Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, has been appointed the new Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. With his appointment, he replaces Malam Abba Kyari, who died last month of COVID-19.
The appointment has not been officially announced by the president, but the Emir in Ilorin, Gambari’s hometown, in a statement on Tuesday evening thanked Buhari “for appointing Professor Ibrahim Gambari as his new Chief of Staff.” Mohamed Yahya, Nigeria’s UNDP Resident Representative also tweeted about the appointment. Aso Rock sources told Huhuonline.com that Gambari, who was Buhari’s Foreign Minister and confidant as military Head of State in the 1980s met with the President at about 8:00am on Tuesday at the State House, Abuja, and is expected to begin work at the Presidential Villa today, Wednesday, May 13, 2020.
The appointment comes almost a month after Kyari died following weeks of battling Covid-19. Buhari described Kyari as a friend, brother. His death opened a new wave of hope for other close allies of the president – Baba Gana Kingibe, former Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun and others who reportedly fancied Kyari’s job. Their hopes are now buried now that Buhari has opted to replace late Kyari with Gambari, another trusted ally.
Ibrahim Gambari: Fact file
The 75-year old Kwara State-born Prof Ibrahim Gambari had his career in academia, government and international diplomacy. He was the first UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on Africa between 1999 and 2005.
Gambari was also the Chairman of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid (1990-1994) during which he worked closely with African governments to coordinate UN policy to eradicate apartheid. He was Under-Secretary-General and Head of the UN Department of Political Affairs (2005-2007). In that period, he also operated as UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Cyprus, Zimbabwe and Myanmar.
On 22 May 2007, the Secretary-General entrusted Prof Ibrahim Gambari 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 has served Nigeria in different capacities. Gambari was Director-General at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs; Minister of External Affairs (1984-1985) and subsequently Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN (1990-1999). At the international level, Prof Gambari held numerous UN positions, including Chairman of the UN Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations and the UNSG’s Special Adviser on Africa.
Professor Gambari also served as Joint AU/UN Special Representative in Darfur and Head of UNAMID, which was then the largest international peacekeeping operation in the world and the first hybrid Mission. He had in different capacities, worked with four successive United Nations Secretary-General (Xavier Perez de Cuella, Boutros-Ghali, Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon).
He currently co-chairs the Commission on Global Security, Justice and Governance at the Hague Institute for Global Justice and the Stimson Centre at Washington DC. In January 2017, he was appointed member and is currently Deputy Chairperson of the Panel of Eminent Persons of African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), a specialized agency of the African Union for the promotion of good governance at the political, economic and corporate levels. In the same vein, Prof Ibrahim Gambari was appointed in 2016 by Patricia Scotland, QC, Commonwealth Secretary-General as the Special Envoy to Zambia on Elections and reappointed in 2017 as the Special Envoy for Democratic Stability and Elections 2020.
Gambari is a member of the Senior Working Group (SWG) of the United States Institute for Peace (USIP). Also in May 2017, he was honored with the Global Leadership Award by the University of South Florida, USA. Gambari, as foreign minister, played a key role in quelling the diplomatic uproar generated by the failed attempt to kidnap Umaru Dikko from Britain by the Buhari military government. The new chief of Staff, an Ilorin prince, was born on November 24, 1944.
