Following the death Abba Kyari and speculations surrounding who would be the next Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, a Second Republic Minister and Elder Statesman, Alhaji Ismaila Isa Funtua, has advised those associating him with the post to quit such move, saying that he is unemployable and not interested.
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Earlier, a report in the media tipped him as one of those under consideration for the post of Chief of Staff to succeed late Abba Kyari, who died of COVID-19 complications last Friday and buried on Saturday according to Islamic rites.
Speaking on the development on Monday, Alhaji Funtua, who was Administrative Officer, Katsina Native Authority, for seven years, Minister of Water Resources in the defunct Second Republic, a member of the 1994-1995 Constitutional Conference, and founder of Bulet International Nigeria Limited (the largest wholly-owned indigenous construction company), which built most of the iconic public buildings in Abuja, said he was not interested in the post.
Speaking further on why he was not interested in the position, the former President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria, NPAN, stated:
I am an employer of labour and, therefore, unemployable.
I was a minister in 1983. What position will I be interested in now? I am embarrassed that a national newspaper could display such level of ignorance by connecting me with the Chief of Staff job.
Meanwhile, since the talks about who succeeds the late Kyari as the new Chief of Staff began, Funtua or Baba Gana Kingibe have been speculated as the possible replacement for former Chief of Staff.
Several other people touted Alhaji Funtuna as the next Chief of Staff following his relationship with President Buhari. Funtua’s son, Ismaila, is married to Safina, the fifth daughter of the former military Head of State.
President Buhari, in the meantime, has described Kyari’s demise as a big blow to the presidency following the crucial role he played in ensuring a better Nigeria.
