In a hall in Abu Dhabi, a father rose to address a gathering convened for the ‘Smile… your smile is enough to make them happy’ campaign. He spoke of his three sons, all on the autism spectrum, and the years of patience, love and determination that had shaped their journey. The room, filled with families and officials from the Zayed Higher Organization for People of Determination and other partners, listened as he described not triumph over adversity, but the quiet, daily act of showing up. His testimony was one of several that afternoon, part of an event held under the patronage of Sheikha Moza bint Suhail to honour fathers of people of determination on International Father’s Day.

The UAE’s observance this year unfolded against a broader national reorientation toward the family. Authorities have designated 2026 the ‘Year of the Family’, and the father figure sits at the centre of new policies and symbolic gestures. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, recently launched the ‘Father’s Endowment’—a one-billion-dirham fund whose proceeds will finance healthcare for those in need, while allowing citizens to donate in their fathers’ names. The Abu Dhabi Early Childhood Authority has introduced a ‘Parent-Friendly Workplace Quality Mark’ to encourage employers to adopt policies that help fathers balance professional and domestic responsibilities. Viewed from within the Gulf, these measures reflect an official conviction that the father is not merely a provider but a partner in instilling national values and securing social cohesion.

In Ghana, the public conversation around Father’s Day took a distinctly moral and civic tone. Reverend Vincent Dakpo, Kadjebi District Chairman of the Local Council of Churches, urged fathers to raise children in the fear of God, arguing that a godly upbringing produces responsible citizens and shields young people from indiscipline and substance abuse. He called for prayer, family devotion and exemplary leadership, while acknowledging the economic pressures that pull parents away from home. Separately, Bernard Ahiafor, the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament, commended fathers as anchors of households and urged communities to support them. The Ghanaian discourse frames fatherhood as a frontline defence of the nation’s moral fabric—a role whose neglect, in the reverend’s view, already shows in rising social vices.

Nigeria offered a different register: a curated roll call of exemplary men. The Men of Valour, a Christian group based in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, published its maiden list of ten ‘Models of Exemplary Fatherhood’. It spanned billionaire Femi Otedola, celebrated for championing his daughters’ unconventional careers in music and the arts rather than enforcing corporate conformity; Pastor Paul Enenche, noted for a stable public ministry marriage and mentorship of millions of youths; former footballer Victor Ikpeba, who navigated personal loss to remain a present single father; and a retired rear admiral, a polio-surviving bank executive, a textile merchant who drew his family into the trade, among others. The group’s secretary, Effiong Usanga, said the initiative was not about religion but about inspirational leadership and commitment to family values, a quiet message that good deeds are being noticed.

Far from the public accolades, a Kenyan executive gave voice to the private anxieties that shadow fatherhood. Professor Busalile Jack Mwimali, Secretary and CEO of the Council of Legal Education, reflected on the distance between Nairobi and his children in Dar es Salaam, and on the fear that everything he has worked for could be lost in a single generation. ‘Despite my success as a parent,’ he said, ‘my children can still end up failing.’ He had discovered that no parenting book could account for the irreducible differences between one child and the next, and that being absent, especially for his daughter, haunted him. His hope, stripped of ceremony, was simply that his children would one day say he did the best he could. In that unadorned wish, the week’s tributes and exhortations found their most intimate echo.