Late Abba Kyari's Daughter Aisha Says He Was Terribly Misunderstood And Arguably Mischievously Misrepresented

Aisha, daughter of Abba Kyari, late chief of staff of the President puts up a strong worded defence for her Father and says he was misunderstood...

In a touching tribute published by ThisDay, titled ‘My daddy, my best friend’, Aisha described her late father as an outstanding personality whose wealth of experience cuts across various spheres of life.


She began by saying "Most people knew my dad as the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. As it is with many public servants, there was much more to him than the signature white kaftan and red cap by which he came to be recognised. He was a most remarkable husband to my mother (HauwaKulu), and father to myself and my three younger siblings (Nurudeen, Ibrahim, and Zainab). Completely irreplaceable".


"Growing up, my dad doted over us. He was extremely protective and his role in raising us with my mother was as complimentary as it was distinct. His main focus was our education, and my mother’s was etiquette and religion! He was stern, and Ammui (as we call her) was playful. It was a perfect balance".


"He was always working. My dad reminded us he worked hard so that he could give us all that we needed to excel at whatever we chose to do. And as far as I remember, my siblings and I lacked nothing; we had all we asked and more. That said, the asking part was hard! It often would come with a lecture and many questions as to why we would even ask for things. In the end, we would get what we wanted as long as a compelling case could be made for it".


"He had a hard exterior but a heart of gold and a quirky sense of humour. He had zero tolerance for mediocrity: A no-nonsense man in every sense of the word. He expected excellence at all times and when it came to time, my father was Swiss-German – for him, arriving on time was arriving late. To this day, my friends always tease me about how and why I get to airport hours before a flight. It is what my daddy instilled in me. Daddy’s biggest obsession was education. He truly invested in us the best education".


She said it was however, amusing that despite his exposure, he could not drive a car until his demise.

“This may sound odd but my beloved daddy couldn’t drive a car! He never learnt how to drive for a day in his entire life,” she wrote.

She went on to explain how her late father was largely “misunderstood” and “mischievously misrepresented” by some Nigerians, despite his contributions to humanity and nation-building.

“My dad was terribly misunderstood and arguably mischievously misrepresented. Even his age was never gotten right from the day he became Chief of staff till the day he died. My dad died at the age of 67. He was often mistaken for the late Brigadier Abba Kyari who was indeed in his 80’s,” she added.

According her, the decision of the late chief of staff not to defend himself against critics was to enable him concentrate on his major assignment of serving his principal and the country.

“For clarity, my dad was more than capable of defending himself. The reason he didn’t is that it would have distracted him from his primary assignment of serving his principal and by extension, his country,” Aisha wrote.

Her father Abba Kyari died from COVID-19 complications on April 17, a few weeks after he had tested positive for the novel disease, following an official trip to Germany and the UK.