The late Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Abba Kyari, has been described as a wonderful person, who was largely misunderstood by the people.
Making this known during an interactive session with journalists in Abuja on Saturday, the Secretary to the Government of Federation (SGF), Mr Boss Mustapha, said that a lot of people did not understand the personality of Mallam Abba Kyari.
He said, “A lot of people didn’t understand Mallam Abba but I worked with him for three years and I can tell you that he is a wonderful person, he is a good man; deep down in his heart, he always meant well and I looked up to him as a senior brother in the course of the work that we did in the last three years.”
The SGF, while commiserating on the death of Kyari, said that it is a personal loss to the President, him and the entire nation.
He added: “It is a personal loss to me, the President and to the nation. I believe Malam Abba will be remembered for so many things.
“He has done a great job for the nation. Mallam Abba was a very good man and very determined, intellectually upright and he had a lot of foresight.
“He demonstrated a high level of commitment to his job and he had a passion for the legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari and in everything he did, he never cared whose toes he stepped on, provided it was in the attainment of the legacies he believed President Buhari ought to leave.
“He was always very considerate. You might hold different opinions but he would drill the matter until he convinces you or you convince him.”
While admonishing doubting Nigerians about the reality of COVID-19, with Kyari’s death as a pointer, Mustapha, therefore called on the citizens that the pandemic is real and therefore urged them to adhere to the protocols established to contained the disease.
The SGF noted: “There are very big lessons to learn from the death of Abba Kyari. One of the key lessons for me is that this thing is real and it has come home. How closer can it be to us than this? That is why I keep saying that we should not play with this issue it is not a joke.
“It has come to ravage our people, ravage our health and ravage our wealth as a nation. So, we must take it more seriously and the advisory that have gone out about social distancing, washing of hands and staying at home are not punitive, they are meant for our good.
“We have seen it now, that it has come home to us. If we were thinking of people who had passed on as a result of COVID-19 from a distance, it is not far now. It is just like a brother or friend or a relative that has passed on. This is a man we worked with on a daily basis, you see him virtually every day. So, it’s a big lesson that our people should not joke with this, we must wash our hands, stay at home, use sanitizers and follow all the advisories religiously.”
