Abba Kyari
Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Abba Kyari, was buried on Saturday morning after battling COVID-19.
He was laid to rest at Gudu Cemetery in Abuja but there are few issues
stirring controversies after the demise of the top aide in Buhari’s
cabinet.
Here are they:
1. Kemi Olunloyo’s ‘prediction’: From the moment
Special Adviser to the President, Femi Adesina broke Kyari’s death, Kemi
Olunloyo, a social media commentator and daughter of former Oyo
governor, gained prominence for her recent tweet that ‘an high ranking
member of the President’s cabinet had died of coronavirus complications”
some days ago.
Although she failed to put a face to the personality in her
‘prediction’, she authoritatively claimed the official died long before
Friday. As at then, only Kyari was known to be under treatment due to
COVID-19.
2. Kyari’s age: Shortly after his death, Wikipedia
updated his status but clearly stated that his age has not been made
public while he was assumed him to in his 70s. While the age is still
being debated, Television Continental, TVC continues to maintain in its
live coverage of the burial rite that the public servant lived between
1938 and 2020, which is a total 81.
3. Actual location of death: Unlike other some other
prominent COVID-19-related deaths in Nigeria, where Kyari underwent
treatment remained shrouded in secrecy.
It was also not stated in the Presidency’s statement while announcing
his demise. The last detail open to the public regarding was his
personally-signed statement on March 29 where he clearly asserted that
he would be traveling to an undisclosed hospital in Lagos for private
treatment, hoping he would return to work soon.
4. Violation of social distancing during burial rite:
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba
Shehu stated on Saturday the deceased’s burial will be private in Abuja
‘in strict observation of the protocol put in place burial of
Coronavirus victims by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC and
Ministry of Health.’
In compliance with the World Health Organization, the NCDC also gave a
social distancing guideline of at least two meters (3 feet) between two
people. Generally, social gathering is strictly warned against to avoid
this violation.
On April 3, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed also established deceased patients of COVID-19 remain infectious.
But, monitoring the live coverage of the rite at the Gudu Cemetery today
on TVC, neither social distancing was observed as the population was
well over 20.
The gathering could also be hardly said to be private.
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Source: The Nation
