TheCable

Boss Mustapha, secretary to the government of the federation, says the death Abba Kyari, chief of staff to the president, shows that COVID-19 ”has come home”.

The late chief of staff went into isolation after he tested positive for the disease in March.

The presidency announced his death on Friday night.

The SGF, who doubles as the chairman of the presidential task force on COVID-19, said Nigerians should no longer see the pandemic as a joke

“There are very big lessons to learn from the death of Abba Kyari,” he said.

“One of the key lessons for me is that this thing is real and it has come home. How closer can it be to us than this? That is why I keep saying that we should not play with this issue. It is not a joke.

“It has come to ravage our people, ravage our health and ravage our wealth as a nation so we must take it more seriously and the advisory that have gone out about social distancing, washing of hands and staying at home are not punitive, they are meant for our good.

“We have seen it now, that it has come home to us. If we were thinking of people who had passed on as a result of COVID-19 from a distance, it is not far now. It is just like a brother or friend or a relative that has passed on.

“This is a man we worked with on a daily basis, you see him virtually every day so it’s a big lesson that our people should not joke with this, we must wash our hands, stay at home, use sanitizers and follow all the advisories religiously.”

Mustapha described Kyari as “a very good, determined and intellectually upright man”.

He said his death is a personal loss to him, to the president and the nation.

“A lot of people didn’t understand Malam Abba but I worked with him for three years and I can tell you that he is a wonderful person, he is a good man; deep down in his heart, he always meant well and I looked up to him as a senior brother in the course of the work that we did in the last three years,” he said.

“If I show you my phone, you will see some of the things that he was sending to me even when he was confirmed positive with COVID-19, he was still sending jokes. Every piece of joke he picked up in the internet he would send it to me.

“He demonstrated a high level of commitment to his job and he had a passion for the legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari and in everything he did, he never cared whose toes he stepped on, provided it was in the attainment of the legacies he believed President Buhari ought to leave.

“He was always very considerate. You might hold different opinions but he would drill the matter until he convinces you or you convince him.”