Ibrahim Gambari, retired Diplomat has been appointed as the new Chief of Staff by President Muhammadu Buhari, according to a source at the villa.
Premium Times also reports that the Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari also confirmed the appointment.
No official statement has been made yet, however, the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to Buhari assured NAIJA CENTER that an official statement will be made tomorrow, Wednesday.
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Another source who also confide in NAIJA CENTER said “Yes. Official statement issued already. Nothing to add or subtract.”
Who is Ibrahim Gambari
Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR is a Nigerian scholar and diplomat. He was Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985.
Born on November 24, 1944 (75yrs) in Ilorin, Kwara State, Gambari was the first United Nation’s Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Africa
Gambari was the Minister for External Affairs between 1984 to 1985, that means when Buhari was the military head of state..
Premiumtimes reports, quoting multiple sources that the retired diplomat “is awaiting an official letter of confirmation.”
Meanwhile, The Emir of Ilorin, Abdulazeez Arowona in a statement on Tuesday thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing Gambari as the new Chief of Staff.
He described the appointment as a great honour to the entire people of Ilorin Emirate and Kwarants at large.
Gambari’s aide, according to PT reports “we are awaiting the official letter of confirmation,” after confirming his principal had been notified.
Thisday had earlier disclosed that the new appointment is to take effect from tomorrow, Wednesday.
Gambari is to replace the late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari who died at the age of 67 after testing positive for COVID-19.
Gambari resigned from a peace talk committee between the Federal Government and the Niger Delta Militant under Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration.
He was Nigeria’s envoy to the UN in 1995 when Ogoni leader, writer and activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and eight others, were hanged by the junta of late kleptocrat Sani Abacha after leading protests against international oil companies, most notably Shell.
Niger Delta leaders and the militant group MEND rejected Mr Gambari’s headship of the proposed peace talks, saying he had defended Mr Abacha’s actions against international condemnation at the time of the execution of Sar-Wiwa and other Ogoni activists.
Foremost diplomat
After his role advising the UN’s Secretary-General on Africa, he held another senior role at the global body, becoming the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs in 2005.
“In that period, he also operated as UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Cyprus, Zimbabwe and Myanmar,” reads a biography of the diplomat on the UN website. “On 22 May 2007, the Secretary-General entrusted him with the Good Offices Mandate on Myanmar. He was also appointed in 2007 by the Secretary-General as Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Iraq Compact and Other Issues, positions he held until 2009.”
He had earlier served as Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission to Angola, from September 2002 to February 2003, while advising the Secretary-General on Africa.
In January 2010, he resumed another role as the head of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur, which became the world’s largest peacekeeping mission. Mr Gambari left that role in July 2012.
Before joining the UN secretariat in 1999, he had served as Nigeria’s external affairs minister and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, and he was twice a president of the UN Security Council.
Mr Gambari is also a scholar. He became a professor at Ahmadu Bello University in 1983 and holds a PhD from Columbia University, New York.
He is currently chairman of Abuja-based thinktank, Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development, which he founded.
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