President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed sadness over the death of his Chief Of Staff, Abba Kyari saying he lost a crucial gatekeeper to the presidency.

In a tribute penned by the Nigerian president on his Twitter handle, Buhari wrote, “Working, without fail, seven days every week, he acted forcefully as a crucial gatekeeper to the presidency, ensuring no one – whether minister or governor had access beyond another – and that all those representing and serving our country were treated equally.”

The President went further to say the late Chief of Staff never sought an elective position for himself all through the years he had known him.

“In political life, Abba 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,” Buhari wrote, extolling the virtues of the late Kyari.

On his non-public lifestyle, Buhari wrote, “There are those who said of him that he must be secretive – because he did not have a high public profile. But Abba was the opposite: he simply had no need, nor did he seek, the cheap gratification of the crowd; for him, there was nothing to be found in popular adulation.”

The late Abba Kyari passed away on Friday, April 17 after a month-long battle with coronavirus. He died in Lagos, Nigeria and was buried at the Gudu Cemetery in Abuja.