President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed former Under Secretary General of the United Nations, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, as his new Chief of Staff.
Gambari, who is a Nigerian scholar and a diplomat, was born on November 24, 1944, in Ilorin, Kwara state.
He attended King’s College, Lagos, and then attended the London School of Economics where he obtained his B. Sc. (Economics) degree (1968) in International Relations.
Gambari later obtained his M.A. (1970) and Ph. D. (1974) degrees from Columbia University, New York, the USA in Political Science/International Relations.
He was appointed Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985. Gambari was the pioneer Chancellor of the Kwara State University (KWASU) and now co-chairs the Albright-Gambari Commission.
Gambari was also appointed by the SecretaryGeneral of United Nations Ban Ki-moon and the chairperson of the African Union Commission as Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur effective from 1 January 2010.
He is currently the Special Adviser on the International Compact with Iraq and Other Issues for the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Previously, he served as the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations (USG) for the Department of Political Affairs (DPA). He was appointed on June 10, 2005, and assumed the post on July 1 of that year.
He is a member of the Johns Hopkins University’s Society of Scholars. He holds the national of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR).
The 78-year-old is to replace former Chief of Staff, late Abba Kyari who died of COVID-19.
