Abba Kyari obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from the University of Warwick, England, in 1980. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Law from the University of Cambridge, England and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1983. In 1984, he then proceeded to obtain a Masters’ Degree in Law from his alma-mater, the University of Cambridge.
Between 1988 and 1990, he was Editor with the New Africa Holdings Limited Kaduna, (publishers of Democrat Newspapers). He served with the Borno State Executive Council as Commissioner for Forestry and Animal Resources in 1990 and was Secretary to the Board of African International Bank Limited, between 1990 and 1995.
He attended the International Institute for Management Development at Lausanne, Switzerland, and participated in the Program for Management Development at the Harvard Business School, in 1992 and 1994 respectively.
Abba Kyari was Executive Director, Management Services, United Bank for Africa Plc. (UBA) and later the Managing Director and Chief Executive of the Bank. He was appointed a Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc. in 2002.
He served as Honorary Member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Investment in Nigeria between 2000 and 2005. He was a recipient of the Nigerian Honor Award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (O.O.N).
According to the Information by Council on Foreign Relations, the Late Abba Kyari was born in 1938, and had generally been in poor health.
Kyari’s title is mallam, an indication that he is an Islamic scholar. He has also had extensive schooling in Europe and the United States, including at the University of Warwick, Cambridge University, the Institute of Management in Lausanne, Switzerland, and at Harvard. He is trained as lawyer, and had a successful career as a banker.
Unlike President Buhari, who identifies as a Hausa-speaking Fulani, Kyari was Kanuri from Borno, the state most afflicted by the radical, Islamist insurgency Boko Haram. Presumably his first language is Kanuri, and his English excellent.
Kyari was the gatekeeper to the president, who had ordered that all cabinet requests come through Kyari to him.
Kyari was overseeing the movement of paper into and out of the president’s office and the president’s schedule. He attends virtually all of the president’s meetings, photo-ops, and press briefings.
Kyari is regularly in personal touch with virtually everybody at the top of Nigeria’s political and economic establishment. He has been reported to have regular, even hourly, contact with the president.
Culled from newswirengr.com