Anyone still living in denial of the existential and fundamental problem that Nigeria is currently facing needs none other than the alleged drug bust involving the countrys most celebrated policeman, Abba Kyari. As the story goes, the Deputy Commissioner of Police was arrested on Monday by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on charges of assisting a drug cartel operating on the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria route.
Since the news broke, two more police officers, who were working under Kyari in the Special Police Unit, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Sunday Ubua and Assistant Superintendent of Police, James Bawa, have been suspended as the investigation continues.
The important take-home from this grace to grass tragedy is one that should force a countrywide soul-searching because of the deeper implications that it bears for the kind of country that we all aspire to belong to. Far from glossing over the individual case of a police officer gone rogue, we need to ask ourselves very cogent questions as to why a cop with as much promise and prospects as Kyari had going for him would decide to throw it all away for 25 kilogrammes of cocaine? What will possess the most celebrated policeman to flush down the drain all the goodwill that he painstakingly gained overtime? What will induce a decorated officer considered to be the face of contemporary Nigerian policing to sacrifice his future on the altar of crime and easy money?
Perhaps, if we give these questions considerable thought and try to reach for fact-based answers and possibly more questions, we will begin to piece together a realisation that deeply entrenched in our contemporary psyche as a country is a mentality that must be exorcised, if we are to make progress realisable as a country any time soon. What demons will possess the crime-busting head of the intelligence unit of the police force, famed for ending the criminality of the notorious Abiodun Ogunjob-led robbery gang, Godogodo, in 2013, which had held sway in South-West Nigeria for 14 unbroken years to take to crime himself? Why will the mind that orchestrated the arrest of kidnapping gangs in the South-East and Rivers State that was led by Henry Chibueze (fearsomely known as Vampire) in March 2017, the apprehension of Chukwudi Onuamadike, the notorious billionaire kidnap suspect, popularly called Evans and Taraba’s wanted kidnap kingpin, Hamisu Wadume, consider a turn to the life of the underworld?
Kyari had the media at his behest and the country at his feet. In April 2016, the DCP was honoured with the Presidential Medal for Courage and two years later, he was declared 2018 Africa’s Best Detective, while the Silverbird Group conferred on him the accolade of Best Officer of the Decade.
In recognition of the distinction with which he was carrying himself and the honour he had brought to his home state, a street in his hometown of Maiduguri was named after him. There was more to come.
Kyari received a standing ovation at a session of the House of Representatives in June 2020 for his exceptional work in the fight against criminality. No other police officer had ever come close to receiving such an honour. He was marked for the top and he was going places hitherto believed to be implausible for the corrupt cadre of the Nigerian Police Force. Perhaps to underscore the “Police is your friend” tag, he took an increasingly ostentatious posture on social media, consistently uploading pictures of himself in regular settings with common folks, which gradually became grandiose.
He demonstrated a flair for high society and loved to be seen with celebrities and those with enough money to throw around. That was how he became a familiar face associated with Ramon Abbas, more popularly known as “Hushpuppi”. Until Hushpuppi’s arrest by the Dubai Police in June 2020 and subsequent extradition to the United States to face criminal charges, the Nigerian Instagram celebrity allegedly laundered money obtained from business email compromise frauds and other scams, including schemes that defrauded a US law firm of about $40 million, illegally transferred $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution and targeted to steal $124 million from an English football club.
It was involvement with such dubious characters that resulted in the first chink in Kyari’s pristine armour as an exemplary cop. Linked with Hushpuppi, based on acquired confessions from the fraudster, Kyari’s initial attempts to defend himself did not measure up and before long, he was suspended by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, pending investigations into his involvement in Hushpuppi’s criminal activities. He was still under suspension when the NDLEA net trapped him with audiovisual evidence that presented a watertight case against him.
The fact we cannot escape in this narrative is that there is a fundamental flaw which has ruptured the moral fabric of our society. For an individual of such standing and prospects to seek an alliance with the underworld of criminality, against which he had so courageously battled, boggles the mind to no end. Was he seeking to secure a retirement plan? Was he looking to guarantee a life of grandeur for himself and posterity, which he felt was not certain within the framework of his government post? Were there no character safeguards in his upbringing that could have kept him going on the straight and narrow path and keeping him from losing sight of which side of the law he stood and represented?
As with such queries, there is often a direct link to be drawn to upbringing, nurturing and family.
As the basic unit of society, the health of the family can be used as a barometer to check the health of the society. Vice versa, the despoilation of the society is a most obvious pointer to the desecration of the family as a bed for nurturing the values that will help society maintain values of honesty, accountability, responsibility and forthrightness in the face of all odds.
The takeaway from the sorry tale of Kyari’s unfortunate turn must be for all of us to look inwards and ask ourselves some of these questions that challenge us to think of the deep moral and existential issues we all must face today, as individuals and as a country, as we strive to be the type of people we want to associate with in the type of country we want to live in.
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