OPINION: The Abba Kyari I Knew

By Epa Ogie Eboigbe

The last time I met Abba Kyari was in Abeokuta two years ago at the wedding of the daughter of a mutual friend who was a family friend of mine but a political associate of Abba’s.

My wife and I were just walking into the reception venue when the bride’s father was seeing off the Chief of Staff and we met at the door. There were a lot hallos and he-haws and slapping hands over old times. ‘Where are you now?’, he asked. ‘Give me your card, give me your card’, he said. ‘You give me your card’, I said. ‘It’s easier that way’.

Our mutual friend said to me, ‘Give him your card now’. So I reached inside my big Agbada pocket and gave him and we said our goodbyes. We haven’t seen or spoken since then.

That was only the second time we were meeting since we both left UBA House – he as MD of UBA in June 2001, a position he occupied from 1997, and I in December 2005.

The first time we met post-UBA was at Hamdala Hotel Kaduna. The NGO I was chairing then, Anglo-Nigeria Welfare Association for the Blind, ANWAB, was organizing a training workshop on Orientation and Mobility for blind persons in Kaduna and our paths crossed at that time.

We were friends on Facebook and other social media and we had each other’s phone numbers. Some friends would always say ‘Abba is your friend nah; why not approach him for this or that’; but I was not the hustling type and he knew the kind of person I am. We did good for each other at different times and he was a good guy to work with.

I first met Abba Kyari in April 1995 when I joined UBA as Head of Corporate Affairs. Abba (that’s what he was to many of us, just Abba) was Executive Director, Management Services and my line ED. Having being a media person and Editor of a newspaper previously, he knew about media relations and what needed to be done at the appropriate time.

Unlike other bank CEOs that had image larger than their institutions, Abba would more often than not like to be in the background so we did not need to be running around to put out unnecessary fires on scandals about him in the media. I did not need to send out one rejoinder during his tenure as he agreed with me that a rejoinder further draws attention of new readers to the news you are trying to deny.

He did not cut the figure of the average Nigerian politician. He would probably have scoffed at any talk of him in politics. But I dare say he knew how to deal and manage issues, especially those days when we had trade union and golden share issues. But post UBA, I really did not hear anything more about him. It was as if he just laid low, pursuing his business and family interests.

When he was appointed Chief of Staff by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, there were several social media posts, especially on Facebook claiming that he was the former Military Governor of North Eastern State of Nigeria, a Brigadier Abba Kyari who was said to be over 80 years old. Some of the people peddling the information were supposed to be those you would think should know a little about Nigeria’s history and past leaders.

I wrote then to make the point that people who are either ignorant or uninformed should not be allowed to be sharing blatant falsehood that may even affect our sense of history, especially for our younger ones and children, continuing that the Abba Kyari in Aso Rock whom the falsehood was about was definitely NOT the brigadier who was military governor.

The peddlers could have appreciated that people from the same locality in the north can share same names. For instance, there is the police officer also called Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner I think, who helped to track and arrest Evans the kidnapper. That is a 3rd Abba Kyari.

The Abba Kyari I knew in UBA was only about a year older than me and I am now 66.

True to who he was, Abba obviously did not make any move to counter any of the false information, choosing to just let people believe what they want.

Even after his demise on Friday from complications resulting from COVD-19, several media outlets, including reputable TV stations were still saying he was born in November 1938, obviously quoting from Wikipedia which gave that date for both Abba Kyari the soldier and Abba Kyari the Chief of Staff – a major gaffe. It did not occur to them that it was too uncanny for two men with the same name to also be born same day.

As a journalist and former Editor of the Democrat Newspaper in Kaduna before becoming commissioner in Borno State in the 90s, as well as his stint as Company Secretary in AIB, Abba had the managerial experience to perform well in running any organisation and managing people, and he had good relationship with staff in UBA and tried to empower the managers to ensure they made staff comfortable while performing their duties.

His two first degrees in Sociology and Law from the University of Warwick and Cambridge University respectively as well as an LLM from Cambridge made him eminently qualified for the positions he held. We ran our end of the ship in UBA, as piloted by him, along with the then Bank Chairman, with whom he was quite close, and the Board. He did not ask whether you were Edo or Hausa or Yoruba or Kanuri like him.

We worked as a team and he did not also think twice about offering assistance to colleagues, friends and even foes. He was a loyal employer to hardworking staff, loyal employee to the Bank owners and loyal friend to many a staff – loyalty all rolled into one.

I remember the time when Virgin Atlantic started flying to Nigeria. They invited Abba for the inaugural flight as bank MD but he called one of us up and gave out the free inaugural ticket which he would have used to London and back, with spending cash to boot. Also, when the wife of one of us fell ill, Abba approved for her to go for treatment in the UK at the Princess Anne Hospital. It was not part of the staff’s entitlement.

Abba was humble to a fault. When he became MD, he refused to move with his family from their flat in Victoria Island to the palatial UBA MD’s house in Ikoyi. He said if and when he was away from home and wanted to reach his family and could not do so, he wanted to be able to call neighbours in the next flat to look in on them. Remember, there was no GSM then. So he rejected the MD’s residence then – something no other director would have done.

It is easy to say that all I am writing about was then, and that this is now; that he changed when he became Chief of Staff. Yes; people change but how drastic can one change? I am writing about how he was in UBA those days and how his humility touched many people. He wasn’t noisy or proud like others in similar position.

He wore his white voile Buba and Sokoto and only added the Agbada that we now knew him with, when it was necessary to be formal. The red Fez cap was a constant and his trademark. When I acquired a red Fez once and he saw me wear it, he was amused.

Many of us old colleagues always found it hard to accept the reputation attributed to the Abba Kyari of Aso Villa as that of a usurper or mean manipulator. No human being is perfect but that was not the man we knew and prefer to remember.

With his reappointment as Chief of Staff during the President’s second term, it was clear Abba was a loyal and hardworking man and his principal was acknowledging this. Many of those who knew him in the Villa have paid tribute to his high level of work and brilliance in delivery. That was the Abba Kyari we knew. Those who disagree are free to because it is a free world.

Even in death, many of his accusers have refused to cut the man some slack, continuing to list his alleged Machiavellian shenanigans in Aso Rock and the corridors of power while serving his boss.

But Abba Kyari has run his race. He has gone the way of all flesh, like every one of us will do some day – a day we do not know.

Epa Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist writes on, and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen’.

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