Ernie Onwumere
It is quite understandable that vested interests, ethnic sentiment and virulent propaganda would always be dominant issues in a multi-faceted country like Nigeria. They are strong emotive factors that influence our politics. They undergird our governance as much as they dominate issues in public discourse. And when it comes to assessing public appointments, those primordial emotions often take the centre stage and tint public perceptions so much that they obscure critical issues of merit and competence while casting innocent appointees in wrong robes of castigated personalities.
The trend has festered for almost all of our national history. Thus, whenever a government makes key public appointments, some appointees are subjected to ferocious denigrations by desperate politicians and purveyors of propaganda who only see everything through the prism of ethnicity and selfish interests. Sometimes, a mere name carrying a certain ethnic label attracts undue criticism and misrepresentation at the expense of reason and substance.
Unfortunately, the foregoing scenario has been the distasteful experience in the case of Mr Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. Before I go on, let me issue a swift disclaimer to the effect that Mr Kyari had no prior knowledge of this writing. This public submission is my independent opinion of a man I have known well, studied closely and come to conclude that he is a victim of the typical Nigerian sentimental misrepresentation, orchestrated in part by corrupt politicians. For me, there is certainly more to the man called Abba Kyari beyond the surname he coincidentally shares with some fellow northerners.
There is more patriotism to him than the many mischievous fables of an Aso Rock wheeler-dealer cabal leader woven around his personality. And there is more quality substance to his identity beyond coming from a certain part of the country. But only those who care to be objective and look beyond the smog of politics will know the truth. Sadly, there are conspirators who do not think good of our country, sponsor blackmail protests and articles in the social media by binding half-truths and standing truth on the head to mislead uninformed Nigerians. This propaganda is evil, just as Shakespeare will say “a conspiracy that was ashamed to show its dangerous face by night, a time when even the worst evil was free…and by daylight, it would hide its evil face behind smiles and affability”. Nigerians offline and online are advised to be beware of the mischievous falsehood mongers and purveyors of fake news who operate behind faceless sites.
The truth is that Kyari is a highly credible, well-educated Nigerian who had proved his mettle in the private sector as a thoroughbred professional before being appointed Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2015. His education records show that the Chief of Staff obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Warwick, England, in 1980. He also got a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law from the University of Cambridge, England and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1983. In 1984, he obtained a Masters’ Degree in Law from his alma mater, the University of Cambridge.
Between 1988 and 1990, Kyari was the Editor of Democrat Newspapers under the New Africa Holdings Limited, Kaduna. He also served with the Borno State Executive Council as Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Resources in 1990 and was Secretary to the Board of African International Bank Limited, between 1990 and 1995. Hungry for more education, he attended the International Institute for Management Development at Lausanne, Switzerland, and participated in the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School, in 1992 and 1994 respectively.
In terms of extensive private sector professional experience, Mr Kyari had been an Executive Director, Management Services, United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) and later became the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Bank. Over time, he had been appointed a Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc, Exxon Mobil and other companies. As a stint in public service, Kyari served as Honorary Member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Investment in Nigeria between 2000 and 2005. And he is a recipient of the Nigerian Honor Award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON).
Now, looking at the vast professional and administrative experience spectrum of such a Nigerian, it would take a subjective critic to disparage his tenure as Chief of Staff on the altar of prejudice and ethnic stereotyping. Interestingly, one of the many spurious tales of unflattering characterization that have been thrown at Kyari is that of nepotism. Just by the mere mention of his surname, the man has been variously misrepresented as been the father, godfather or relative of other people who also bear Kyari surname and happen to be public officers. For some Nigerians who are given to hasty generalization, every Kyari name from Borno, Yobe or Kano must be his brother.
Ever since the appointment of Mr Kyari as the Chief of Staff to the President in 2015, many purveyors of propaganda of this Google age had misconstrued him with other personalities with a similar name. Some cheap, misguided bloggers do not help matters either, as they constitute the main propagators of the confusion. Any enlightened person would know that there are different families answering the same surname in Northern Nigeria, as in other parts of Nigeria. There is now Mr Mele Kyari who has just recently been appointed as the new GMD of NNPC. None of these people is related to the Chief of Staff. Although the new NNPC GMD is also from Borno State as our subject, the former is from the Kanuri tribe while the latter is from the Shuwa tribe. Annoyed with this fake news Femi Fani-Kayode tweeted “We must be factual in our criticism otherwise it erodes our credibility. It is NOT true to say that Mele Kyari, the new GMD of NNPC, is a relative of Abba Kyari, the Chief of Staff to @MBuhari. I have know Abba for 40 yrs and I assure you that Mele is not a member of his family.”
Some people decried the employment in April this year of one Aisha Abba Kyari as Associate Vice President, Infrastructure, at the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority as a case of nepotism. That is not true. Yes, the lady is a daughter of the Chief of Staff but she got appointed wholly on merit and not by nepotistic influence as blackmail peddlers would want the public to believe. Like her father, Aisha is a highly educated Nigerian who holds Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees from the University of Birmingham and University of Surrey, England, respectively. Before her appointment to the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority, she had worked as Personal Assistant to Special Advisor to the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as well as being on the Gas Commercial Team of the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP). So, does the fact that the poor lady has Abba Kyari as her father means she shouldn’t vie for jobs others apply for and get appointed if deemed qualified?
By the way, one other unsubstantiated fallacy that critics used to spawn against Mr Kyari is that of being a cabal leader who runs rings around the president and manipulates his government at will. What a grand fabrication of fertile imaginations! How could anybody believe such a tenuous lie that a very intelligent, independent-minded and experienced leader like President Buhari would be a pawn in the hands of a so-called cabal? Contrary to rampant falsehoods that cast Mr Kyari as a clique mastermind, he is the most diligent, competent, intelligent, tireless and patriotic Chief of Staff that any president could have.
Onwumere, writes from Lagos.