Abba Kyari: Our Man, Their Target, By Gidado Ibrahim
POLITICS DIGEST – One of the remarkable qualities of a chief of staff is to provide a buffer between a chief executive and that executive’s direct-reporting team. The chief of staff generally works behind the scenes to solve problems, mediate disputes, and deal with issues before they are brought to the chief executive. Often chiefs of staff act as a confidante and advisor to the chief executive, acting as a sounding board for ideas. Ultimately the actual duties depend on the position and the people involved.
The aforementioned features of some of the roles and responsibilities of a chief of staff to the President clearly indicates that it is a position expected to be occupied by a unique personality, who is flexible, well versed and an expert in local and international relations. A chief of staff to the president must be a loyal, trusted, reliable and in a word a confidant to the number one citizen.
The people throwing all sorts of trashes to Abba Kyari the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari are not ignorantly doing so, they have an agenda with a preplanned campaign of calumny orchestrated by enemies of Nigeria, whose sole motive is to create confusion that will prevent Nigerians from understanding the giant strides achieved so far by the Buhari led administration.
The role of Abba Kyari as the chief of staff is defined by its ability to provide strategic counsel to the President. His position is an increasingly critical component in supporting a successful leadership team. At its core, a Chief of Staff is responsible for serving as strategic advisor and counsel to the president. Assuming day-to-day responsibility for projects and tasks as well as creating and maintaining cross-departmental relationships to enable leadership success.
The man they target, Abba Kyari graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Warwick, England in 1980. The young Kyari also possesses a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law from the University of Cambridge, England and was called to the Nigerian Bar after attending the Nigerian Law School in 1983. In 1984, he obtained a master’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge. Abba Kyari later attended the International Institute for Management Development at Lausanne, Switzerland and participated in the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School, in 1992 and 1994.
In their evil attempt to create confusion among Nigerians, the evil planners and rumor mongers has it at the beginning of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term in office that the role of Abba Kyari as the chief of staff to the president is been changed, which was a blatant lie created to attract attention. For that reason, the presidency issued a statement that cleared all doubts and dismissed the rumor to its early grave.
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A statement by the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said that their roles have not changed from what they were doing under the first term of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration. He stressed that Chief of Staff’s role is in line with the US model, which Nigeria is practicing.
“It is worth stressing that the role and responsibilities of the Chief of Staff and the method of communication and arranging scheduling between Cabinet members and the President are, in Nigeria, based on the US model, where the same system operates – and has done for decades – in precisely the same way.
“That role is to act as the head of the presidential administration at Aso Rock; to be an adviser to the President on any and all matters; to be the line manager for all staff at Aso Rock; and to manage appointments and scheduling for the President.
“In the traditional presidential system, it is a primary function of a Chief of Staff, which may vary according to the needs and desires of each President, to supervise key State House Staff, control access to the office and the person of the President, manage communications and information flow and this includes that which binds the relationship with the two other arms of government.
“During the President’s first term those were the responsibilities of the Chief of Staff, and they remain the same responsibilities today. There is no change.
“When President Buhari explained to ministers that they would be expected to communicate with him and arrange scheduling to meet with him primarily via the Chief of Staff, he did so as many of the Buhari II Cabinet ministerial appointments are new appointments and cannot therefore be expected to know how matters of liaising with the President operate.”
The people targeting Abba Kyari will never tell you about his technical expertise, his vast experience in management, and skills in human relations. The Abba Kyari they are targeting worked for the law firm Fani-Kayode and Sowemimo for some time after his return to Nigeria. From 1988 to 1990, he was Editor with the New Africa Holdings Limited Kaduna. In 1990 he served as Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Resources in Borno State. From 1990 to 1995, he was Secretary to the Board of African International Bank Limited.
The Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari was Executive Director, Management Services, United Bank for Africa Plc. (UBA) and was later appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Bank. He was appointed a Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc. in 2002 and is a Director of Exxon Mobil Nigeria. He is a recipient of the Nigerian Honor Award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (O.O.N).
This is the right personality for such a position, and a man who mastered how to safeguard the interest of his principal, that is why he becomes their number one target.
– Ibrahim is the Director Communications and Strategic Planning, Presidential Support Committee (PSC
