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Social media has been awash with mixed reactions following the publication today in a national newspaper the moving tribute penned by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Geoffery Onyema, to his departed friend, Abba Kyari.
Some who commented on the piece posted on my wall and in some group WhatsApp platforms I belong affirm that it changed totally their perspective about the late Chief of Staff to President Buhari, which led them to appreciate him the more and credit him with more virtues than vice.
Quite many others feel that it’s a needless attempt at image burnishing by the minister to repay the gesture done to him by the man who singlehandledly made him a minister. A friend in particular called out Onyema, whom he called a “foreigner” for being “imposed” by Abba Kyari on his Enugu State for the ministerial position. Another very close confidant and friend volunteered that Abba Kyari was not what Onyema said he was. She said, “I am speaking as a Senior Public Servant and also from the point of view of the work my office does.Do you know how corrupt he was? That he masterminded most if not all top appointments in the country and who have been getting these appointments?”
Be that as it may, it bears noting that Onyema’s tribute revealed something many seemed to have overlooked. Abba and him were friends for 43 years. Close and functional friendship at that. There were factors that made such friendship untenable: region and religion. But they overcame. Remember they met barely seven years after the end of the civil war in 1970.
Onyema told us how Abba, a Kanuri Muslim from Borno he met in school years back, followed him, a Catholic Igbo from Enugu, to Ondo to marry an Anglican Yoruba girl. And he was indeed his Best Man at the wedding. And stayed true to their friendship by discountenacing the religious divide to travel to Geneva to be the Godfather to his son.
Years later when appointed a Chief of Staff to President Buhari, Abba reached out to his friend, a prepared and competent one for that matter, and recommended him as minister, and stood by him against the opposition of his home people.
Now, let me ask you? Who are your closest friends and how long and functional have you been friends? Do you feel comfortable only with folks from your village, religion, tribe, clan and region as friends? Do you stand with and by your friends when needed? Or are you among those who look away from their friends when fortune smiles at you and never reach out to them or even snub them when reached? How many of your schoolmates and classmates do you reach out to or willing to listen to in their hours of need? Do you belong to your alumni association?
Whatever anyone can say, Onyema did not write a eulogy about the Chief of Staff to President Buhari. He wrote about his friend who became a Chief of Staff. Abba was first his friend before he became Buhari’s aide.
I want and pray to be to my friends what Abba was to Onyema. A friend of all seasons. A grateful friend. A brother friend, what the Igbo call enyi kariri nwanne. There are even some blood brothers who don’t show gratitude to those who helped them let alone remember to show public appreciation to a long time friend.
I can only imagine the loss of Onyema going forward with his paddy man and family friend not being around him again in government. I can only imagine how his son who lost his godfather in Abba would be feeling. And the entire family too.
So, you can say all you wish about Abba, he was a friend, a great one to booth, to Onyema. I concede to him the right to rightly write eulogies about his friend. I will write more to celebrate my friends.
