Tobias Sylvester
A Nigerian man identified as @DoubleEph on Twitter, has narrated his encounter with the former Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, who died of coronavirus on Friday, April 17, 2020.
KanyiDaily had reported that Abba Kyari died on Friday, exactly 26 days after he tested positive for coronavirus following his trip to Germany and Egypt where the pandemic had claimed hundreds of lives.
Following the announcement of his death, many Nigerians have taken to social media to mock the late Chief of Staff whom the described a wicked man.
However, the twitter user @DoubleEph, in a series of tweets, narrated how the late Kyari showed him that he wasn’t a monster after meeting him in London.
“The death of Abba Kyari greatly saddens me. He was one of the Nigerian government officials I abused the most here. Until one fine day last December, he wrote.
“I was driving when a call came in. ‘Hello, is that Feyi?’ Yes. This is Abba Kyari. I’ll like to meet you and show you I’m not a monster.
“About a week later, I drove down to cambridge to meet him. I took 2 books for him and he also brought 2 books for me. We spent close to 2 hours talking about everything in Nigeria from Buhari to 2nd Niger Bridge.
“I assumed it would be like the usual Nigerian big men you meet and never hear from once they return to Nigeria. But we continued chatting daily and even when he landed in Abuja, he sent a message from the airport saying we should keep in touch.
“Since then we’ve chatted very regularly until the last 2 weeks when his illness took a turn for the worse. Sometimes light capitalism vs socialism banter. Sometimes more serious stuff.
“If you call me a hypocrite I will accept the charge. But I confess that I had started to like the man. It may be that I fell for the old trick of a powerful person treating you with respect but I always found him to be courteous and quite different from the image I had of him.
“This is not an image washing exercise – many people dislike him strongly (I was one of them too not long ago). But hearing the news of his death has left me deeply sad. And I pray that God grants his soul eternal rest and comfort his family.”
The death of Abba Kyari greatly saddens me. He was one of the Nigerian government officials I abused the most here. Until one fine day last December
— tyro (@DoubleEph) April 18, 2020
