Abba Kyari: One of the Kaduna boys

The nation paid a heavy price to the pandemic coronavirus when it lost Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to the President, to its most virulent version, the COVID-19.

Judging from the stream of eulogies from within and outside the country, the nation has lost one of the most prominent public functionaries. To us his contemporaries, particularly that age grade from Borno, it was a painful personal loss. Though he was born in Bama and had his primary school there, he frequented Maiduguri, where many of us were born and raised.

In Maiduguri, he lived with his brother-in-law, Abba Habib, a prominent politician from Borno, then a Minister in Sardauna’s government and later Waziri of Dikwa. For secondary school, Abba Kyari relocated to Kaduna to attend the St Johns College, Wusasa, Zaria.

He was one of those we dubbed ‘the Kaduna boys’ along with many of our colleagues; Mohammed Hayatuddeen, Barrister Laminu Baba Gana, Ambassador Baba Gana Zanna, Buhari Hassan, who were children of prominent public officers and top civil servants living and working in Kaduna. Most of them did their secondary schools in Kaduna or thereabout in Keffi or Zaria. Whenever they visited home at that time when Maiduguri was yet to shed off its rusticity, we marvelled at the urbanity they exuded.

After secondary school, Abba even remained to work in Kaduna before going overseas for university education first in Warwick, and later in Cambridge. When he eventually returned to the country in the early 1980s, he made Kaduna his home, working at the Democrat Newspaper, the NNDC before making forays into the banking and oil industries.

Our paths crossed again in 1990 when Abba was named a commissioner in the new cabinet put together by the newly appointed Military Governor, Col. Mohammed Lawan Maina. I was Permanent Secretary, Government House, that year and my first encounter with him was on the issue of his portfolio.

That evening when their portfolios were announced and Abba was named Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, he turned up in the night in my house along with his bosom friend, Engr. Baba Gana Zanna, then Managing Director of Chad Basin Development Authority, to protest his portfolio. Normally the AG was the first among equals in the cabinet, probably because he wore two hats; an attorney to the government as well as also being a commissioner and political leader of the Ministry of Justice. I regarded it as a very influential position and I thought all lawyers would jump at the opportunity.

But when he explained that the number of years he had then spent in the bar would not be enough, statutorily, for him to serve confidently as an attorney of the government, I saw his point and from that day he earned my respect for his sagacity and forthrightness. As soon as they left, I drove to appraise Mahdi Bukar, the Secretary to the Military Government (SMG) and proceeded to Government House to brief the Military Governor.

The next day, adjustments were duly made and Abba was assigned as Commissioner, Ministry of Forestry and Animal Resources. It was a pity that circumstances did not allow him to settle down properly in Maiduguri; their regime was shortlived, lasting less than six months. It was the height of the game of musical chairs operated by the Babangida military government when governors were appointed and dismissed whimsically. When the new Military Governor, Col Mohammed Buba Marwa, arrived to assume duties in Maiduguri in June 1990, one of his first pronouncements was to dismiss the cabinet and form a brand new one.

Borno State Government lost Abba’s services and he went back to Kaduna, but I kept a nodding acquaintance with him thence, paying particular interest to the occasional articles he wrote in the Guardian Newspaper and later ThisDay. On whatever topic he wrote, Abba was lucid, erudite and one was always compelled to pay attention. I was pleasantly surprised at the beginning of President Buhari’s first term in 2015 to find Abba as his Chief of Staff.

I knew he was eminently qualified in many respects, but I had a nagging feeling that his lack of exposure to the public service would be a deficit. But to the surprise of many of us, Abba overcame that deficit and went even the extra distance to create a niche among the overall Presidential Staff. The high regards for his abilities were manifest in the eulogies of the President as well as his long time mentor, Mamman Daura, and his closest working partner, Jalal Arabi, the Permanent Secretary, State House.

Allah ya ji kanshi. Allah ya rahamshe shi. Amin.

From my mailbag:

Government College Keffi @ 70 and Tribute to Abba Kyari

I completely agree with the contributor to your column last week, Barrister Abraham N. Yisa (MON), about the positive contribution of Missionary Schools to the educational landscape of Northern Nigeria.

In addition to St Paul’s College, Wusasa, and St John’s College, Kaduna, there are others like Villa Nova, Numan, Gindiri Boys High School, Waka Secondary School, Mount St Michael’s Secondary School, Aliade, St Gabriel’s Secondary School, Makurdi, and of course the all-girls St Louis School, Bompai, Kano and Queen of Apostles College Kaduna. Products of such schools were brilliant, resourceful and more often than not wonderful sports persons.

When I was in Barewa College, Zaria, our neighbours at St Paul’s College were a constant cause of academic and sports pain to us until we managed to seize the initiative especially in the academics. The transplants of these schools for the Higher School Certificate (HSC) programme in the public schools had tremendous positive effect in the study habits and even in the inter house sports competitions.

It is under such endearing situation that I first made the acquaintance of the affable and friendly late Abba Kyari, otherwise known to many of us as Abba Chima, the Chief of Staff to the President. So much wonderful tribute has been written about his commitment and dedication to serving the nation and his principal, PMB. He was equally fiercely loyal to his subordinates too. He once told us a group of friends about how he stood by one of his senior management staff when he was at the helm of one of the Premier Commercial Banks. The individual in question was a regular columnist to a number of newspapers and lately a very high public figure. In one of his contributions, he strongly criticised some capital projects back in his home state. Some senior government officials approached Abba Kyari, his boss, and demanded for his sack or a disclaimer of the views expressed failing which the state government placements (remember it was a euphemism for negotiated deposit of public funds) will be withdrawn and even the private sector community of the state will be encouraged to review their relationship with the bank. Abba refused to accede to either of the requests, stressing that the views expressed were entirely personal and had, in no way, impinged on his official duties. He was so concerned that he took the matter to the Board of the bank which backed his stand. Such a courageous stand on behalf of a subordinate especially in the face of enormous state powers to do and undo were indeed very rare. May the Almighty Allah bless his soul with Aljannata Firdausi. Amin.

Buhari Hassan