Publisher of Ovation International and former Nigerian presidential candidate Chief Dele Momodu has welcomed the appointment of Professor Ibrahim Gambari as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.
Writing in his Pendulum column on Thisday on Saturday, Momodu said he has known and admired Gambari for decades.
“What a choice President Muhammadu Buhari made in his new Chief of Staff. Indeed, most pundits were thrown off-balance when the name of Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari popped up out of the blues! For me, this is an appointment I cannot fault despite what a few naysayers have said about the cerebral, amiable but stern Professor.
“I have known and admired Professor Gambari for a couple of decades. I had the privilege of visiting him in New York and interviewing him at the United Nations. He has always been ever so helpful and useful. Also, he is very humble and unassuming. The last time I visited him was in Lagos about five years when my bosom friend, Prince Adedamola Aderemi, who is Prof Gambari’s distant relative from the Ebeloku arm of the Sulu Gambari ruling House in Ilorin, and I accompanied Engineer Lanre Shagaya to see Prof Gambari in his Ikoyi home”, Momodu wrote.
“No mortal is perfect, but I am reasonably convinced that Prof Gambari is well equipped to use his great intellect, diplomacy, and wealth of experience, to the benefit of his principal, President Buhari, and the country in general,” he added.
Gambari’s appointment has been criticised by a section of Nigeria’s media and civil society activists over his role during General Sani Abacha’s military regime.
Notably, the Publisher of SaharaReporters Omoyele Sowore condemned Gambari’s appointment.
“Professor Ibrahim Gambari, who some people claim is an intelligent man, used his ‘intelligence’ to defend the draconian policies of the Abacha regime while he was Nigeria’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations. He was one of Abacha’s equivalents of the “goebel” representing the infamous dictator with vigor and a propensity that could only be found in fascist Italy of old.
“As more pressure mounted on the Abacha regime from all corners of the world, Professor Gambari became more notorious and ruthless in defending and deflecting attacks against the Abacha dictatorship. Even after the death of Abacha, Kofi Annan’s visits to Nigeria were primarily to prevail on Chief M.K.O Abiola to forget about his June 12 mandate. He didn’t care about Abiola’s freedom so he quietly went to meet him in jail and asked him to ‘fuggetabutit.’ It is intriguing that Professor Gambari has now become a darling of so many Nigerian organizations. Honors are pouring in from everywhere and he is getting awards and making speeches all over the place”, Sowore said.
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