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President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari, is dead following a nearly month-long battle with COVID-19.
Kyari, held as one of the most powerful people in the corridors of power and trusted chief of staff to the Nigerian president is the highest profile death since the disease broke in the country.
To go by the record of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), there are now about 493 confirmed cases and 17 deaths as at April, 17 2020 when Kyari passed.
The presidency announced his passage in series of tweet in the early hours of Saturday April, 18, 2020.
“The Presidency regrets to announce the passage of the Chief of Staff to the President, Mallam Abba Kyari.
“The deceased had tested positive to the ravaging COVID-19, and had been receiving treatment. But he died on Friday, April 17, 2020.”
Respected by many and feared by many others, as Quartz Africa puts it:
“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 defacto 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.”
Meanwhile, to strengthen Nigeria’s COVID-19 response activities, a virtual risk communication training has held for health educators and key communication stakeholders across 36 states and Abuja. The training held in collaboration with USCDC Nigeria, Breakthrough ACTION-Nigeria, CCSImpact and Corona Management Systems.
