Abba Kyari, the trusted chief of staff to Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari, has died from complications related to Covid-19 after a nearly month-long battle with the virus.
Kyari had widely been seen as one of the three most powerful people in Africa’s largest economy and said to have the complete trust of Buhari. Some had even described him as the de facto head of the government because in a country where the presidency holds an inordinate amount of centralized power and government funds, deciding who has access to the president accords immense power and influence. Despite his high profile role, the late chief of staff has not been one for the political limelight. Mr. Kyari amassed more power than any previous chief of staff in Nigeria. Anyone who wanted to see President Muhammadu Buhari, including ministers and Nigeria’s influential state governors, had to go through him. A banker, lawyer and journalist before he went into politics, Mr. Kyari was originally from Borno state in Nigeria’s northeast. He studied sociology and law in the United Kingdom, where he attended Warwick and Cambridge universities. Geoffrey Onyeama, the country’s foreign minister, reminisced about attending discothèques and parties together at Warwick early in their long friendship.

He was known as an erudite man with a ready wit and an open door. But he was also known for being private, even secretive. Even his age — 67, according to the president, who knew him for four decades — was the subject of much speculation.
He is survived by his wife, Hajiya Kulu Kyari, and their four children. As posted in the New York Time – Lives We’ve Lost