President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, has been named as the architect of the president’s controversial letter to
the National Assembly informing legislators that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was to be the “coordinator” of government activities during Mr. Buhari’s latest trip to Britain to undergo urgent medical care.
The phrasing of the letter, a departure from President Buhari’s previous ones where Mr. Osinbajo was explicitly named “Acting President,” has generated widespread discussion and a measure of political tension within Nigeria.
Several high-ranking sources at the Presidency confirmed to SaharaReporters that the decision to use the phrase, “the Vice President will coordinate the activities of the Government,” instead of expressing what the Constitution stipulates, that the Vice President becomes “Acting President” with the transmission of the letter, was singularly taken by Mr. Kyari.
Our Presidency sources added that they were not even certain that Mr. Abba Kyari bothered to seek the opinion of the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami, before drafting the much-discussed memo to the National Assembly.
However, the sources said President Buhari had in the past insisted that the Attorney General should at all times be informed about such important constitutional communication between him and the National Assembly.
One source said Mr. Buhari was irate on learning about the political fallout from the ill-motivated decision to alter the usual content of his letter to the National Assembly.
“Abba Kyari has some explanation to make to the President who was completely taken by surprise,” said one source. The source asserted that the President signed the letter on Sunday, after a quick glance, with the understanding that the letter was couched the same way as the previous letter he signed when he went on an extended medical leave last January.
“I can assure you that he never knew of the ridiculous insertion of the word ‘coordinating’ in his letter,” said the source. Another source accused Mr. Kyari of fomenting moves in the past designed to cause confusion between the President and his ministers, and between the Vice President and the President, adding that Mr. Buhari had on several occasions scolded the Chief of Staff for his mischievous maneuvers.
“Mr. President has often sharply rebuked [Mr. Kyari], insisting that things must be done properly and constitutionally,” said the source. But the source remarked that, after each presidential reprimand, Mr. Kyari seemed to get even more desperate to sow seeds of discord, to the point of taking decisions which Mr. Buhari often would confide in associates he did not recall authorizing.
The Nigerian President, who is officially 74 years old, is believed by some to be older and to be plagued by the usual ravages of old age, including a failing memory. Our sources said one occasion when Mr. Buhari confronted his Chief of Staff was when Mr. Kyari inserted himself as a board member of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The sources described Mr. Kyari’s inclusion on the NNPC board as curious and needless, adding that President Buhari confronted the Chief of Staff on that decision. Mr. Kyari reportedly insisted that the President had approved the entire list presented to him as members of the NNPC board.
“Everyone at the Presidency was shocked when that happened because we knew that Mr. President had never approved the inclusion of Abba Kyari,” one source insisted.
SaharaReporters also learned that the Chief of Staff recently sidelined Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, when Mr. Kyari set aside the minister’s list of heads of agencies under his ministry and brought his own names. “Since then, Abba Kyari blocked every attempt by the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, to see Mr. President until the release of the Chibok girls last weekend,” said the source.
One source said he was unclear why Mr. Kyari orchestrated the change of the second paragraph of the President