‘Still Daddy’s Girl’ — Late Abba Kyari’s Daughter Aisha Was All Smiles As Father Gets Posthumous National Award
For Aisha Abba Kyari, October 11 2022 will certainly be one of her proudest moments to be called ‘daddy’s girl’ as her late father made the list of about 450 Nigerians and foreigners that were singled out for national recognition by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The late Abba Kyari who served as President Buhari’s Chief of Staff from 2015 to 2020 was among 55 recipients conferred with the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) award on Tuesday.
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The posthumous national honour was received on his behalf by his eldest child, Aisha Abba Kyari.
Kyari was invested with the award “in recognition of his immense contribution to the print media, the economy and administration of the present government.”
Aisha needed not to say a word about how proud she was to once again be called “daddy’s girl”. The beaming smile on her face, while she walked up to President Buhari to receive Nigeria’s third highest honour in the Order of the Federal Republic on her father’s behalf, revealed her excitement.
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In a tribute she wrote to her father after he died on April 17, 2020, at the age of 67 from complications caused by COVID-19, Aisha recalled how her friends would always refer to her as a “daddy’s girl” due to the strong bond she shared with her father right from when she was a child up until his death.
“My friends would often tease me after every call: “I can’t get over how often you and your dad speak, you’re such a daddy’s girl,” Aisha would recall, adding “This was something I heard all my life and I was proud to be my daddy’s girl.”
Aisha noted that despite his busy schedule as President Buhari’s Chief of Staff, her late father “would make sure he came home to have dinner with us and discuss our days, even if it meant him going back to the office afterward.”
Being the best dad, husband, brother, uncle and grandfather to his family was not the only good attribute of the late Cambridge University product.
President Buhari had also in his tribute recalled that the “first-rate skills” of his former Chief of Staff were never in doubt, noting that “Abba’s true focus was always the development of infrastructure and the assurance of security for the people of this nation he served so faithfully.”
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Buhari described the late Kyari as a “loyal friend and compatriot for the last 42 years” who despite having the opportunity “never sought elective office for himself. Rather, he set himself against the view and conduct of two generations of Nigeria’s political establishment – who saw corruption as an entitlement and its practice a byproduct of possessing political office.”
Kyari was said to be greatly misunderstood by persons who weren’t knowledgeable about how he worked hard behind the scenes to help implement the agenda of President Buhari’s administration.
