I had already coined the caption before I stumbled unto Uncle Abu Kyari, alongside my boss Senator Kashim Shettima, the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna state. The vice-president was there to commission a banquet hall built by the Kaduna state government in honour of the late Brigadier General Kyari, the first military governor of the former North-central state. His son, Abu Kyari, the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, was there with the vice-president to accept the honour on behalf of the Kyari family. Kyari, as we all know, was the acting chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2023. Senator Abu Kyari was also the deputy chairman, North of the party after resigning as the senator representing Borno North senatorial district. He served as senator from 2015 to 2022. Aside a very rich and intimidating political profile, Uncle Abu’s educational background is equally as interesting as his political and family one. He was educated both in Nigeria and the United States. He holds a bachelors degree from the University of Tennesse, Martin, and an MBA from Webster University St. Louis. President Muhammadu Buhari of blessed memory honoured Abu Kyari with the Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). I have always been awed by Uncle Abu’s career/personality profile and my personal relationship with him and his family has given me the unique opportunity to know him up close. Why am I asking for him or looking for him? Because the Governor Umar Zulum of Borno state successor debate is up in the air and I thought to try to clear out a bit of the fogginess. I have for a long time wondered, why would Borno state have someone like Abu Kyari up their sleeve and not act fast and smart about it? I comfortably query this because I am a son in Borno too. I have two or three aunts and sisters married in Borno, so I have tonnes of Kanuri and Shuwa cousins. Moreover, Abu Kyari’s wife, Mommy, is my mom’s younger sister. His dad, the late Brig. Kyari, was a roommate with my late dad Dr. Ibrahim Tahir Talban Bauchi. Senator Kyari himself is a bossom friend of my elder brother Colonel Jamil Tahir (rtd). Believe you me, I can speak of Kyari as a close family friend, and this gives me a unique view as a writer. Why am I impressing on my familiarity with Kyari? I need to come clean with the reader so he/she can understand my perspective.
Back to my question; The last I heard of Kyari before now was about two or three months ago as he did Nigeria proud in different fora all over the world. These outstanding feats were captured by yours sincerely in a piece titled, “Nigeria’s growing significance in global agricultural output”. The article covered Kyari’s International Diplomacy Award for the transformation of Nigeria’s Cocoa industry, at the Cocoa Beyond Borders Conference in the UK on January 26, 2026. Kyari was standing up for weaker producer economies who are the lifeline of the global cocoa trade. Subsequently, and just about a month after the UK honour, he was elected the chairperson, Governing Council of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). IFAD is the United Nations agency for transforming rural livelihoods and ending world hunger. He was elected by 600 delegates from 120 countries. This new role has Kyari as the ambassador for youth development and he now leads the campaign for advancing agripreneur financing, and, secondly, as the messiah for the recharge and restoration of Lake Chad. Before these international recognitions, I found Kyari in, “Kyari: Obscuring that food security road map”, a piece I had put together articulating Kyari’s efforts under the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda on achieving food security. I reported that, “Since November 2023, efforts were intensified during the dry season wheat farming campaign of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, headed by Sen. Abu Kyari, CON. More than 300,000 farmers were supported with subsidies worth 50% of their total farm inputs/implements, with each farmer getting N361,000 worth/per hectare. They were provided with superior seedlings called the Borlaug and the Attila varieties which have three times the yield of previously used seedlings, along with fertiliser, pesticides and other implements. More than 250,000 hectares were cultivated, with an expected yield of 1,250,000 metric tonnes. The following year, another 500,000 farmers were subsidised to produce rice, cassava, and maize during the dry season. The expected yield was at least 1 million metric tonnes. This is being driven through the agriculture ministry’s National Agricultural Growth Scheme Agro-Pocket Project. A second phase of this scheme envisages a 93% subsidy for the farmers. These renewed farming initiatives recorded 60,000 metric tonnes of improved seeds and 887,000 metric tonnes of seedlings alongside 501,000 litres of agro chemicals being distributed to farmers to help curb food inflation. At the end of last year, 300,000 farmers were subsidised for the dry season wheat farming with 50% subsidy on fertiliser, and 75% subsidy on seeds, resulting in 98% redemption rate. The second phase of the dry season farming which is commencing soon will be targeting 400,000 farmers, this time concentrating on other crops like rice, maize and cassava. Also, $86.7 million was secured from IFAD for the Value Chain in the North Initiative which focuses on enhancing agricultural value chains in the Northern region. The Vice Chairman, Sen. Kyari, (he was vice chairman long before his election as IFAD chair), has secured an additional $32 million for the LifeND, Livelihood Improvement Family Enterprises Project for the Niger Delta. He announced that $134 million was secured from the AfDB (African Development Bank), for the national dry season farming activities to boost all-year-round farming. These activities are truly yielding results”.
When President Tinubu, GCFR, appointed Kyari as agriculture minister, I was certain that the desired results in food security would come. Not as fast as Nigerians usually want, but as fast as his prudent and thorough self would permit. I was certain that all that would be provided to the farmers will actually reach them. He would plug the leakages, unbottle all the bottlenecks, and reduce the corruption in the vehicle that takes the inputs from the federal government to the farmers. It would take time, but it would happen. Energy prices and other variables may be on the rise, and so having cheaper food prices would be more challenging. But here we are, the prices are dropping.
Before the article captured above, just one year into Uncle Abu Kyari’s tenure as agriculture minister, I wrote, “One year of concerted efforts towards achieving food security”. Before that I also wrote, “Food security within sight” in appreciation of the better food prices and reduced food inflation under Kyari’s food security agenda of Mr. President. Another article: “Agric: A steadied approach towards sustainable food security” followed. Long before all this, I wrote about Kyari’s preference to teaching me how to fish and not just “dashing” me fish. In Kyari and my lessons in fishing, I gave accounts of how Kyari gets personally involved in the troubles, problems and challenges of people he knows, like his relatives and other acquaintances. Kyari would foot the medical bills of all he knows and he would do that quietly without a hoot or flinch. I can be sure that were he to be reading this write up of mine in my presence, he would give me the eye – querying why I was saying all this publicly; relaying how kind hearted, generous and compassionate he is. So, I ask again, where is Senator Abu Kyari as Borno state is set to have a brand new governor to succeed Kashim’s reforms and the courage of Zulum? Where is the supposed new driver of the renewed hope agenda in Borno state?
Tahir is Talban Bauchi.