I must admit my inadequacy today right from the word go. I do not know the meaning of Kyari neither do I know what Hushpuppi means. At the sentimental level it means I want my readers to define and explain to themselves what the hell I am writing about just as at the substantive level.
I know that Kyari is a common name among the Kanuri people. I also know that in the days gone by, they were responsible for the very well-known Kanen Borno Empire. These days, they are the majority ethnic group in Borno State in the North East Region of Nigeria. The first person I came to know with that name was a man who helped General Gowon to administer Nigeria between 1967 and 1975. He was a top military man who was a Military Governor of the North Central State. I don’t think I heard negative stories about him until the lieutenants of Gowon rebelled and pushed him out of power in 1975.
Not so about the other Kyari’s I have come to know who recently occupied public office. First was the Chief of Staff to President Buhari until his untimely death – Abba Kyari. Our professional ways crossed in the late 80’s when he was the Editor of the Kaduna based Democrat newspaper. Then my boss and friend, Albdulkarim Albashir was the Managing Director of the Scope Newspaper owned by the Gongola State in Yola. Seconded to that position by the Radio Nigeria Kaduna, the time of his tour of duty had expired but he had no intention back to his original employer Radio Nigeria Kaduna. By some arangment, he was supposed to take over from Abba Kyari at the Democrat. I was supposed to take over from Albashir at the Scope. Somehow the task of communicating the complex issues involved came on my shoulders. It was not an easy task because I was myself very ignorant of those issues.
We succeeded in getting it through. Kyari, a lawyer, made it by moving into the banking industry. Albashir also succeeded in moving into print journalism from the broadcast journalism he had always ‘belonged for a very long time. I took over from Albashir as Managing Director of the Scope. We met again when Kyari and other investors established the People’s Daily where I am an Editorial Board member and Columnist today. The distance between an investor an editorial operative is sometime wide. You may hardly interact unless trouble crops up. In our own case there was no trouble so we hardly met.
Kyari troubles came when he was eventually appointed by President Buhari as his Chief of Staff when Buhari was elected President of Nigeria. I suspect that when the history of Nigerian presidency is written, Kyari will be recorded as one of the most controversial Chief of Staff’s ever to a President. The biggest problem was that he was accused of usurping the powers of the President as a prominent member of the so called the shots in Buharis presidency. Those making the accusation were not mindful of the fact that as Chief of Staff, Kyari was a mere appointee of the President, holding his office at the mercy of his principal. That if the principal wanted to remove him, it was just a minute and he was off. That the President did not remove him meant that as far as the President was concerned, he was doing a good job. His critiques did not think so not even after the president reappointed him after he won his second term. Kyari continued to be a controversial figure in the Presidency of Buhari until death took him away.
Whether Kyari was a villain or hero of political and media manipulation is left to history to judge. He came on the National scene, played his role and he is gone now.
Then came another controversial Abba Kyari. As the head of Nigerian police’s Intelligence response team, those of us outside the security system of Nigeria thought Abba Kyari was doing an excellent job threatened by corruption in the police, terrorism and general insecurity. We saw in him hope as he continued to battle the numerous ills of this deeply troubled country.
Then came a report from the United States of America that not all that glittered in policeman Abba Kyari was gold. That information obtained from an international confidence trickster Abbas Olorunwa, better known as Hushpuppi (that was my first encounter with the word whose meaning I still don’t know) implicated the anti-corruption policeman as a corroborator in his criminal expeditions. Some of us did not believe the story from America and protest when America wanted him extradited to the US for further interrogation. We thought it was a plot to smear the best of Nigeria.
The Nigeria Police started its own investigation into the scandal and placed Abba Kyari under suspension. Not long after, another storm came. The former head of the Nigerian police’s Intelligence Response Team, DCP Abba Kyari, was declared wanted by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over alleged drug links.
“With the intelligence at our disposal, the Agency believes strongly that DCP Kyari is a member of a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline, and he needs to answer questions that crop up in an ongoing drug case in which he is the principal actor,” NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi said.
The anti-drug agency said it contacted the suspended top cop for questioning but refused to respond. Even more devastating is the report now that Kyari, a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), and four officers have been in custody since Monday. They are ACP Sunday Ubuah, ASP James Bawa, Inspectors Simon Agrigba and John Nuhu. Wanted ASP John Umoru is still at large.
Kyari, a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), and four officers have been in custody since Monday, a week ago.
I remember the words of the American statesman general Colin Powell who as Secretary of State said Nigerians were by nature “marvelous scammers.” What is happening to us? Just when you think there is a little hope, something shatters it all.
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