A former Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari is the new Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Aged 75, the erudite scholar and Internatioal Relations expert was yesterday named by President Buhari to replace late Abba Kyari who died in March.
Gambari who hails from Ilorin, Kwara State is a scholar, Diplomat and former Minister of External Affairs.
Presently, he is the Special Adviser on the International compact with Iraq and other issues for the Secretary General of the United Nations.
Previously, he had served as the under secretary-General of the United Nations for the department of Political Affairs.
He 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, Kaduna State, the second largest university in Africa.
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 Government of Nigeria.
It would be recalled that Abba Kyari died from COVID-19 complications on the 17th April 2020.
