Death of Mallam Abba Kyari will of God – Buhari

President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the death of his Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, as an inevitable will of God.

President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu said so as he spoke to newsmen after the interment of Abba Kyari in Abuja .

Mallam Shehu said President Buhari, being a religious person, had accepted the development as the will of God.

“These are not things that we have a choice in, it’s providence, it’s God who says who goes and who stays. The President, obviously a deeply religious person, takes it that it cannot be helped, at the end of the day, all of us will also go that way,” he said.

Also Shehu said Kyari had been a close associate of the President for more than 40 years, describing him as the rallying point of the Muhammadu Buhari Administration.

READ ALSO: ‘Kyari’s death shows COVID-19 is real, no one is exempted’

“It’s a deeply shocking incident because Abba Kyari is like a pillar there in the Presidency, he’s a rallying point of the entire workforce working the President.

“He has had a long working relationship with the President; more than 40 years of being together. He has a full understanding of the President, he knew exactly where the President stood on every issue and so therefore, he was there to fix it for the President and get them done as the President wants.

“He offered 100% loyalty to the President and all of these things that Abba Kyari brought focus to bear on, long delayed infrastructure; whether they are road, railway, power and so on, all of them have the imprints of the President on them because this is where the President lived and believed and Abba Kyari was there to ensure that President Buhari, at the end of his two terms, leaves behind legacies that will last and for which he will be remembered and these are the things that Abba Kyari cared for”, he said.

 Since his appointment as the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2015, Abba Kyari was a major player in Nigeria’s central government till he died on Friday, April 17.

He was among the first key officers to be reappointed for a second stint when Buhari was re-elected as President in 2019.

In March, he tested positive to the coronavirus and was reported to have travelled to Lagos for treatment.

Not much was heard about him thereafter, until the Presidency, in a statement issued by Mr Femi Adesina, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity announced his passage.

Kyari graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Warwick, in 1980 and also received a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1983.

A year later, he obtained a master’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge and later attended the International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He participated in the Programme for Management Development at the Harvard Business School, in 1992 and 1994, respectively, and practised law while working at 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 and had a stint as commissioner in his native Borno State in 1990.

For the next five years, he was the secretary to the board of African International Bank Limited, a subsidiary of Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

He also held positions as an Executive Director at the United Bank for Africa, and later the Chief Executive Officer.

In 2002, he was appointed a board director of Unilever Nigeria and later served on the board of Exxon Mobil Nigeria.

Left behind to mourn the rather quiet officer are his wife and four children, numerous relatives, and a Nigerian nation many agree he served diligently.