Abdullahi Mohammed | |
Honorific Prefix: | Major general |
Office1: | Chief of Staff to the President |
President1: | Olusegun Obasanjo Umaru Musa Yar'Adua |
Term Start1: | 29 May 1999 |
Term End1: | 2 June 2008 |
Predecessor1: | Position established |
Successor1: | Gbolade Osinowo |
Office2: | National Security Adviser |
President2: | Abdulsalami Abubakar |
Term Start2: | June 1998 |
Term End2: | May 1999 |
Predecessor2: | Ismaila Gwarzo |
Successor2: | Aliyu Mohammed Gusau |
Office3: | Director of the National Security Organisation |
President3: | Olusegun Obasanjo |
Term Start3: | March 1976 |
Term End3: | October 1979 |
Predecessor3: | Position established |
Successor3: | Umaru Shinkafi |
Office4: | Governor of Benue-Plateau State |
President4: | Murtala Mohammed |
Term Start4: | July 1975 |
Term End4: | March 1976 |
Predecessor4: | Joseph Gomwalk |
Successor4: | Abdullahi Shelleng (Benue) Dan Suleiman (Plateau) |
Birth Place: | Ilorin, Northern Region, British Nigeria (now Illorin, Nigeria) |
Allegiance: | Nigeria |
Branch: | Nigerian Army |
Serviceyears: | 1958–1979 |
Rank: | Major general |
Alma Mater: | Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst |
Abdullahi Mohammed is a retired Nigerian Army major general, who served as chief of staff to presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar'Adua from 1999 to 2008; National Security Adviser to General Abdusalami Abubakar from 1998 to 1999; Director General of the National Security Organization from 1976 to 1979; and Governor of Benue-Plateau State, Nigeria from July 1975 to February 1976 during the military regime of General Murtala Mohammed.[1]
In July 1975, Mohammed was Director of Military Intelligence, and formed and executed the 1975 Nigerian coup d'état plan with other officers including Shehu Musa Yar'Adua, Joseph Nanven Garba, Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Taiwo to depose General Yakubu Gowon, after which they transferred power to General Murtala Muhammed as head of state.[2]
[3] Immediately after the coup, he was appointed Governor of Benue Plateau State.[4]
After Olusegun Obasanjo had taken over control, he recalled Mohammed in March 1976, and appointed him to the Supreme Military Council as Director General of the Nigeria Security Organisation with the additional responsibility for police security.[5] Later he was made director of military intelligence.
After General Olusegun Obasanjo handed over to elected civilians at the start of the Nigerian Second Republic in 1979, Muhammed retired from the army.He went into private business, becoming managing director of Atoto Press in Ilorin.[6]
In 1998, General Abdusalami Abubakar who took over as head of state after the death of General Sani Abacha, removed Ismaila Gwarzo and appointed Mohammed as National Security Adviser.
In 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo made Mohammed his chief of staff, and President Umaru Yar'Adua re-appointed Mohammed as Chief of Staff when he assumed office on May 29, 2007. Mohammed resigned on 2 June 2008.