By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo

Abba Kyari is dead. We have learnt more about him since he died. It is true when a man dies eulogies and flowers are laid beside him. And eulogies will be eulogies. But the eulogies we have read since he died haven’t just told us how beautiful his soul was ; they have told us how little we knew him.

Many had assumed he was perhaps  an illiterate  herdsman. That was how they described the presidency for five years. But the chief  operating officer of the presidency read  law in Cambridge. He had been an Attorney, an  Editor,  a Managing  Director of the old UBA, a State Commissioner,  a member of the Editorial board of ThisDay Newspapers. Some say he was in the running to be Obasanjo’s deputy. Yet a priest once called him a cattle man.

If he hadn’t died last week many would have continued to believe he was not fit for the job of Chief of Staff. That is not to say he did well. I have my opinion on on this. El rufai gave his in 2017.  But the incontrovertible fact is that he  was qualified.

If he didn’t die we would not have known that he worked with Oshiomhole at Arewa Textiles in 1973. And he fought for the down trodden then. Most of what we were fed was that he was a stumbling block to party supremacy and might have been the champion of the Oshiomhole must go noisome campaign. That is not to say we are sure he still loved Oshiomhole and his politics. But at least we now know that he talked Oshiomhole into supporting Buhari in 2003.

All the eulogies have said one thing: the bug of compulsive wealth acquisition hadn’t bitten him. He lived in a three bedroom apartment filled with books. Every time he traveled he bought books for his friends. That isn’t to say that everyone who buys books reads them. And that is not to say that everyone who reads philosophy and governance allows the contents to affect their thoughts, consciences and actions. But at least we now know he wasn’t the typical Nigerian politician who went around chasing women and contracts and living sybaritically. He tried to be different, perhaps.

When you listen to Onyeama and how they went around as students doing what students did and how they stayed  glued as friends  afterwards; when you read Nda-Isiah describe how he mentored him; When you read Waziri Adio espouse his humanness; you wont see the portrait of a descendant of a certain tribe from Futa Jallon committed to the destruction of Christianity and islamization of the country. This isn’t to suggest that he might not have been guilty of nepotism. But if truth is established in the mouths of many witnesses, then  he might not be the portrait of clannishness and religious extremism  many struggled to make us see.

It is true we have heard mostly from his friends.  Perhaps in months to come we will hear from others. We could hear about Abdulrasheed Maina and what roles he played in that scandal. We cant forget that altercation with the then Head of Service and how she was eventually removed. We  could hear from someone about what happened when the DSS defied the president in the confirmation hearings of the EFCC chairman. Because, when the DSS defied the president the second time, a zealous house boy of the president could have flipped on behalf of the president. Someday we could also learn more about that badly worded query sent to the former FIRS chairman.  We could yet learn so much of him.

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His friends say he took political bullets for the president. And that he had an aversion for media games.  That could explain why despite his media reach and influence, his position in conflicts were never stated in the media.  So every baffling decision of the presidency that could not be attributed to a saintly Buhari  was credited him – the dark manipulative hands in the shadows.   Buhari has clout and a world acclaimed reputation. So anything fishy, rotten must belong to amorphous quantities around him. Unfortunately, we are only learning of Abba Kyari’s integrity after his death. That could be why when they suspected rottenness in  MTN deal they fingered him. That could be why they said he was protective of some oil companies implicated in the Dieziani stories and crude swap.

So why didn’t his friends defend him when he was alive and being battered by mudslingers?

They have told us that he discouraged them. You can believe. I won’t.  I don’t know why I would have a mouth and not use it to defend a friend against sadists. Who needs the permission of a victimized friend  to come to his aid when  he is being assaulted by highway robbers of reputations.

One of Abba Kyari’s  friends who has wept the most is a close friend of a fugitive who for four years has made a career of demonizing Abba Kyari. This man who claims he had known Kyari for 40 years and known him as a cerebral patriot is the same man that has branded the presidency as a devilish vehicle of islamization and destruction; the very presidency Abba Kyari ran.  He is the same man that has lionized the fugitive, everyday for four years, while the fugitive fed citizens with poisoned tales of how Abba Kyari hired a Sudanese puppet to run Nigeria. He said Abba Kyari tolerated his politics. Only God knows how they tolerated themselves , dined and wined , while poor Nigerians were being set against themselves.

We will learn more about him, soon. We have already seen that everywhere he went he rose to the top like he was perpetually flying a hot air balloon. Some have said it was that privilege which they have always  moaned about. Others have said it was intelligence and hard work.

I wish he had written a book. For a man who read so many books  and liked books, reading him would have allowed us a peep into his mind. Now he has left us and left us to listen only to his friends.

His life and death have left many lessons for the living.  I know his friends might not be saying everything. But if they had said only what they have said now, they would have helped him.

It is important  they remember that he contracted the virus  while seeking to solve our power problems. I hope they wont abandon the fight he died in. While we  hope that the new Chief Of staff to the president  will take on that assignment and see that tangible results flow before 2023, Abba Kyari’s friends must assemble.  They can mourn and cry and reminisce. But they  will mourn him better  by doing all they can individually and collectively to get Siemens to provide us power. Tears wont be enough to mourn him. They kept quiet for too long.

VANGUARD