Mallam Yusuf Alli presents SAEMA Award 2019 to Twins Police Officers, Hassan and Husseini Gimba in Abuja

In September 2019, over a dozen entries were received nominating DCP Abba Kyari for a certain category of the First Security and Emergency Management Awards (SAEMA). At that time and up till recently, the now-suspended police officer was the most celebrated crime-buster in the Nigeria Police Force, leading him to be given the sobriquet of a “Supercop” for his extraordinary, if not close to legendary, prowess in tracking down and nabbing armed robbers and kidnappers.

The Chairperson of the awards panel, retired Air Vice Marshall Mohammed Audu-Bida, while considering other factors, urged members of the panel to reach out to senior officers in the security services for their comments on the process and probably put forward more nominations of potential awardees in the various categories being rewarded.

Thereafter, more nominations of gallant but unsung security personnel were received, especially from the Police, which have many officers who are mostly involved in intelligence and combat operations.

The former FCT Police Commissioner, now Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Bala Ciroma, had eloquent testimonies of how he had led officers and men of the Command in discreet operations that culminated in the arrests and occasional elimination of vicious armed gangs that were terrorising and abducting innocent people. Some of the cases and suspects were subsequently referred to the Force Headquarters or other security services for further actions.

Rather than accept his nomination, Ciroma had suggested a very thorough and disciplinarian female police officer, CSP Olabisi Davies, who was DPO at Wuye, which had become one of the most peaceful districts in Abuja. The policewoman was always on patrol at night, seeking out those involved in nefarious activities, usually under the cover of darkness. She also had a track record of successfully turning young offenders into productive citizens through counselling in the district.

Similarly, one DCP Kolo Yusuf, who had also led his team to capture over 100 kidnappers terrorizing innocent people in mostly the North-West and North-Central zones, politely declined his nomination for an award but rather recommended the twin police officers, Hassan and Hussaini Gimba, who were noted as developing remarkable profiles in crime-fighting in his team.

The twins have appeared on several verified videos clips interrogating arrested criminals, whose sophisticated weapons and arms had equally been wrested from them and put forward as exhibits. Strangely too, the twin officers had insisted that unless the Police Headquarters endorsed their nomination, they could not honour the award events.

There was also another counter-terrorism police officer, CSP Ibrahim Mohammed, who had not only competently engaged ISWAP/Boko Haram terrorists in combat, but had led his team on several rescue operations involving citizens, including soldiers, who were delivered from the vice-grip of the insurgents in Borno State.

In fact, the story of DCP Tunji Disu, who replaced Abba Kyari, constitutes another chapter entirely. Disu has saved many lives, especially those of youths and young graduates, who could have found themselves either as victims or engaged in fraud and other criminal activities. It was only when it had become absolutely necessary, and there was unassailable evidence of wrongdoing that Disu ever agreed to the public parade of crime suspects.

There are indeed many security personnel in the Force today, who are performing exceedingly well in their areas of responsibility and would rather keep low profiles than cultivate unnecessary public exposure, due to the sensitive nature of their assignments. They are the unsung security personnel but highly dedicated to the protection of the lives and properties of which only a very few are ever celebrated.

While it is regrettable that Abba Kyari allowed overzealousness, exuberance and indiscretion to define his actions in his security and law enforcement duties, I would rather blame the society, his media handlers and the Police Force for what is now deemed as his fall from grace to grass.

Even though society naturally appreciates the gallantry of our security agencies and officials, it was quite unfortunate that many top public functionaries and business people were inviting DCP Kyari to their events and posting such engagements in the media to ratchet up their social standing. And yet ill-advisedly too, instead of becoming very cautious about some of these outings, Kyari appeared to have gotten carried away and revelled in the spotlight, leading to the abuse of the privileges and disposition of his sensitive strategic positions, in hobnobbing with people of questionable integrity, and equally posting these on social media platforms.

While the media developed interests in his exploits as a crime fighter, they allowed him or his media handlers to promote his efforts, rather than those of his team to the high heavens. This became one of his major Achilles heels. There is a huge gulf between the practice of public relations and the indulgence in publicity as an end in itself. In PR, not all activities need to be publicised or promoted because of the potential fallouts of such exposure. Some publicity in terms of policing or security duties could end up enabling the reprisal intents of the targets of one’s exertions, besides the envy of peers and enemies that comes which such territory.

As an institution with moral and ethical values, the Police appeared not to have been able to tame Kyari, even when he was showing up in very lousy places for the glitz of the celebrity showcase. Instead of reprimanding and curtailing him, the command seemed to have gotten caught up in the cult of the celebrity of an individual, rather than the celebration of the team. In fact, when his younger sister got married in 2019, the creme de la creme of society ‘stormed’ Maiduguri, including the then Inspector General of Police, among top dignitaries, in what was a high society event witnessing guest arrivals in different aircraft.

Meanwhile, DCP Kyari’s case still hangs on the balance. Before the American FBI went public in indicting him, as it has done, it ought to have contacted its Nigerian counterpart with the overwhelming evidence it had against the super cop, as it is traditionally the case. Even at that, it might be difficult to perfect the extradition of Abba Kyari to the United States of America on technical grounds, alongside other militating factors. Similar indictments by the American system against prominent Nigerians were not consummated in the extradition of these personalities. There was the case of a politician, Senator Buruji Kashamu, indicted for alleged illicit drug peddling, which was ongoing before he died, and there is the example of the owner of Air Peace, Allen Onyema, over money laundering claims, as recent references.

While he could attempt to hide under the concept of an agent provocateur to defend himself in this situation, nevertheless his work as an undercover operative is not known. In fact, agent provocateurs are expected to act as secret agents encouraging suspected criminals to carry out their illegal activities as a way of obtaining evidence. However, Abba Kyari could not be said to fit into this role because he has been widely promoted as a known or overt crime fighter.

My greatest concern has been the huge damage this affair has done to our law enforcement services, as a well-decorated officer considered as one of our finest, who had taken enormous risks in resolving fighting crime and saving lives (winning laurels, accolades and swift promotions) is suddenly discovered to have gone rogue or compromised at some point.

There are a lot of lessons to be learnt from the Abba Kyari affair, especially by law enforcement officials on reputation management and the seductive adulation of the public spotlight.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Author of Award-Winning Crisis Communication Strategies
www.YAShuaib.com

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“Please can you kindly stop any further media campaign against Mallam Abba Kyari over Hajia Maryam Danna, since the Senate has reinstated her. He will do the needful on her case.”

That was the call I received from a person close to Mallam Abba Kyari, the all-powerful Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, February 20, 2020. The gentleman’s call had come immediately after PRNigeria published a news report of yet another resolution of the Senate that day, for the immediate reinstatement of Mrs. Maryam Danna, of the Shuwa ethnic nationality from Borno State, like Abba Kyari.

Mrs. Danna, a chartered accountant with the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), was a respected whistle-blower who had exposed corrupt practices and other irregularities in the federal agency, for which some of its officials were sanctioned. But rather than be rewarded for this act of patriotism, the government had reabsorbed and promoted some of the indicted officials, who had earlier been suspended, to higher levels in other government ministries, while she was arbitrary sacked without any justification in July 2016.

Surprisingly, on his awareness of the case, President Muhammadu Buhari had directed that the woman should be reinstated to her position in the agency. In a memo dated October 25, 2016, the Justice Minister, Abubakar Malami (SAN), wrote the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, intimating him of the decision of the President, following a meeting with the Head of State, in which he had ordered a recall of the widow to her erstwhile job. But that never happened.

Through an advocacy campaign of PRNigeria, some notable Non-Governmental Organisations, alongside the local and foreign media, had also made cases for the restoration of Mrs. Danna to her duties at the NDPHC, through their lead reports, which unfortunately came to no avail.

The eighth Senate of the Federal Republic, under the leadership of Senator Bukola Saraki, had thereafter passed a resolution on May 3, 2018, ordering Maryam Danna’s immediate recall to her position as General Manager (Audit & Compliance) of NDPHC, but the power-that-be in the Presidency refused to budge on this. The recent decision of the federal legislators, therefore, was coming some 22 months after they had passed a similar resolution.

PRNigeria has published reports and opinion articles on the plight of Mrs. Danna, which was initially thought to be a conspiracy between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal. However, it was later realised that the buck on the matter stopped at the desk of the Chief of Staff to the President.

The caller who had given assurance that the restoration of Mrs. Danna to her position in NDPHC would be effected shortly thereafter, however mentioned that the roles of Mr. Kyari on various issues were wrongly misinterpreted in the media and as such was grievously misunderstood by the public. He described the CoS as a very humble, reliable, workaholic, loyal, generous, intelligent and detribalised Nigerian, who meant well for the country.

In expressing my reservation to some of the superlatives used in describing the now late CoS, I had reminded the caller of the plight of this woman from his ethnic group, who had been displaced from her job for more than four years and also Kyari’s known infightings with other influential personalities in government. I mentioned his widely publicised rift with the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, allegedly over a ministerial nomination; his heated quarrel in the Federal Executive Council Chamber with the former Head of Service, Mrs. Oyo-Ita, over the surreptitious reinstatement of the indicted pension looter, Abdulrasheed Maina, in his job; his tug of war with the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, over coordination of the national security architecture and his alleged discordant views with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo over the Ruga livestock settlements and other humanitarian projects, which had prompted the claim by a federal legislator that Abba Kyari was ‘more powerful’ than VP Osinbajo.

The caller had then retorted that the enumerated scenarios were mere imaginary rifts created and promoted by the political opposition to tarnish the reputation of the CoS, whom he described as sincere and incorruptible.

I told him that a reputation is the general belief about a person on the basis of social evaluation and other credentials. I then asked if the caller was aware of damning reports in the media about the reputation of Mr. Kyari, which were neither refuted through factual counter-narratives nor debunked through more credible arguments. I further cited the alleged scandal of a N500 million bribe said to have been given to him by the telco firm, MTN; the reported swindling of his townsman, named Bako Waziri Kyari, of a N29 million naira bribe for a contract; and the claimed maltreatment of a Police officer, DSP Tijjani Bulama, for intervening in Bako Kyari’s plight to recover his money. Most of these allegations were made on a live broadcast of the popular Brekete Human Right Radio in Abuja.

The caller stuttered some response that Kyari was a gentleman, who is tolerant of criticism, and added that no matter how much the CoS was vilified, such media denigration would not change Kyari as, to him, most of the allegations were false and fake news sponsored by those in the opposition.

Realising the bitter turn his mood had taken, I refrained from continuing to engage the caller over the reputation of CoS, nor bothered to inform him that some of the leaked official documents soiling the reputation of the Mallam Abba Kyari came from his party members. For instance, in 2016, a memo from Governor Nasir El-Rufai to President Buhari was leaked, in which the governor accused Mr. Kyari of “being totally clueless about the APC and its internal politics.” In another leaked memo the following year, 2017, the then Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu had blamed Kyari for blocking him from seeing the president over matters pertaining to his ministry. Also, in a leaked brief sent to the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence in 2018, the former NIA Spymaster, Ambassador Mohammed Dauda, leveled grave allegations against the CoS.

Ultimately, the caller agreed that the office of the Chief of Staff to the President required serious reputational management to correct erroneous perceptions around its functions and principal, through the public provision of facts surrounding a number of matters. The caller even promised to arrange an appointment for PRNigeria to have an audience with the Chief of Staff, after he might have perfected the reinstatement of Mrs Maryam Danna to her duties.

Reputation management, an act of public relations, is a deliberate effort in shaping public perception by influencing positive attitudinal and behavioural changes in an organisation or system, where necessary, for it to recover its due respect, trust and patronage. Such a rehabilitated reputation would be consequently measured by the subsequent character and professionalism of the office and its managers, going forward.

Although the upper legislative chamber of the Nigerian National Assembly had dispatched a letter in March 2020 to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, urging him to direct the Managing Director of the NDPHC to comply with and implement its resolution on the case of Mrs. Danna, I doubt if the CoS had been officially briefed about this before he was hospitalised and unfortunately died from the coronavirus disease recently.

There is an urgent need for public officers to be aware of the necessity of managing their reputations positively by tracking and understanding the reasons behind the public misconception of their roles and activities in government. They would need to start responding in timely and responsible manners to public concerns, including false reports, fake news and unfounded allegations about them and their actions. Where necessary, a crisis communication plan is essential in managing any untoward development around these officials and their offices, subsequently.

When I read some of the glowing tributes written by family, friends and associates of Mallam Abba Kyari after his death, even if belated, I seem persuaded to now believing the caller that the former Chief of Staff was truly a nice man, detribalised and possibly misunderstood Nigerian.

Yushau A. Shuaib
Founder PRNigeria and Author “Crisis Communication Strategies”
yashuaib@yahoo.com

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