The Story Of Pres. BUHARI’s Chief Of Staff & Brothers
Even if you have not heard about the Gambari family before, the emergence of Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari as President Buhari’s Chief of Staff would have given you a clue to the prominence that the family enjoys. In the last few weeks, they have been brought to the public consciousness on all media platforms and newspapers, over Agboola’s appointment as the new Chief of Staff. Before his emergence as the new COS, the older generation would have known the Gambari family because the most powerful emir of Ilorin where the Gambaris are from, is one of the brothers, Dr Sulu Gambari. They are from a royal linage and from a very prominent background. The Gambaris are highly respected even beyond Ilorin and Kwara state as a whole. They are highly learned. In this family are 3 prominent brothers who are the President’s Chief of Staff, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, Emir of Ilorin, Dr Sulu Gambari and Ali Gambari, a foremost businessman. Though the 3 brothers are not from the same father, but 2 are and one is a nephew but they were all brought up under the same umbrella. Like their father, they are all erudite scholars, born and bred in Ilorin, read abroad and have taken over vantage positions in the scheme of things both in their state and Nigeria as a whole.
Like the chief of staff, he was born in Ilorin on November 24, 1944. He is a blue-blood of Ilorin Emirate of the Fulani family ruling class. He is one of the sons of Mohammed ‘Laofe, popularly known as Aremo Bawa. Prof. Gambari’s uncle, Emir Abdulkadir, was the 8th Emir of Ilorin who reigned between February 1920 and June 1959 on the throne. Emir Zulkarnayni Gambari, who succeeded Emir Abdulkadir in 1959 as 9th Emir of Ilorin, was the first son of Mohammed Laofe, Prof Agboola Gambari’s father. Hence, both Emir Zulkarnayni Gambari and Prof Gambari are brothers from the same father. The current Emir of Ilorin, Ibrahim Zulu Gambari, who is, also, one of the sons of Emir Zulkarnayni Gambari, is a nephew to Prof Gambari. Despite being a Fulani and like every Ilorin Emir, Zulkarnayni Gambari had a Yoruba name, Aiyelabowo and Agboola – literary means ‘circle of wealth.’
The Gambaris are an aristocratic family in Ilorin and they all began life as princes of the old emirate. The Emir of Ilorin, who turned 80 recently, Alhaji Ibrahim Kolapo Sulu Gambari CFR is a lawyer and monarch appointed in 1995 being the 11th Emir of the Ilorin Emirate in Kwara State from Fulani ruling house and chairman of Kwara State Traditional Councils. He is one of the 10 traditional rulers in northern Nigeria.
He started his early school at Native Authority School then he moved to Offa Grammar School, later he studied in Oakham Schools England and City Westminster College finished and he moved to Middle Temple School. He attended the University of London then Nigeria Law School.
He worked as permanent secretary and solicitor-general in then Gongola and became a judge at Bauchi High Court and later he was a Justice in Court of Appeal.
Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari was turbaned as the Ciroman Ilorin by his late father and 9th Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Zulkarnaini Muhammadu Gambari, in 1984, while in active service as the Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Ibadan Division.
The 7th Emir of Ilorin, Shehu Shuaibu Dan Bawa who reigned from 1915 to 1919 was both his maternal great-grandfather (Shuaibu-Abdulkadir-Ayisatu-Ibrahim) and paternal great grandfather (Shuaibu -Muhammadu Laofe-Zulkarnaini-Ibrahim) making him a prince and ultimately an emir.
He founded the Shehu Alimi Foundation for Peace and Development with 11-man Committee and made Sheikh Dr. AbdulKadir Oba-Solagberu its National President.
Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR was born on November 24, 1944, in Ilorin to a Fulani father and Yoruba mother. He is a scholar and diplomat. He was Minister for External Affairs. Gambari was appointed by the secretary-general of United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and the chairperson of the African Union Commission as Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur. He was also 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 a few years ago named by a former Kwara State Governor, Abdul Fatah Ahmad, the pioneer Chancellor of the Kwara State University, making him the ceremonial head of the university, who presides over convocations to award degrees and diplomas and also supports the vision and mission of the university in all respects, including fundraising, social, economic and academic goals. Gambari is also co-chair of the Albright-Gambari Commission. He attended King’s College, Lagos. He subsequently attended the London School of Economics, where he obtained his B.Sc. (Economics) degree with a specialisation in International Relations. He later obtained his M.A. and Ph. D. degrees from Columbia University, New York, the USA in Political Science /International Relations.
Gambari began his teaching career at the City University of New York before working at the University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, Kaduna State. 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 centre 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. Ali Gambari is the direct younger brother of Alhaji Sulu Gambari, Emir of Ilorin. He is also a frontline businessman who has his fingers in many pies. He also prides himself as one of the Illustrious Gambari dons of the great caliphate in Kwara State.
-TAYO FAJORIN OYEDIJI
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