Ibrahim Gambari has been named as the new chief of staff to President Muhammadu Buhari .
Gambari, a professor of political science and Nigeria’s former permanent representative to the United Nations (UN), is from Kwara State, North Central Nigeria.
According to multiple sources, the respected diplomat will be presented during the virtual meeting of the federal executive council (FEC) on Wednesday, multiple.
He will replace Abba Kyari, who died from COVID-19 complications last month.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity was quoted in a report by Daily Post as saying he had not been briefed.
Gambari was Minister of External Affairs when Buhari was military head of state between 1983 and 1985.
He is currently the founder/chairman of Savannah Center External link in Abuja, a think-tank for research, training and public policy debate on the nexus between diplomacy (conflict resolution), democracy and development in Africa.
His last assignment at the United Nations was as the joint special representative of the secretary general and chairperson of the African Union Commission/gead of the UN and AU hybrid mission in Darfur (UNAMID) from January 2010 to July 2012.
Norn on 24 November, 1944, Gambari 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 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 University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria,
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 also 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 Federal Government of Nigeria.
