Sacked Kano State Commissioner for Works, Muaz Magaji has opened up on his sack and denied that he celebrated the death of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari.
Magaji was sacked on Saturday by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje for celebrating the death of Abba Kyari.
In several, now deleted, FaceBook posts, Magaji gloated over Kyari’s demise, describing it as freedom for Nigeria.
“Win win… Nigeria is free and Abba Kyari has died in the epidemic… the death of a martyr… if he is a believer, the person is complete,” Magaji wrote.
In a subsequent post, the commissioner said the office of the chief of staff to the President is too powerful and it should be broken into two.
“For the good of Nigeria and Mr President… The CoS office should be split… A PPS (principal private secretary) and a humble manager of his office as CoS… It is currently too powerful for a non-elected official.”
However, he issued a statement on Sunday on his Facebook page, saying he never celebrated the death of Abba Kyari.
“Assalamualaikum, dear people of Kano and Nigeria at large, I want to sincerely clear up what a lot of people may have misunderstood and set the record straight. As a Muslim and a patriotic Nigerians, I was only misunderstood by people to think that I celebrated Kyari’s death, the truth is I did not.
“Not only that, I made several posts mourning Kyari’s death on my same facebook account and through my special assistants but the general public couldn’t commend such or claim I did such post, rather tend to capitalize on a full-phrase post that is given another set of definition and direction as well as negativity in other to tarnish my reputable image as a member of H.E. Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje Administration and his loyalist and that of our National Party APC.
“The use of “win win phrase” is basically an attempt to explain the Islamic Promise on the people that died as a result of any kind of pandemic. The late Mallam Abba Kyari was privileged to die as a result of Covid-19,making him among the beneficiaries in Islam. He is conferred with the automatic privilege of martyrdom.
“Our Rasul S. A. W assured on the path of martyrdom in Sahih al-Bukhari, Kitab al-Jihad wal-Siyar. Even Sheik Isah Ali Pantami has taken time to explain more of this..By this, the death of Mallam Abba Kyari is a big win for him, which is almost the dream of every Muslim,” he said.
He added that “on the other hand, Nigeria equally has the opportunity to restructure the office of the Chief of Staff, where I called Mr President to ensure that we can utilize the pandemic challenges into more strengths, by disintegrating the power of the office for a rapid administrative flow, which over and above anything, our constitutional democracy is meant to achieve and function so often.
“However, in an emotional reaction to my posting, agents around the office of the Chief of staff misunderstood my whole meaning, infuriated from the loss of their benefactor, as such petitioned my principal His Excellency Abdullahi Umar Ganduje the Governor of Kano State, they twisted the narrative with explanation completely out of context and lacing it with religious and cultural connotations that made it necessary for our Principal the Executive Governor to show leadership and solidarity with the dead by relieving me off my position in Kano State as his Commissioner of Works and Infrastructural.”
Magaji said he was confident that the governor must make such a difficult decision as a conditional sacrifice to appease the aggrieved individuals who were aggrieved, especially from their loss and that he understood the difficulty of the circumstances, both from misunderstanding his post, to the Governor’s decision and in general the pains of people in Abuja.
According to him, “Wholeheartedly, I want to use this opportunity to reiterate that as a devout Muslim, I could not have celebrated the death of any human being; because its against my culture, social civilization and most importantly the teaching of my religion.
“I equally want to appeal to all people, especially those in Kano to give people the benefit of doubts by accepting their explanation on what they actually and truly mean by themselves. I sincerely apologised for any misunderstood action, reaction and inactions, we are all in a difficult times that anxiety, worries and depression makes understanding and misunderstanding becomes difficult.
“I am so sorry for any pain I may have caused both the families of the late chief of staff and my boss His Excellency Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. I am forever loyal to my boss; the Governor of Kano State and indebted to all the people of Kano state.
“I want to plentifully remain grateful to His Excellency for the opportunity he gave me to serve my state under his administration and I am pleased to leave not on account of fraud, insubordination, dishonesty, treachery, disloyalty, betrayal, act of incompetence or undermining the government or the people of Kano; but due to this unfortunate misunderstanding and miscommunication of my Facebook post.
“I assure you that everyone will calmly understand my meaning by revisiting everything I’ve said. I am only humane, perfection is never part of our creation,” he said.