Abu Mazeedatilkhayr Bn Sa’eed
I lost my appetite for food when I heard about the FBI’s report on Abba Kyari and Hushpuppy. Like many Nigerians, I only know the police cop from a distance; but going by the various records of his accomplishments in bustling crimes, I have always remembered him and his family in my prayers.
Abba Kyari is widely known in the Force as a moral agent; but he comports himself as an ordinary cop. He interacts with the public and does what any other person would do, so much that I am sometimes worried whenever I see him on social media sharing the success of his numerous exploits.
He doesn’t even care that he’s in the eyes of the storm. Aba Kyari is, no doubt, both gallantry and integrity personified. I wonder if he hardly thinks of his colleagues’ sense of envy, the danger of threats from his victims and the possibility of being monitored by the gangs of evil.
He’s known to have, on different occasions, performed numerous magic which seemed difficult in Nigerian security’s space. He’s indeed the Supercop who arrested Evans, Nigeria’s most notorious kidnapper, in Lagos. He also nabbed a gang of 22 members of Boko Haram who kidnapped the Chibok girls.
Abba Kyari championed many successful operations against bandits on the dreaded Abuja-Kaduna highway and made a skillful dislodgement of members of the Eastern Security Network accused of killing Policemen. He also arrested the killer of Air Marshal Alex Badeh (rtd), the former Chief Of Defence Staff.
What do we expect from these heroic exploits?
Fame. Applause. Celebrations. Commendation. Eulogy. A sense of fulfilment and legitimate pride of the Supercop. He certainly deserved all of these and he had them all; but unfortunately, he lacks the wit to manage the heroic fame; and that’s the major factor that brought this shame!
Abba Kyari should have been wise enough to know that Nigeria is peopled by different humans of shady minds. After all, it was his beautiful approach to combating people’s crimes that brought him the fame, yet he was so loose and careless in managing his success.
I was, for example, so worried and somehow astounded when I saw his name on the list of those who visited Oba in Anambra state, last month, during the burial of the mother of Obi Cubana where money was publicly humiliated, abused and illicitly lavished. I was not therefore astonished that he is well acquainted with Hushpuppy.
This doesn’t prove that he actually did as alledged; but it certainly implies that he had always roamed around his foes. In such a situation, he wouldn’t have hunted his game with ease. Can he lift the box while staying in the box? In a nutshell, he was too close to the ruinous temptations.
There’s no single achiever whose exploits have cast a glowing shadow across the surface of the earth, like that of our Supercop, without having, first, battled with a serious temptation at one time or the other. Temptation is the story of heroes and champions.
There’s also hardly any single champion who has lived and flaunted a destiny of success in this world without having, first, overcoming a challenging temptation. Temptation is therefore an integral part of our fallen world. The history of man has begun with and thrived mostly on temptations.
Temptation is not limited to amorous calls alone. It is rather a lustful desire with many faces. There’s for instance material temptation which is the lust for things that may be as big as a mansion or as small as a ring. This is the kind of Hushpuppy temptation in question.
The temptation in question may also be as glittering and dazzling as a brand new Porsche or as dull and dirty as an antique roll-top desk. A wild desire for money is indeed an issue here; and there’s hardly someone who hasn’t felt a burning passion for it.
But if the money is as dirty as Hushpuppy himself, no moral agent would have walked around it without being stained, except if he makes to set a trap for a criminal. It’s only a fool who would arrive at the threshold of temptation and start contemplating how to resist it.
I pray that FBI had only told us a sweet lie, otherwise Ayi kwei Armah would be applauded and celebrated one more time for literarily proclaiming that “The Beautiful Ones are Not yet Born”. Nevertheless, it’s a lesson for all of us, especially the reigning heroes, that the path of Fame could be slippery!