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| Late Abba Kyari |
By Steve Osuji
Even in death, ABBA KYARI was held in so much awe by acolytes whose minds had been damaged by the very life of Abba. Some of them will deign to follow him to his grave.
Just as Abba's entire life of chicanery and skulduggery symbolized, all rules were broken for him. There's no doubt that like abobakus, a few souls are bound to be interred with Abba willy-nilly.
Let's work that shady life backwards now.
Look at the senseless crowd milling at his burial a few hours ago. No one paid heed to social distancing anymore. Why, it's Abba!
A fellow in some sordid uniform made to grab the body at a point; he had no protective gear whatsoever. Not even a nose mask.
For a body stymied by the Corona virus why would such a crowd be allowed? And if we dare to conjecture his demise had nothing to do with COVID19 all hell would broke.
Yet there was a body which ought to have been cremated in situ being ferried all over the place as if he died by complications of relapsed kidney failure.
Then again, there was a man who lived only by privileged rules and rules of impunity. As a COVID19 case, he had to be taken to a private hospital and not a specialised COVID19 centre. Just the way he never plied any Nigerian hospitals hitherto, he would not be found dead or alive in a centre among ALL SORTS. At the height of his infamy, he actually thought himself to be some god... but there he was, draped in unsilken linen, on a mere mat, l facing up to God, his maker.
But in his majestic insouciance even upon his very death, how many innocent Nigerians might he have infected and afflicted?
Don't take COVID19 cases to private hospitals. That's the rule. It was not for him.
Abba was said to have travelled to Europe supposedly on an official assignment that was meant to have been handled by a minister. If that be the case, such a Minister ought to be observing a lenten period of thankshiving now. God let those who usurp other people's position usurp their troubles too. Righteous supplication.
As Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Aso Rock Clinic which out to be the premier health facility in the land had no syringe. This was the open revelation of the wife of the president. Yet billions were appropriated annually and billions were disbursed - this was under the charge of Abba!
Meanwhile, the sickly man he was, he shuttled between Germany and Britain for treatment at an quantifiable and unmentionable cost to the national treasury. In a land of honour, such a very debilitated fellow would never be CoS. Never.
However, Abba was by nomenclature, Chief of Staff to the President but in practice, he was prime minister. In his last putsch, all the ministers of the Cabinet had to report to him.
Still inebriated in the heady liquor of power, he commanded the armed forces of Nigeria, usurping again, the powers of the president, the vice president, the Chief of Defence Staff, the National Security Adviser and the Defence Minister.
Since 2015, the Buhari administration has been the fare of cabals and Abba was the kingpin of that shadowy gang.
At the height of her pain, Aisha, wife of the president who had been sequestered by the power crew had cried out: were there no men left in this land? Why are a few men controlling the country? People you expect to speak up crawl to Abba by night to prostrate and genuflect!
And where is the president in this macabre matrix? The truth which many ghoulish compatriots don't want to hear is that our president is terribly ill and his acuity had continued to recede downward from hundred percent to goodness knows what level it might be now. So Abba and his clique ran the country literally.
A ravine, grasping power monger, there is so much to be said against Abba but what's the point. We shall ignore his dalliance with MTN and that other bank and stick with his verifiable acts of infamy. He was head of the management team that expired African International Bank (AIB), one of the top five banks of those days.
He was also the MD, (read undertaker), hired by the rogue team led by a certain Hakeem Belo-Osagie. They hijacked United Bank for Africa and raped the 3rd largest bank in Nigeria almost to death and left her ravaged and hollow.
That was Abba, a life of opportunism, entitlement and privilege is his legacy. He was no PATRIOT by any chance; he probably didn't know the meaning of the word. He had so much power in the last five years he could have stamped his name in gold if he was a noble soul, but it was power for self aggrandizement!
He was villainy personified and I struggled to find one legacy he left in Nigeria or even his Borno state (unless you think IDP camps are worthy monuments to his name!).
This is the lesson for those currently in high office: DO NOT EXPECT TO BE MOURNED LIKE A PATRIOT IF YOU LIVED A VILLAIN!
(c) Steve Osuji, April 18, 2020
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