An avalanche of goodwill messages and eulogies has trailed the appointment of Ibrahim Gambari as chief of staff (CoS) to President Muhammadu Buhari to replace the late Abba Kyari.
Gambari resumed office on Wednesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, pledging his loyalty and support to his boss. He was in attendance at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Buhari.
But beyond the euphoria of the new appointment, Gambari is coming into the CoS office at a critical moment in the history of Nigeria. His appointment comes at a time when the economy is on its knees amid collapsed oil prices and the country is assailed by the coronavirus pandemic that has kept the nation’s leadership on its toes for several weeks now.
At age 76, the former Nigeria’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) has seen it all. And he is expected to bring his years of robust experience and knowledge in the management of men and resources to bear on his new job.
Now, working with a president who has just lost a very close friend, Gambari is expected to fill in that gap in every sense of the word. He must be a close confidant, dependant, and a friend indeed.
Kyari’s role in the Buhari presidency was such that he was virtually the brain box of the administration, according to analysts. Before his demise, he wielded so much political power that all economic documents passed through him before getting to President Buhari.
President Buhari on his appointment of ministers last year made it clear that all proposals must pass through his chief of staff before getting to him.
Among other key roles in the economy, Kyari was at the forefront of the Siemens power deal which aims to bring massive improvement to Nigeria’s power sector.
As a well-travelled diplomat, Gambari is not expected to have any problem with his job description. He must be aware that like in the American tradition, the White House Chief of Staff is saddled with the main responsibility of managing the Executive Office of the President (EOP), including selection, supervision and management of the key staff of the presidential office.
As the principal gatekeeper, he will be controlling access to his boss and managing the flow of information and communications to and from the Presidential Villa.
He will be negotiating with the nation’s bicameral legislature and coordinates agencies such as the Office of the National Security Adviser, Council of Economic Advisers and the Office of Management and Budget.
Obadiah Mailafia, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), who had served as a Chef de Cabinet (Chief of Staff) of the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States based in Brussels from 2010-2015, said: “Being a CoS is not a dinner party – and certainly not a job for the fainthearted.”
According to Mailafia, “You have to be a jack of all trades and a master of all; a hands-on economist, finance expert and administrator with a nose for power and diplomatic statecraft. It requires patience, high ability, energy, discretion and tact. But you must also be tough — ready to swim with the sharks and to graze with the bulls. Above all, your loyalty to the boss must be total and unassailable.”
For Gambari, it is worth recommending and to draw his attention to the wordings of the tribute written by President Buhari at the exit of Kyari. This could help him to have a good idea of what his principal may be expecting from him.
Buhari addressed Kyari as “my loyal friend and compatriot for the last 42 years – and latterly my chief-of-staff”, saying “he never wavered in his commitment to the betterment of every one of us”.
He said the late Kyari possessed “the sharpest legal and organisational mind” but his “true focus was always the development of infrastructure and the assurance of security for the people of this nation he served so faithfully, for he knew that without both in tandem there can never be the development of the respectful society and vibrant economy that all Nigerian citizens deserve”.
“Becoming my chief of staff in 2015, he strove quietly and without any interest in publicity or personal gain to implement my agenda. There are those who said of him that he must be secretive – because he did not have a high public profile,” Buhari said.
“But Abba was the opposite: he simply had no need, nor did he seek the cheap gratification of the crowd; for him, there was nothing to be found in popular adulation. He secured instead satisfaction and his reward solely and only from the improvement of the governance of this great country,” he said.
The president said Kyari was “working, without fail, seven days each and every week, he acted forcefully as a crucial gatekeeper to the presidency, ensuring no one – whether minister or governor had access beyond another – and that all those representing and serving our country were treated equally”.
Now as chief of staff, Gambari has the dual responsibility of serving the president conscientiously and ensuring he carries the entire country along.
Part of the misgivings some Nigerians had with the tenure of the late Kyari in office was the enormous powers he allegedly arrogated to himself and his cronies, which were said to have impacted negatively on the country.
“If he (Kyari) had had a more enlightened mind, we would have expected him to have used such enormous power to uplift our country from its current morass,” Mailafia said.
This is surely the point at which many Nigerians are waiting for Gambari. What he does with the power in his hand would determine how he would spoken of in the days ahead, especially at the expiration of his stewardship.
