Just a few days after the passing of President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff, Abba Kyari to Covid-19 complications, the race for his replacement is already underway.
The position of the Chief of staff of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a very crucial one. As you may already know, many considered the late Abba Kyari Nigeria’s de facto president, and when the President Muhammadu Buhari’s ministerial cabinet was inaugurated, he directed that all ministers tender all requests through the then Chief of staff, Abba Kyari.
So he was the middle man between policymakers and the president, affording him a great monopoly of the president time and space. This was frustrating for all who sought access to the President, as you had to seek the favours of this one man before you were granted access even for urgent matters. On many occasions, the wife of the President, Aisha Buhari often expressed her frustrations with the power the late Abba Kyari had over her husband. She blows the whistle on the presence of cabals in Aso Rock, running the affairs of the nation.
You must then agree with me that this office is one too attractive for anyone with any ambition at all to pass up on lobbying for. Who wouldn’t want such powers in a nation like Nigeria, where the powerful are above the law and have access to juicy paycheques.
But we very well know that the worthy competitors for this noble position can only come from the president’s inner caucus, those who have proven to be Buhari loyalists over the years. No Tom, Dick or Harry can scoop this one up because of the sensitivity of the office fueled by the president’s fear of the unknown.
So here is a list of likely Inner caucus members that may make the cut and why:
- Mamman Daura: The 80-year-old close family member of the president, and member of the supposed Aso Rock cabal disclosed by Aisha Buhari.
Malam Mamman Daura is a younger brother to President Muhammadu Buhari’s father, so he is an uncle to President Buhari, so they are related by blood.
Mamman Daura is a Journalist, who started off working with the Daura Native Authority just after his secondary school education in 1956. After a few years of working with the Daura Native Authority, he went on to join the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as a programme assistant. He went back to school in Trinity College Dublin to study economics and public administration from 1962 to 1968. After his return to Nigeria, he went on to work with General Abba Kyari, the then Military Governor of North-Central State. In April 1969 he joined the New Nigerian newspaper, becoming the newspaper’s editor. After focussing on covering issues affecting Northerners, in just two years Mamman Daura became the managing director of the paper’s holding company. When Murtala Mohammed’s administration opted to take over the ownership of the paper, Daura soon left the company.
When Buhari overthrew Shagari in 1983, Daura was one of the few people Buhari trusted enough to give principal advisory roles. By the late 1980s, he had succeeded Ibrahim Dasuki as the head of the African International Bank. He later also served as chairman of the board of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and if there is anyone who Buhari always listened to and confided in over the years, it is Mamman Daura. Mallam Mamman Daura has been described as “intensely engaging, extremely intelligent and brilliant‘, even though many do not agree with this description. Daura currently lives in the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, close enough to the president to remain a great influence to him.
- Suleiman Adamu: The 57-year-old Minister of Water resources, considered one of the closest ministers to the president.
Engineer Suleiman Hussein Adamu is a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE), Member of the American Society of Engineers (MASCE) and also Council Member of both COREN (Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria) and ACEN (Association of Consulting Engineers of Nigeria). He has nearly 30 years of professional experience out of which 7 years were spent in the public sector. Born in 1963, in Kaduna, he graduated from the Ahmadu Bello University in 1984 and was the winner of the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) prize for the best final year student in Civil Engineering, 1984. He bagged his Masters in Project Management from the University of Reading, U.K in 2004.
Engr. Suleiman Adamu Co-founded Integrated Engineering Associates (IEA) in 1987, a leading firm of civil/structural, electrical, mechanical and environmental engineering consultancy based in Kaduna, Nigeria. He was also deployed as Principal Consultant to Afri-Projects Consortium, the consulting arm of the Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund, where he was actively involved in the planning and preparation of several national infrastructural projects in the health, education, transport, agriculture, water resources and energy sectors. At implementation stage, he served as Project Manager on several projects, notably under the PTF Urban/Semi-Urban, Regional and Rural Water Supply Programmes, National Farm Power Machinery Rehabilitation Programme and National Waterways Development Project (Dredging of River Niger).
Between 1999 and 2015, he served as Managing Director of IEA and as Project Director and Team Leader responsible for the planning, resource allocation, quality assurance and control, in the implementation of several projects in water engineering, land swap, infrastructure development and preparation of feasibility study and report for a number of clients that include several states, the federal government and the FCT.
- Adamu Adamu: The current minister of Education, former secretary of the Muhammadu Buhari transition committee and former scriptwriter of the President.
Adamu Adamu is an accountant, writer, former journalist and public analyst. He studied Accountancy at the Ahmadu Bello University, after which he was hired as an accountant at CCP, and then continued to work at the CNL in Bauchi State, before joining the local government in the same position.
Adamu began a career as a writer and a public analyst, later emerging a newspaper editor in 1984 and becoming a columnist for Daily Trust. His articles were also syndicated in several news outlets, including the London-based Crescent International. Adamu Adamu was appointed as Minister of Education by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.
- Isa Pantami: The 48-year-old minister of Communications and Digital Economy and a Buhari loyalist.
Dr Isa Ali Pantami, hails from Pantami District of Gombe State. He attended the Federal University of Technology, Bauchi (popularly known as Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University) where he obtained a BTech in Computer Science in 2003. He also obtained an MSc in Computer Science in 2009 and an MBA in Technology Management 2011 session from the same University.
Pantami also holds a PhD in Computer Information Systems and Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, United Kingdom. Pantami lectured at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University in Information Technology before joining the Islamic University of Madinah as Head of Technical Writing in 2014.
In 2016, he was appointed as the Director-General/CEO of the National Information Technology Development Agency.
- Hameed Ali: The 65-year-old Controller General of the Nigerian Customs Service, who is an active member of the APC, supported Buhari’s presidential bid faithfully from 2003 to 2019 and acted as Buhari’s chief of staff before he became president.
Col. Hameed Ali, was born in Dass, Bauchi State on January 15, 1955.
Ali was commissioned in 1977 after he received his training at the Nigerian Defence Academy in Kaduna. He attended Sam Houston State University, Texas from 1984 to 1988 and holds bachelors and masters degrees in Criminology, and an educational certificate from the Nigeria Defence Academy. After retirement, he became secretary of the apex northern sociopolitical group, Arewa Consultative Forum. Ali is an All Progressives Congress member. He supported Buhari’s presidential bids from 2003 to 2019.
On 27 August 2015, Buhari appointed him the CG of Customs.
- Kashim Shettima: 53-year-old APC Senator representing Borno Central, a close ally of the president.
Kashim Shettima was born in Maiduguri, Borno state, He studied at the University of Maiduguri and earned a Degree (BSc) in Agricultural Economics in 1989. He obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Agricultural Economics in 1991 at the University of Ibadan.
Shettima joined the University of Maiduguri as a lecturer with the Department of Agricultural Economics and was in the academia from 1991 to 1993. Between 1993 and 2007, Shettima worked in the banking sector. In mid-2007, Shettima was appointed Commissioner of the Borno State Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. Later he became Commissioner in the Ministries of Local Governments and Chieftaincy Affairs, Education, Agriculture and later Health under his predecessor as Borno Governor Ali Modu Sheriff.
In 2011, he was elected governor of Borno State on the platform of the now-defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party. In February 2019, he was elected the senator for Borno Central.
- Babagana Kingibe: 74-year-old former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, who is said to be a major player in the president’s cabinet behind the scenes.
Babagana Kingibe was born on June 25, 1945 in Borno. In 1960, he got a government scholarship to complete his Ordinary Levels and Advanced Levels at Bishop’s Stortford College, United Kingdom. In 1965, he received his bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of Sussex. In 1965, he returned to Nigeria and was employed as a researcher at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria. He was appointed the Ambassador to Greece, Cyprus and later Pakistan between 1981 and 1985. In 1986, Kingibe became a permanent secretary in the presidency of General Ibrahim Babangida.
Kingibe also served from October 2002 to September 2006 as the Special Envoy of the African Union to Sudan and subsequently Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and head of the African Union Mission in Sudan.
In June 2007, he was appointed Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
From this list, we can clearly see that the president has little or no chance of appointing a woman, because of the supposed sensitivity of this office and possibly other personal and religious reservations. So we watch to see who the President decides is dependable enough to take Abba Kyari’s place.
The National Coordinator, Concerned Advocates of Good Governance, CAGG, Barrister Olusegun Bamgbose in a statement yesterday 19th April said the Appointment of the chief of staff is like the president choosing a wife and that the president must go for someone who is tested and trusted. He also went on to add that the current serving Governor of Kaduna State Mallam Nasir El-Rufai and Babagana Kingibe, the SGF was not fit.
The job of the chief of staff especially with the state of the nation and the current global pandemic is a delicate one, and this appointment must be considered very carefully. The selected individual must be someone who has demonstrated in the past an unbending desire to put country first, one who does not pursue after greedy gains, a person proven to be of great integrity and one knowledgeable in the ropes of affairs of our dear nation and foreign policy.
This is a job that requires laser-sharp focus and we hope that the president considers these qualities as he chooses his next chief of staff in the coming days.
What are your thoughts on this list? And do you think the president might look beyond these men in his bid to appoint a new Chief of staff? Share your thoughts.