Segun Ayobolu
So powerful, influential and pervasive was the clout that the late Mallam Abba Kyari brought to bear on his office as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari that future historians are not unlikely to divide the presidency between 2015 and 2023 into two epochs- Before and After Abba.
For some, he was hugely effective and impactful in the discharge of his duties. To others, his contributions to governance and especially the image of the Buhari presidency were largely negative.
Since Kyari succumbed to the might of the coronavirus, his friends and long time associates have regaled the public with accounts of his towering intellect, pan-Nigerian outlook, humane disposition and kindness, sense of humour, patriotism, passionate commitment to Nigeria’s development and immense capacity for hard work among other positive attributes.
Those who knew him either by reputation or their assessment of his role in public office have a more unflattering perception of the Abba Kyari persona. They portray him as arrogant, clannish, grasping, overbearing and vindictive. It is appointed unto men once to die and after that there is judgment declares the Christian scripture.
But then, the judgment referred to here, belongs to God. Yet, man is all too quick to declare a moral verdict on the lives of others while hardly ever engaging in brutally honest self-introspection.
Can flawed man qualify to sit in moral judgment over others? Yes, most of us may affect an attitude of ethical superiority over others because we do not overtly violate stipulated societal laws. If we do, we probably have not been found out and thus still enjoy our liberties.
Does that then make us intrinsically better than those who find themselves as inmates of correctional centres for sundry infractions of the law? Not necessarily. ‘There but for the grace of God go I’, a famous evangelist once declared on seeing a drunken man staggering along the highway.
We remember the biblical story of the Pharisees who, in self-righteous indignation, brought a woman ‘caught in the very act of adultery’ before Jesus eager to stone her to death in accordance with the Law of Moses.
‘Let he who has no sin cast the first stone’ the teacher solemnly declared. One by one her accusers dropped their condemnatory stones and left the sinning woman alone. “I do not condemn you” Jesus told the astounded woman, “Go and sin no more”.
Are any of us perfect enough to pass moral judgments against others? Do we have sufficient information to justifiably cast the first stone against the perceived misdeeds of others? I don’t think so. There is no man too flawed that does not have some redeeming virtue.
There is no mortal so perfect that does not have some shortcomings no matter how well disguised. In the final analysis, we may not know enough about the root causes and circumstances that compel some of even the most detestable behaviors and attitudes of people.
That is why man is not qualified to judge. God is the only one with all the information and the moral perfection to sit in judgment over man – his creation. It has been said that our Supreme Court is final not because it is infallible.
Rather, it is infallible because it is final. Let no man therefore sit in moral judgment over Abba Kyari or any other. Some even celebrated his death on social media. They acted in ignorance. For, the bell soon tolls inevitably for all mortals.
I cannot agree more with my colleague, Sam Omatseye, who in his column on Monday succinctly and surgically noted that “Many have written tributes to Kyari, and it seems our people don’t understand that when a big man dies, our jobs are not to praise or vilify, but to look clinically at legacy”.
The point then is not to sit in judgment over Kyari. It is to interrogate his tenure particularly as Chief of Staff in order to learn pertinent lessons both from his perceived strengths and failings.
For me, it is not his personal attributes as a friend, family man and benefactor to some that should preoccupy us now. Yes, those who enjoyed the showers of his benevolence and personal comradeship have a right, even duty, to sing his praises from the rooftops.
The public analyst can enjoy no such luxury. As a very influential Chief of Staff in Nigeria’s all powerful Presidency, Abba Kyari’s performance in that office had consequences for millions of his country men and women.
How can his successor build on his strengths, avoid his weaknesses and failings and thus have a more positive impact on governance for the remaining part of Buhari’s presidency?
President Buhari in his tribute described Kyari as his friend and long time associate who was ‘the best among us’. Mallam Mamman Daura rated him as surpassing current Ministers and Special Advisers in intellect.
That is high praise indeed. But the great Chinua Achebe once said that a man, if asked his favourite among his children, should wisely simply identify the special qualities of each and keep it at that. Truth is there are several men and women of outstanding character and intellect in the Buhari presidency.
Did Abba Kyari raise the bar of effectiveness and performance in the Office of Chief of Staff to a level that his successor cannot and should not aspire to exceed? We should, for the sake of Nigeria, hope that this is not so.
This is indeed an opportunity for the Buhari presidency to reappraise the role of this office in helping to achieve its objectives as a government as well as the policy platform of the political party it represents.
Read Also: Abba Kyari: The passage of a good man
Were the powers and roles of the office of Chief of Staff under Abba Kyari unduly inflated leading to a consequent devaluation of the functions and operations of other members of the Federal Executive Council? If true, that is an anomaly that the presidency would do well to correct.
Let us not forget that the office of Chief of Staff is not recognized by the constitution. In the course of his duties, Kyari had cause to cross swords with a number of high ranking members of the administration who perceived him as interfering unduly in their spheres of responsibility.
Surely, the constitution does not envisage an imperial presidential aide. It is ultimately not in the interest of the President to encourage one.
The office of Chief of Staff should be a facilitator of the efficient and effective running of the presidency. It should not itself become a bureaucratic impediment to harmonious, cooperative, collaborative and smooth governance.
No matter how hard working and loyal an occupant of the office may be, he has too much on his plate managing the president’s office to also play a supervisory role over other Ministries and Agencies, while at the same time serving on the board of a critical agency like the NNPC or allegedly presiding over meetings of Service Chiefs in a period of protracted insurgency.
Abba Kyari no doubt brought high academic attainment to the office. His successor should also be a man of proven scholastic ability. But in addition to book learning, the next Chief of Staff should apply wisdom in the utilization of the powers of the office.
Wisdom would enable the subtle rather than overt, overbearing deployment of power and influence. Wisdom would dictate that the next occupant of the office be more self effacing and should by no means encourage the unhelpful perception that the buck stops on his table rather than with his boss.
The late Chief of Staff was undoubtedly fiercely loyal to President Buhari. This should be another indispensable attribute of the next occupant of the office.
He should not be a person who will utilize the office to cultivate a personal cult loyalty of his own or to feather his own unbridled political ambition. But loyalty to the President should also mean a concern with the image of his boss as a leader as well as the legacy of his administration.
Abba Kyari’s friends describe him as non materialistic and incorruptible. If true, this certainly endeared him to his boss whose austere outlook and antipathy to material accumulation are legendary.
The anti-corruption war remains a commendable high point of the Buhari administration. Allegations of improper conduct against Kyari with regard to the penalty that MTN ought to have paid for legal infractions remain unproven speculation.
Although he was fingered in the embarrassing attempt to smuggle the indicted former Pensions’ Chief, Abdulrasheed Maina, back into the public service; that is neither here nor there. Maina is currently having his day in court.
Unlike Kyari, the next Chief of Staff cannot afford to be insensitive and indifferent to public opinion. He must be a key public relations and image minder of the president and the administration.
This of course does not mean that he must not be firm, decisive and even ruthless in managing the president’s time and protecting his turf.
But he must have sufficient wisdom and tact to tell people to go to hell when he has to but in such a way that they think they are on a highway to heaven.
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