TRACKING______As the nation mourns the death of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief Of Staff Mallam Abba Kyari, the plans to get his replacement will probably be going on now within the President’s kitchen cabinet, that is if the decision has not yet been taken already.
Now the interesting thing to note here is that the position of the Chief of Staff to the President is quite a sensitive one. This is because anyone who will occupy that office must be someone who understands both the verbal and non-verbal cues of the President, he must be so close to the President yet very distant to maintain the officiality that the job demands. In effect such a person must thoroughly understand the President.
Now understanding the President isn’t enough, the ideal candidate must be someone who is vast in both the internal and external intricacies of managing a country’s affairs. International diplomacy, internal hierarchy, modes of operation and all must be at the fingertips of the ideal candidate.
The Buhari Peculiarity
The ideal candidate in this instance also must be that which can handle albeit in a professional manner the itinerary of the President. The scenario here is quite peculiar as President Buhari is a man that apparently will not be bothered about a lot of the paper work and intricacies of many political issues as regards policy formulation and execution. This is exactly what makes the search for the ideal candidate in this case quite interesting.
However it may not really be too far fetched even given all the requirement already highlighted above
One man comes into the picture and fits into it right now, moreover as it is known that even President Buhari has been seen to have shown equally vested trust in him even before now.
The Man – Babagana Kingibe
That man is Babagana Kingibe, former running mate to Chief Moshood Kashimawo Abiola in the much talked about June 12 1993 Presidential election
Unfortunately, the same Kingibe has quite an interesting turn of events to his name.
Despite being Abiola’s running mate, he still went ahead to take up a Ministerial role in the General Sani Abacha’s administration.
History has it that his joining the Abacha administration has some peculiar ring to it.
Apparently he had been selected when the discussion between the Social Democratic Party and the Abacha administration was that the military administration should be given some time after which it would hand over power to the democratically elected candidates in the person of Abiola and he , Kingibe.
And so Kingibe was chosen to join the administration in a way to be the eye of the democratic movement within the Abacha junta. But alas , everything went out of hand as Abacha within the next few months back then reneged on all promises and moved on full force to entrench himself firmly as the nation’s life president, throwing Abiola into jail.
Kingibe was also the Secretary to the Government of the Federation during the Yar’ Adua days and so is not new to the system.
He is acclaimed to be Abba Kyari’s mentor and has also been within the Buhari for quite a while in the background. He it is who is most likely to be appointed by Buhari as his new Chief of Staff.
But be that as it may, all hands are crossed to see how this will really go, perhaps there may be a surprise in the offing.
