What you need to know about Buhari’s Chief of Staff to be Ibrahim Gambari

By

Arogbonlo Israel

A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari has been tipped as the replacement to the late Abba Kyari, the trusted Chief of Staff to the former who died from complications related to COVID-19 after a nearly month-long battle with the virus.

Buhari asked the new Chief of Staff to resume work at the Presidential Villa on Wednesday.

Here are ten (10) facts you need to know about Ibrahim Gambari:

1. Ibrahim Gambari was born November 24, 1944, in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria.

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

3. The don began his teaching career in 1969 at City University of New York before working at University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, Kaduna State, the second-largest university in Africa.

4. He was Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985 in Nigeria.

5. 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.

6. He has also been a research fellow at the Brookings Institution also in Washington D.C. and a Resident Scholar at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, the Rockefeller Foundation-run centre in Italy. He was accorded, honoris causa, the title of Doctor of Humane Letters (D.Hum.Litt.) from the University of Bridgeport.

7. On January 1 2010, Gambari 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.

8. In 2013, Gambari was named by the Kwara State Governor, AbdulFatah Ahmad, as the pioneer Chancellor of the Kwara State University, making him the ceremonial head of the university. He is also co-chair of the Albright-Gambari Commission.

9. He is also a member of the Johns Hopkins University’s Society of Scholars.

10. Gambari, as foreign minister, played a key role in quelling the diplomatic uproar generated by the failed attempt to kidnap Mallam Umaru Dikko from the UK by the Buhari military government.