…His emergence, politics, life and career
By Tunde Abatan
Before his death, Friday March 17 2020, due to complications from the Coronavirus pandemic ravaging the world, he was the highest ranking non-elected Nigerian government official to have tested positive to the disease, that cure has remained elusive to medical experts.
Until his death, Kyari was the most powerful Chief of Staff to any Nigeria President in the history of the position in the country since it was created after the return to democracy in 1999.
Before then, the position was alien to the nation’s political boardroom and was borrowed from the United States of America where the nation copied the Presidential System of government at the birth of the second republic in 1979 .
Although, he was not elected to the post, yet he is vested with the power to decide what policy and who got what in the Presidency.
It is an understatement to say that in all things, Kyari ,a well educated journalist, banker and boardroom player from Borno State,remains the closest to President Muhammadu Buhari as he decides who gets access to the Daura -born former military ruler.
He wields such power that the President after the swearing in of new ministers last year to herald the beginning of his second term, directed all the ministers to route all official demands through the late technocrat’s office. Hence by this directive, he determines ‘ minister gets what in the Presidency.
Besides, all the nation’s service chiefs were made to seek approval of their undertakings through Kyari, especially on the military campaign to defeat Boko Haram insurgency, which erupted in 2010 and on which billions of tax payers’ money has been spent without corresponding resultng
This was a decision, which caused friction between the National Security Adviser (NSA), General Ali Monguno (rtd), who queried Kyari’s right to assume the position adding,”I was sworn in and took an oath of office. “
Monguno, a retired general believes that as a security expert, the service chiefs should take instructions from him.This caused friction between him and the service chiefs on one hand and between him and Kyari on the other hand.
He refused to attend security meeting summoned after the friction and it is not known whether he has attended any of such meetings since December last year.
Besides, until the election of President Buhari, Kyari, a one time editor with the New African Holdings, was not known in public to have played any major role during the campaign in 2015, which saw the progressive political class in the country’s Yoruba South- West throwing its weight behind Buhari and ensuring his success at the polls.
Kyari’s appointment was a surprise to many who had thought that, any of the leading politicians who supported Buhari’s emergence would have clinched the job to correct the ‘misgivings’ of a northern irredentist hung on the then newly elected President .
Until his death on Friday, he was said to be receiving treatment in a Lagos private hospital after ending two weeks of isolation after he reportedly contacted the virus after his return from an official trip to Germany to negotiate electric power contract with Siemens, a power concern.
This decision raised an
eyebrow in business and government circles as he was not the nation’s minister of power.
With his death, a big power vacuum has been created in the nation’s seat of power, Presidency, since he is believed to be the engine room of the President even more powerful than the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, who was jointly elected with the President in 2015, in what has been described as the first time a core South West progressive will align with the rather conservative, Hausa-Fulani core north since 1960 to produce the nation’s president.
A Kanuri from Borno State, Kyari graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Warwick, and also received a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge.
In 1983, he was called to the Nigerian Bar after attending the Nigerian Law School.
In 1984, he obtained a master’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge.
He later attended the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland and participated in the programme for management development at the Harvard Business School, in 1992 and 1994, respectively.
Kyari, worked for the law firm of Fani-Kayode and Sowemimo for some time after his return to Nigeria.
From 1988 to 1990, he was an editor with the New Africa Holdings Limited, Kaduna.
In 1990, he served as a Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Resources in Borno State.
From 1990 to 1995, Kyari was the secretary to the board of African International Bank Limited, a subsidiary of Bank of Credit and Commerce International.
Kyari was an executive director in charge of management services at the United Bank for Africa, and was later appointed the chief executive officer. In 2002, he was appointed a board director of Unilever Nigeria, and later served on the board of Exxon Mobil Nigeria.
With his death, a new power play to occupy the powerful position will resume between the ruling All Progressive Congress,(APC), which reportedly played no role in the late chief of staff’s emergence and power hawks from the North who are bent on having the president’s ears especially as the nation moves towards 2023 when President Buhari will quit power having spent the mandatory two terms.
The nation waits!
