Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Breaking: President Buhari appoints Prof. Gambari as new Chief of Staff

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Professor Agboola Ibrahim Gambari, has been appointed as the new chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Prof. Gambari, a former Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985, an indigene of Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, was appointed on Tuesday 12 May to replace late Abba Kyari, who died of coronavirus infection.

Recalls that Abba Kyari was the Chief of Staff to President Buhari until his demise on 17 April shortly after he was tested positive to coronavirus.

Prof Gambari, CFR, who was born November 24, 1944, in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria is a scholar and diplomat. He was appointed by the Secretary-General of United Nations Ban Ki-moon and the chairperson of the African Union Commission as Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur effective from 1 January 2010. Before his new appointment, Prof. Gambari was the Special Adviser on the International Compact with Iraq and other issues for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Previously, he served as the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (USG) for the Department of Political Affairs (DPA). He was appointed on June 10, 2005, and assumed the post on July 1 of the same year.

On March 4, 2013, Ibrahim Gambari was named by the Kwara State Governor, Abdul Fatah Ahmad, as the pioneer Chancellor of the Kwara State University, making him the ceremonial head of the university who presides over convocations to award degrees and diplomas and also supports the vision and mission of the university in all respects, including fundraising, social, economic and academic goals.

Gambari attended King’s College, Lagos. He subsequently attended the London School of Economics, where he obtained his B. Sc. (Economics) degree (1968) with a specialization in International Relations. He later obtained his M.A. (1970) and Ph. D. (1974) degrees from Columbia University, New York, USA in Political Science /International Relations.

Gambari began his teaching career in 1969 at City University of New York before working at the University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, Kaduna State, the second-largest university in Africa. From 1986 to 1989, he was Visiting Professor at three universities in Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown University, and Howard University.

He has also been a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. and a Resident Scholar at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, the Rockefeller Foundation-run center in Italy. He was accorded, honoris causa, the title of Doctor of Humane Letters (D.Hum.Litt.) from the University of Bridgeport. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins University’s Society of Scholars. He was decorated with the title of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) by the Government of Nigeria

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