Last Saturday morning, I was in my study writing the week's edition of Saturday Breakfast when Booboo, my young daughter breezed in. She asked if I had heard that President Buhari's Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, had died of COVID 19. There was a certain smile on her face which I did not like. I told her that none of us should celebrate the death of anyone as death is a price we all must pay and none can be sure who will die next.
Of course, I knew why my daughter would appear to be happy at the death of a man she never met. So much had been written about Abba Kyari none of which was pleasant. Abba Kyari was the unelected de facto President of our country who had made it impossible for anything to work in Nigeria. He was said to be an evil man and the head of a cabal that simply manipulated the president and imposed a well-crafted Northern agenda on the nation.
I have read much of the stuff. I never met Abba Kyari and did not know him. I did not know what to believe and what not to. Of course, the passing of Malam Abba Kyari was everywhere on WhatsApp, now the world's most ubiquitous platform where everyone can publish everything, factual, imagined or completely nonsensical.
While I did not know Abba Kyari, I know Tony Okoroji who at 29 years old became President of a very disorderly PMAN. I worked 24 hours every day, seven days a week to turn the organization around and make it one of the nation's most admired professional associations. Indeed, I abandoned a lucrative job at one of the foremost recording companies in the world and had little time for my young family as I set to do that which I believed my industry and my nation needed. At the time, I lived in a rented three- bedroom apartment in Akowonjo, certainly not the best part of Lagos. I drove a Volkswagen Passat TS assembled at Pat Utomi's Volkswagen Nigeria Assembly plant in Ojo Lagos. I never threw any large parties nor did I wear any expensive agbada. I struggled with my family and had no money anywhere.
I woke up one morning to read in practically all the national newspapers how I had swindled PMAN and made huge sums of money off the association. They say that hell hath no fury than a woman scorned. I will add that hell hath no fury than a Nigerian whose request for a favour is rejected. I had rejected the request of a man who wanted to climb on top of PMAN to make millions for himself at the expense of the association. He decided he was going to show me 'pepper' and he went out to devote substantial resources to destroy me and to chase me out of PMAN. One moment I was the toast of the Nigerian media for my work in copyright, the Nigerian Music Awards and the great association we had built, the next, I was a fraud, a villain and a man not to be touched by anyone!
To put it mildly, I was dazed. I had gone on with the naivety that if you are honest, the world would see what your mind is made of. So, how could the campaign of personal destruction be appropriate compensation for the huge sacrifice I had made for my profession and my country? I have since learnt that serial defamation is a weapon deployed by scoundrels to decimate those strong enough to challenge them. There are so many scoundrels in Nigeria and they operate successfully because majority of our people have lost faith in the decency of their leaders, the legal system is so complex and slow and the tribal and religious divides produce substantial manure for such vegetations to grow wild. My repeated experience with serial defamation has been such that I do not take what I am told about anyone until I see hard evidence and I am able to interrogate the evidence.
I was still chewing the Abba Kyarri situation with the many terrible commentaries and stories appearing everywhere when the next day someone forwarded "Tribute to Kyari: The Best Man" written by Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs. I was touched by the story told of Abba Kyari by a man who truly knew him. Abba, a Muslim Kanuri man was actually best man to Geoffrey Onyeama, an Igbo Catholic at his wedding to Sulola, his Anglican bride in an Anglican church in Idoani, Ondo State. Wrote Geoffrey, "Abba was a Pan-Nigerian global citizen, who recognized no boundaries between peoples, be they racial, ethnic religious, class or political. He made friends with everyone. Abba was a man of unimpeachable integrity. Absolutely incorruptible!"
I was touched by Geoffrey Onyeama's account of his friend's character, completely different from everything that has been written about Abba Kyari. It made me to think: If I could offend someone so badly in my little PMAN position, who knows how many people Kyari offended in his influential post? Immediately after reading the piece, I called the Minister. He did not pick but called me back five minutes later. We spoke at length about his friend and I commended him for the courage to speak up for his dead friend when there was an avalanche of bad reports about him. I however expressed my sadness that there was little effort to tell the story of the man while he was alive. I have no reason not to believe Mr. Onyeama. He is in the list of my ten favourite Nigerians.
On a low level visit I made to Geneva some years ago, who came knocking on the door of my hotel room? It was Geoffrey Onyeama, the Deputy Director-General at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the big United Nation's agency. For an entire Saturday, Jeff as he was called by his friends in Geneva and his beautiful wife Sulola, did nothing else but drive me around the beautiful city and show me the colours of Geneva. The couple treated me like royalty. They had no reason to. I was not in Geneva as a big politician, an important government official or a big businessman. I was just an unheralded copyright activist from Africa. It did not matter to this incredible couple who have no airs around them. During the sweet ride, we talked a lot about Nigeria and the possibilities that exist if we will just have good leadership. Jeff and Sulola took me to their home and made me feel at home.
Five years ago, Geoffrey Onyeama was appointed Nigeria's Foreign Minister. Being Nigeria's Foreign Minister has not changed Jeff. I have not called Jeff once without his picking my call or returning it after. The Honourable Minister has never given me an appointment he did not keep. Two and half years ago, when he delivered the COSON Lecture in Lagos, he had so many good reasons not to show up or to send a representative. He came to Lagos and honoured me in a way no money can buy. In my several visits to his Abuja office, he has always been engaging and has never been too busy to see me off. Once, he actually rushed out of a meeting at Aso Rock to come and see me. Geoffrey Onyeama does not need to treat me with such decency. We do no business together and have never exchanged one Naira between us. That is just the way he is. Polished!
I thank him for giving us something to think about in the Abba Kyari story, even though I believe it ought to have come earlier. I have written this because there are many good men out there who want to serve mankind conscientiously who may be scared to go the way of Mallam Abba Kyari. The truth must be told of all men.
See you next week.
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