By Bala Ibrahim
The dictionary may refer to a King as the male ruler of an independent state, especially one who inherits the position by the right of birth. But in the game of chess, the King comes with a different definition. Yes, in chess, the most important piece, of which each player has one, which the opponent has to checkmate in order to win, is called the King. The king can move in any direction, including diagonally, to any adjacent square that is not attacked by an opponent’s piece or pawn.
In politics also, there seems to be a similar ambition with regards to the title of the king, because, the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, is swinging someone with swagger, in the person of Senator Abubakar Kyari, the Deputy National Chairman, North, whose 60th birthday was celebrated last night, by the Who-is-Who in the party.
According to his Biography, Senator Abubakar Kyari, popularly called Habu Kyari, was born on the 15th of January 1963, in Borno State. His father was Late Brigadier Abba Kyari – the former military administrator to North Central state, from 1967 to 1975. He has eight siblings. He was educated in both Nigeria and the United States of America. He attended Kaduna Capital School in 1974. He then proceeded to Barewa College Zaria, where he obtained his WASC in 1979. He attended the University of Tennessee Martin in USA, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in 1986. Thereafter in 1989, he attended Webster University St.Louis Missouri USA for his Masters in Business Administration. Kyari was elected to be a member of the Borno State House of Representatives under the defunct United Nigeria Congress Party (UNCP) in 1998.
He represented his constituency at the National House of Assembly on the platform of the defunct All Peoples Party (APP) between 1999 -2003. From 2003 to 2005, he was made an Honorable Commissioner in Borno State and also from 2007 to 2011, he continued as an Honorable Commissioner. In the 2015 elections, he contested for the Borno North Senatorial seat and won under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC. And since March 2022, when the APC had its national convention, Kyari was elected the Deputy national chairman, in charge of the north.
However, contrary to the conventional characteristics of the King, who, because of the gift of destiny, is made to be acting in an unpleasantly superior and domineering way, the King in this particular Kyari, is almost always, exhibiting or showing the virtue of modesty. Truly, Habu Kyari does not move with the euphoria of high estimation of his importance. Regardless of your position, Kyari doesn’t go around kinging it over you, nor act in an unpleasantly domineering way with you. He simply personifies humility.
It is in recognition of these unique virtues of modesty, which he deployed in his various contributions to national development, that President Muhammadu Buhari recently conferred on him, the prestigious National Honour of the rank of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).
And having turned 60 few weeks ago, his colleagues at the APC secretariat friends and fans, saw it as a moral or legal obligation, to rejoice with him, on the blessed day that is his birthday. Although the day 1st of January was celebrated all over the world, the APC as a bonded family, under the abled leadership of Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Turakin Keffi, who was physically present at the event last night, took it as a revered responsibility, to rejoice and celebrate one more year that Allah had allowed Abubakar Kyari to grace with them on this beautiful earth.
To Kyari, whom I believe posterity would eventually crown as a King, because, from the look of things, at the point of manufacture, nature must have first put him in the room of kindness, the room of good height, then the room of good looks, before finally, placing him in the room of humility, I say hip hip hip, HURRAH!
