By Igbotako Nowinta
The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian people are going through unimaginable trauma in the hands of people like Abba Kyari of this world, who have forgotten that power is transient; who exist everywhere within the ‘pseudo’ federation of Nigeria, because they are comfortable building personal institutions and insatiable empire for themselves, and never interested in building powerful and enduring institutions, such as we see in other climes.Today, Nigerian constitutional democracy is in limbo because favoritism, religionism, ethnicity, tribalism, nepotism and corruption have been elevated over and above competence, meritocracy, capacity, genuine rule of law and separation of powers. Nigeria has become a monumental tragedy and disaster because virile, agile younger generation of Nigerians has been incredibly overpowered by wicked, senile, hopeless old political rulers, who have been calling the ‘shots’ since July 1966. Abba Kyari’s exit has openly shown too that the state of our health care system is teetering on the brink of total collapse, signaling colossal systemic failure, representing global disgrace and embarrassment.
Anytime a mortal leaves this earth, it automatically reminds all of us of our own mortality. The ultimate beauty of living and dying here in this world is simply when a mortal leaves behind a fountain of goodies or baggage of good deeds for humanity and prosperity, to savor and appreciate.
That way a mortal becomes an immortal! That is not to say there are no thousands of evil geniuses or despots whose negative or notorious immortality, continue to add salt to the pepper of inhumanity or savagery.
Mallam Abba Kyari’s death on April 17, 2020 by succumbing to the complications arising from the dreaded coronavirus pandemic, is a sad development, because he was a mortal. It is normally the saying in Africa and elsewhere that we don’t speak evil against the dead.
On the basis of this premise l therefore declare that: May Allah accept his soul, and my condolence goes out to his family, friends and associates.
Now looking at Mallam Abba Kyari, as the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari since May 2015, and the constitutional democracy in Nigeria, the role he played succinctly debased the aura of progressive democracy.
His Hobbesian character as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari was equaled with decadence, unbridled callousness, unnecessary alarming usurpation of presidential powers and blatant interference in constitutional cum ministerial responsibilities of some of his superiors in government.
These facts were unsolicitedly brought to the public domain firstly by the First Lady of Nigeria, Hajia Mrs. Aisha Buhari.
Mrs. Aisha Buhari smoked out her thoughts about the existence of a powerful and ruthless cabal, her famous ‘hyenas and jackals’ within the presidency, that viciously emerged unchallenged when her husband, Mr. President, was between life and death situation in a London hospital, for several months.
In busting open her bottled up emotions and frustrations in July 2017, with the way some ‘unelected cliques’ have allegedly hijacked political power in Nigeria, the First Lady, spoke the minds of the hundreds of millions of Nigerians, who surrendered their constitutional obligations to President Buhari, via the Presidential elections in Nigeria, mostly in 2015.
And the late Abba Kyari was allegedly fingered and identified as the undisputed Marshall of the said ‘cabal’ operating a parallel system within Aso Rock Presidential Palace.
Secondly, the National Security Adviser, retired Major-General Babagana Monguno, in desperation in December 2019, vomited his uncontrollable anger, to the whole world, in a ‘leaked memo,’ with the late Chief of Staff to Mr. President, Abba Kyari, when he accused him of alleged ‘dictatorial actions’ of placing himself far and above others, and operating in tandem with the powers constitutionally vested in the hands of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Certainly, the late Abba Kyari was not the first Chief of Staff to serve a sitting President in this democratic dispensation since May 1999, and he will not be the last.
But, in Mallam Abba Kyari, the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, became somehow omnipotent, the alpha and omega of administrative rascality.
It was a clear negation of the constitutional provisions in Nigerian democracy, where the welfare of millions of eligible Nigerian voters became a phenomenon that existed in the vague imaginations of the demented cliques, which he (Kyari) allegedly fathered and flowered.
How did Abba Kyari obtain his self-imposed powers or excesses within the highest presidential quarters in Nigeria?
Kyari was a product of a ‘fake’ constitutional democracy operatable in Nigeria that stood like a mad and fully armed policeman, who shot down recklessly any missionary or visionary elements that were ready to emancipate the Nigerian people from abject poverty, squalor and acute backwardness. What a piteous spectacle!
The fact of the matter is that the Nigerian people are going through unimaginable trauma in the hands of people like Abba Kyari of this world, who have forgotten that power is transient; who exist everywhere within the ‘pseudo’ federation of Nigeria, because they are comfortable building personal institutions and insatiable empire for themselves, and never interested in building powerful and enduring institutions, such as we see in other climes.
Today, Nigerian constitutional democracy is in limbo because favoritism, religionism, ethnicity, tribalism, nepotism and corruption have been elevated over and above competence, meritocracy, capacity, genuine rule of law and separation of powers.
Nigeria has become a monumental tragedy and disaster because virile, agile younger generation of Nigerians has been incredibly overpowered by wicked, senile, hopeless old political rulers, who have been calling the ‘shots’ since July 1966.
Abba Kyari’s exit has openly shown too that the state of our health care system is teetering on the brink of total collapse, signaling colossal systemic failure, representing global disgrace and embarrassment.
Even Aso Rock Clinic, stationed within the expansive grounds of the nation’s Presidential fortress in Abuja, is underutilized because of lack of basic drugs and equipment to handle patients, in spite of the huge budgetary allocations year- in-and – year out.
The sorry state of Aso Rock Clinic is deeply regrettable, given the fact that the incumbent First Lady had earlier decried the state of things in the place in the recent past.
It is becoming a truism that the so called wheel of rescue mission or progress embarked upon by the present administration, since 2015, is rickety, as our people are continually left in a hollow situation.
This leadership appears not to have overcome its inherent ineffectiveness, demonstrating that those in power are the government, and not Nigerian people.
The needed charisma and ability from Mr. President, to galvanize our people to action is missing conspicuously; vital decisions to jump start the economy, since the Covid 19 pandemic are delayed or deferred by often inconclusive arguments within the presidency.
A vicious part of Nigeria’ s problems is erratic decisions that lacks thorough thought-processing evaluation before implementation, such as we are all seeing in the uncoordinated distribution of Convid-19 relief packages across the country today, even as our people are being inflicted more with pangs of damnation, marginalization and crippling poverty.
This painful development has been corroborated by the recent outburst and utterance by Senator Ali Ndume, a card carrying member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC),concerning the said Convid-19 palliatives.
Until, the current nasty situation is overtaken by the concerted efforts of patriotic citizens, who are ready to risk their necks for the pragmatic sanitation of our electoral/ political system, the likes of Abba Kyari will continue to smuggle or throw themselves into the supreme political heights in Nigeria.
In the final analysis here, we must all wake up and denounce and fight this day light slavery: our plundered economy; the internalization of tyranny and exhibition of fascistic tendencies by our rulers and the substitution of our electoral system with inexcusable banditry and ranking criminality.
Nowinta Igbotako wrote: Where we are – A call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
