OBITUARY: Kanti Bello, Yar’Adua’s associate who regretted ‘inviting Buhari into politics’

Perhaps Franklin Jones, one of the best engineers of the 18th century, was thinking of death when he said: “Time is a versatile performer; it flies, marches on, heals all wounds, runs out and will tell”.

Time outlives lives and is unrivalled by death. As versatile as time is, it could not heal Mahmud Kanti Bello of one of his final regrets, which was “inviting President Muhammadu Buhari into politics”.

Bello, like Buhari, hails from Katsina state and was two years younger than the president at the time of his death on Tuesday morning. He was born in January 1945 and ventured into politics quite early in life. He went to Provincial Secondary School, Katsina, the same school as the president. Buhari was the head boy of the school while Bello was there.

Upon graduation, Bello went to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, where he graduated as a qualified engineer.

Little is known about his personal life, but Bello represented Katsina north senatorial district for eight years. He was married and had fathered seven children, among whom is Mustafa, the incumbent Katsina state commissioner for resource development.

Bello was many things to many people, but he was a lover of his people and not for once did he shy away from expressing himself, even if he was to be seen as a “political flirt or tribalist” — He was a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), All Nigerians Peoples Party (ANPP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and died a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He did not hide how he felt about anyone — in and out of power.

‘JONATHAN IS NOT AN HONOURABLE MAN’

Bello was a personal friend of Umar Musa Yar’Adua, Nigeria’s president from 2007 to 2010. The former lawmaker said he was on the trip to Yenagoa, Bayelsa state capital, where Yar’Adua eventually decided to pick Goodluck Jonathan as his running mate.

As Yar’Adua’s personal friend, he put Nigeria first by supporting the call to invoke the doctrine of necessity, which made Jonathan acting president when Yar’Adua was sick. Due to his role in that saga, he was penciled by Jonathan as one of the persons to be considered as vice-president but was eventually dropped.

In 2011, he spoke against Jonathan’s ambition to be president. Bello said the immediate past president had agreed with party members that he was not going to run, as the presidency had been zoned to the north.

“I was very close to the late Yar’Adua and as far as I know for the two and half years that Yar’Adua was in the saddle, he never complained to me that he had any misunderstanding with Jonathan or that Jonathan disagreed with him on any matter even in principle,” Bello had said in an interview.

He added that when Jonathan became president, he began to change many of the things he agreed on with Yar’Adua. Bello said he could not support Jonathan whom he described as a man who is “not honourable”.

FACE-OFF WITH DORA AKUNYILI

Dora Akunyili was minister of information under late President Yar’Adua. But when the president was ill for a long time in 2009/2010, Akunyili issued a memo asking that the president be declared incapacitated.

She was strongly opposed by Turai, wife of the president and a member of Yar’Adua “cabal”, which Bello claimed he belonged to.

“I am a personal friend of the late President Yar’Adua. You can call me a member of a cabal if you so desire, I will agree because I am his friend and colleague but I never gave him a wrong advice,” Bello had said.

When Jonathan eventually became president and dissolved the cabinet, he retained Akunyili and sent her name to the senate for screening as a minister. At the screening, Bello was strongly against Akunyili; first, he said she was a member of the cabal, that she cooks for the wife of the president, and she finally betrayed the same people by calling them names.

He concluded his arguments afterward by saying she was from Anambra central, a part of the country that had too many people in power. He asked that she step aside, but David Mark, who was senate president at the time, gave Akunyili a clean bill of health.

‘I REGRET INVITING BUHARI INTO POLITICS’

In June, Bello granted his first interview since Buhari, his childhood friend, became president. In that interview with Tribune, Bello said he regretted inviting Buhari into politics, claiming that Osinbajo was a better president — in action — than Buhari.

Asked if there was a cabal in Buhari’s government, he had said: “What the hell are you talking about there? No cabal? Well, if there is no cabal, the Buhari I know, I always wonder if he can behave the way these people are behaving.

“I have known Buhari since 1960 when I was a very small boy. He was my head boy in secondary school and the Buhari I knew, the Buhari I invited to come and play politics, I think he shouldn’t have been behaving the way he is behaving.

“We thank the acting president, because each time he comes in, there seem to be some improvements in the way things are done.”

Expressing his thoughts on bringing Buhari into politics, he said: “I really regret it now, because I thought it is going to be better than what we are having now”.

ON BUHARI FOR 2019: ‘OYEGUN CAN BE SYCOPHANTIC’

Speaking of Buhari’s chances of returning in 2019, Bello opposed John Oyegun, APC chairman, who had said Buhari has an automatic ticket. Bello insisted that the north would have to shop for someone else.

“Oyegun can be as sycophantic as he wants, but the truth of the matter is that some of us are going to look for a Nigerian that’s going to address the economy,” he had said.

“I am going to tell my people to look for an alternative, what will help your kids to go to school and be able to live a better life. The middle class is now wiped out. This country is in a hole, deep hole and we need to bring it out.”

Through his life and times, Bello was a man never shy of expressing his views about people and politics, he was true to himself and was not one to back down from controversy, and after answering the final call of nature, he will be remembered as a man who stood side-by-side with what he considered to be the truth, regardless of the consequences.

He would be buried in his home state at 4pm.