Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the new Chief of Staff to the President has said his primary allegiance would be to President Muhammadu Buhari and not the nation.
The Chief of staff made the comment on Wednesday when he spoke briefly to State House Correspondents at the Presidential Villa after he was named Late Abba Kyari’s replacement.
After thanking President Buhari for deeming him worthy to serve in the new capacity, he went on to say that he would serve the President to the best of his ability.
“I thank the President of the Federal Republic for giving me the opportunity to serve him and of course, the country”, he said.
Asked what Nigerians should expect from him as Chief of Staff, he said, “We have not started. I’ll have to find out. I don’t report directly to the nation. I report to the President”.
About what he has to offer the President, he said “my loyalty, competence and support”, adding that his guiding principle as Chief of Staff would be “to serve the President to the best of my ability.”
Meanwhile, read below 8 facts about Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
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 Gambari 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.
