Ibrahim Gambari: 8 Facts You Didn’t Know About Buhari’s New Chief Of Staff

A former appointee under Secretary of the United Nations, UN, Prof. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, was appointed as his new Chief of Staff, CoS. to President Muhammadu Buhari.

He replaced Abba Kyari, who died of coronavirus related ailment in April, 2020.

Gambari was picked from a list of 14 names.

Here are 8 facts to know about the former diplomat turned Chief of Staff.

1.Gambari was born November 24, 1944, in Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State.

2. He attended King’s College, Lagos. Then he headed to the London School of Economics, where he studied Economics in 1968, with specialization 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. Gambari started his career as a teacher at the City University of New York in 1969 before working at the University of Albany. He also taught at Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, Kaduna State.

4. Gambari was Nigeria’s Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985.

5. The Professor is a research fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C. Gambari is also 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.

6. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon on January 1, 2010, appointed the new CoS as Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur.

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

8. 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 U.K. by the Buhari military government.