutting him
out so that he could not hear the cry of the people who elected him.
5.
Abba Kyari grew out of those jobs claimed Mamman. Did he grow out of the jobs
or he was pulled out of them by godfathers like Mamman or by crass opportunism
that piloted his life? If he grew out of them because of merit in him, he did
not seem to have left behind deposits of this merit in these places to see them
through after he left.
6.
Striving to improve himself Abba went to Warwick University in England where he
studied sociology ending up in Cambridge where he studied law. Abba studied
sociology in Warwick University, yet ended up a very unsocial fellow whose gaze
held society in contempt. Sociology is the study of society to understand it
and re-engineer it from the abundance of one’s understanding.
There
was nothing in Abba to show he either understood the Nigerian society or tried
to re-engineer it positively when he got the opportunity of being COS; except
of course he was prevented from applying his understanding by malevolence which
he had in abundance.
Abba
Kyari read law in Cambridge; yet one never heard his name in legal circles in
the courtroom, the academia or the corporate world he roamed scouting for
opportunities. Part of our bane as a nation is overrating people who graduated
from so-called world-class institutions or who graduated with first class without
evidence of any utilitarian value the graduate has brought to bear on society.
Albert
Einstein never went to any great institution; yet he was about the greatest
mind of the twentieth century courtesy of his Theory of Relativity. Abba Kyari
went to Warwick and Cambridge, yet many people never heard of him until he
became COS which he bungled.
7. To
help him deliver on his job as COS, Abba assembled a team of intelligent people
to help him actualize the mandate of the office.
This
is not true. In fact, the contrary was the case. If one missed anything about
Abba Kyari, one would not miss the fact that he was not a team player and it is
only a team player that will assemble teammates to help him play, score goals
and win tournaments. Abba was none of these.
He was
an offish man who held the opinion of others in contempt though not having
better.
The
proof of the pudding is in the eating. If there was such team as Mamman claims,
why were things not working in the Presidency? Why, for instance, were great
guys not appointed into the government? Why were appointments delayed? Why are
there no poster boys for the government?
8.
Mallam Abba joined Buhari’s team and worked wholeheartedly in all campaigns
through the drudgery of injustices of the 2003, 2007, 2011 elections without
losing hope or sight of the ultimate goal.
I
believe even Abba Kyari in his grave will cringe from this one. Of all Mamman
said in his writeup, this is the most disagreeable, blatant lie – not just
half-truth or mistruth. One not only find it embarrassing and disgusting, one
finds it belittling and diminishing of the great Mamman Daura.
Even
in 2003 when Abba supported Buhari, it was not out of belief in Buhari’s
candidacy or love for him, but out of his anger and spite for Obasanjo who
refused to make him CBN Governor.
In the
horse-trading that preceded the 1999 election, Abba Kyari who was initially
proposed as running mate to Obasanjo was dropped in favour of Atiku. However,
before he was dropped, he was promised the office of CBN Governor if OBJ wins.
OBJ won, but Abba was not appointed CBN Governor and I believe it was good for
Nigeria that he was not appointed because he, in all probability, would have
killed the apex bank the way he killed AIB as its CEO and the presidency as
COS.
9. It
was his sense of betrayal by Obasanjo that provoked Abba into aligning with
Buhari when the latter threw his hat in the ring. In 2003, it was the long
shadow of Abba’s hate for Obasanjo that appeared on Buhari as love.
After
the 2007 election, Abba could no longer afford the pretense of being with
Buhari politically and henceforth started referring to the President as a
serial loser he would have nothing to do with. Consequently, all Buhari’s
political committees or movements he was nominated into, he declined sometimes
saying publicly he was not interested in a serial loser.
It is
the same Abba Kyari, Mamman is saying kept faith with Buhari till the sweet end
in 2015. Nothing can be farther from the truth than this.
For
Abba, there was no faith to be kept, and he kept none. Both hope and goal were
out of Abba’s sight and to be fair to him he never hid this wholeheartedly!
Even half-heartedly, Abba did not support Buhari beyond 2007. Given his
antecedents, there was no way he could have gotten the position of COS without
Mamman’s efforts to ensure he got it.
The
President respects Mamman a lot and defers to him on many issues. Mamman cashed
on this and saddled him with Abba as COS – an office he handled very badly.
Talking straight, Mamman you gave Buhari a bad chief of staff and shouldn’t be
given another opportunity to give him another bad one if this is the objective
of you laundering Abba which I believe it is.
10.
Abba’s stewardship as COS provides a benchmark for subsequent COS Mamman said
in his piece.
I am not
aware of any COS there was public outcry against as there was against Abba
Kyari. It is this man, Mamman is saying provided a benchmark for his
successors. Does Mamman want Nigeria to burn? Mamman’s submission here goes
beyond self-service of the worse form to an invitation of civil revolt.
11.
Abba was more intelligent than all the ministers put together. This statement
from Mamman is unfortunate, uncharitable and sad. He does not need to run down
others to make his man stand out. What are the facts of Abba’s intelligence and
those of the stupidity of the entire ministers?
Assuming
what Mamman is saying is true; Abba had a hand in the appointment of ministers
in 2015 and 2019. Why did he pick unintelligent people as ministers? Was it
because of a failure of his reputed intelligence or because he wanted to turn
the President into another serial loser in government by saddling him with
unintelligent ministers? Was it because he wanted to have in government people
he would load his intelligence over? Whichever was the case, there is nothing
to laud Abba for. A further implication of Abba making ministers out of
low-intellect people arising from Mamman’s claim of him being more intelligent
than all the ministers is that the same man could not have assembled a team of
intelligent people to help him man the office of COS as claimed by Mamman.
12.
Unlike many Nigerian elites who tend to lean towards the Bretton wood
institutions one-size-fits all solution, Abba looked inward for solutions.
The
same Abba that looked inward for solutions, Mamman in the same write up said
was heavily influenced by two Nobel Laureates: Prof. Arthur Lewis and Prof.
Armartya Sen none of whom was inward for Abba to be influenced by. Economics no
doubt is not an exact science but a relative one and therefore one-size cannot
fit all.
If
Abba was of this mindset as Mamman claims, he was right. The only problem is
lack of evidence to support the claim. The evidence that exist from the mouth
of his eulogizer on the contrary gives him away as a man who looked outward for
solutions, not inward.
With
the abundance of intellectuals in this country, why should he draw inspiration
heavily on Indian and western intellectuals?
13.
Abba turned his house in Maiduguri into an IDP camp where he was feeding and
clothing 75 people. I won’t want to dwell on this to any length except to say
that the Abba some of us knew never liked living in Maiduguri because he kept
saying the place was too hot for him.
If he
had a house there and gave it to IDPs, it was probably because he had no use
for it and may as well be given out. The issue here is a sensitive one, which
if not as Mamman has said it is, is a matter between him and God for which
there may be consequences in the herenow and the hereafter.
Mamman’s
spirited efforts to wash Abba remains what it is: a wasted effort. The claims
made by Mamman for Abba do not jell with the facts and therefore very unhelpful
to Mamman as to Abba. Abba Kyari is dead; may he find peace wherever he is.
While
praying for peace for the dead, one would advise we do not stir unrest among
the living, by praising a man undeserving of praise so that the President is
once more prevailed on to appoint his kind as COS to continue with the messy
work of the dead COS.
Mamman
Daura saying Abba Kyari provided a benchmark for his successors clearly shows
he is in the process of providing another Abba Kyari for the President to
continue with the ‘good work’ of the dead one.
PMB
don’t allow the likes of Mamman Daura to appoint another COS for you. Appoint
your own person and you will do far better as President!
It is
believed that Mr. President may not have been fully conscious of the
fraternal-twins relationship that existed between his uncle, Alhaji Mamman
Daura and his former Chief of Staff. Upon several similar tales from various
individuals who knew the duo better than President Buhari, it is now incumbent
upon him to look beyond self-seeking, self-serving and egotistical
recommendations for Abba Kyari’s replacement.
In
order to right all the wrongs that late Abba Kyari heaped on the Presidency in
the remaining three years, President Buhari must not go far in search of his
replacement. Several of his trustworthy aides with proven track record of
practical intelligence, performance history and unalloyed loyalty should be
considered.
Above
all, Mr. President must not lose vision to restore political allies, prominent
APC members that were alienated by Abba Kyari.
The
imbalance in composition of states in geopolitical zones with particular
attention to the South East, reconciliation of South East and South South on
the abandoned property scandal, decisive but human approach to the Almajiri
issue, education, infrastructure, technical education, inland Security and
containment of the Fulani herdsmen rascality, will stand as testament and
legacy to your administration if you appoint a long serving aide, an ally, a
man who has suffered like you, the humility of his failed campaigns and the
pains of rejection over the years as the new Chief of Staff. Again, look inside
your camp, Mr. President.
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