With Kyari’s death, Nigeria seems to have become now truly leaderless. Buhari is practically in the land of the living dead. He’s a breathing mannequin whose only reason for living is to prove he isn’t dead in order to justify the continuity of the rule in his name.
Abba Kyari ruled the country on Buhari’s behalf. When Abba tested positive,Zahra, aisha’s daughter tweeted something cryptic about karma.
According to a norther General, the Late Surrogate President, Abba Kyari said that “people would vilify him when they realize that without him Nigeria would be rudderless and descend into chaos.”
Now, he is gone, and the chaos he talked about would start in the coming days and weeks.
It is instructive to note Mamman Daura, Buhari’s nephew who introduced Kyari to Buhari, isn’t only old (he is now in his early 80’s) he is also now isolated from Buhari thanks to Kyari.
For 75 year old Ambassador Babagana Kingibe who has been playing a cameo role for a while acting on Kyari’s behalf and who will probably formally replace him, he doesn’t quite know Buhari in the same way that Abba Kyari did.
There is a yawning, potentially disorienting power vacuum in the presidential villa now, which actually emerged really visibly since Kyari went out of circulation before his eventual death.
There are smoke signals which point to Watching out for Aisha Buhari who would assert herself more aggressively, and want to work to grab power in the fashion that Turai Yar’adua did. In fact, she already started this the moment Kyari took ill.
One of the first things Aisha did was to cause Jalal Arabi, Permanent Secretary of the State House and Kyari’s dutiful protege, to be redeployed from the Villa.
He was the gatekeeper to a less than loved king. From Lady Macbeth to Rasputin, from Steve Bannon to Diezani, people who are seen to be THAT influential in the king’s court have always borne the ire that should ordinarily be targeted at their principal. The ship is still listing aimlessly and Aisha seems to be serving a living God.
Abba Kyari was a brilliant lawyer who reportedly made a first class studying abroad. However he utilized his knowledge and intellect not for the betterment of his nation but for the battering of his nation through the most lawless and foolish government ever.
Kyari reigned Supreme as the only unelected non-military person ever to completely arrogate powers of state to himself.
He was implicated in collecting bribes from MTN a foreign company that jeopardized national security by non-compliance with our laws and shortchanged Nigerians of billions of dollars in fines.
Kyari who appointed himself on the board of NNPC also appointed his daughter Vice President of Nigeria’s Sovereign Wealth Fund. In effect, his nuclear family alone was in charge of both Nigeria’s income generation agency and Nigeria’s savings agency.
Kyari was implicated in the shameless auctioning of ministerial posts that brought in the most lackluster and uninspiring cabinet in the history of Nigeria which even included a General indicted for stealing public funds during the Abacha regime. Kyari then decreed via president Buhari that ministers must see Kyari instead of him.
Kyari was not just a corporate thief, He stole from the poor too. A relative of Kyari’s who’s father reportedly helped raise him fingered Kyari for duping him in a contract scam. The victim relative who was an IDP and the police officer who investigated his claim were imprisoned and persecuted by the untouchable Kyari.
Under Kyari, the legitimate Chief Justice of Nigeria was unconstitutionally usurped, national elections were hijacked and rigged and the Vice President of Nigeria was permanently quarantined. Kyari will go down in historic infamy as the only man to have surreptitiously and effectively removed a Vice President, a Chief Justice and a President in a democracy – leaving a carcass of a government and a nation behind.
Kyari had the blood of countless Nigerians on his hands according to the NSA, with whom he had a public feud, because of his meddling in the war against terrorism.
As expected, the remnants of the cabal will, of course, fight back. But the fight between Aisha and members of the cabal who are merely Kyari’s proteges, would be a fight in the dark because Buhari who is supposed to intervene is an insentient being who’s barely aware he’s alive.
The in-fighting will create noticeable cracks in the Buhari group that Osinbajo, Tinubu, and other interest groups would exploit to feather their nests and advance their interests.
In the coming days, months and tenure of the Buhari-led administration, expect the cessation of any pretense to governance and an unprecedentedly factious, dog-eat-dog, recriminatory fight between competing power blocs.
