Magnus Onyibe, Delta ex-commissioner, publishes anthology on Abba Kyari

Magnus Onyibe, former commissioner for information in Delta, has published an anthology on Abba Kyari, late chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Buhari had appointed Kyari, who hailed from Borno state, as his chief of staff in 2015 and reappointed him in 2019.

The late chief of staff had gone on self-isolation after testing positive for coronavirus late March.

But on April 17, Femi Adesina, presidential spokesman, broke the news of Kyari’s death.

After the announcement, several tributes and comments were published in Kyari’s honour.

In a statement on Thursday, Onyibe, a public policy expert, announced his book on the late chief of staff titled “Abba Kyari: Portrait of a Loyalist – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Sides of Public Service in Nigeria”.

The statement issued by Tervel Kejih, coordinator of the project, disclosed that the book is “mainly a compilation of tributes by friends and families of the late CoS after his death and caustic comments by his antagonists.”

Kejih said the book which is now available in bookshops across Nigeria and online on Amazon/kindle, seeks “to be a sort of public administration manual that would guide public and civil servants in the discharge of their duties to their principal, nation and God.”

“It also features a profile essay written by the author about the emergence of Abba Kyari as a political power broker and a deeply revealing article about deaths in Aso Rock Villa by the celebrated columnist, Dr Reuben Abati, as well as a critical look at Nigeria‘s security architecture in the light of the battle of supremacy between security agencies in the presidency which spilled into the public arena,” the statement read.

“The book which is a compendium has helped to put all the comments about late Abba Kyari in different news media spaces into a single volume for easy reference for both social scientists and Nigerians in general.

“The Afterword, which is an essay titled “A Case for a Chief of Staff, CoS”, written by Dan Ciampa which was first published in Harvard Business Review, HBR, throws light on the role and usefulness of a Chief of Staff in the private sector with brief reference to the usefulness of a CoS in the public sector too.”

According to the coordinator, the book also focuses on the late chief of staff’s experience as the “gatekeeper” in the presidential villa.

Meanwhile, on May 13, Buhari appointed Ibrahim Gambari, former UN under secretary-general, to replace Kyari.