Ex-Presidential Chief Of Staff Mohammed Passes Away At 86

Major General Abdullahi Mohammed (retd.), former Chief of Staff to ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, has passed away at the age of 86. The respected statesman, who hailed from Ilorin, Kwara State, reportedly died around 1 a.m. on Wednesday in Abuja. His family confirmed the news, describing his death as “a huge loss to the Ilorin Emirate, the nation, and the military community.”

Born in 1939, Mohammed trained at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, United Kingdom, and was commissioned into the Nigerian Army in 1958. He rose to become Director of Military Intelligence and played a pivotal role in the 1975 coup that brought General Murtala Mohammed to power. Following the coup, he was appointed Governor of Benue-Plateau State and later became Director-General of the National Security Organisation (NSO), the precursor to the DSS.

After retiring in 1979, he ventured into business before returning to public service in 1998 as National Security Adviser to General Abdulsalami Abubakar. He went on to serve as Chief of Staff to Presidents Obasanjo and Yar’Adua, the first and longest-serving in that position.

The Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU) mourned his death, describing it as “a monumental loss to the Ilorin Emirate and Nigeria at large.” The union hailed him as “the first son of Ilorin to serve as a state governor and the first to attain the rank of a two-star General in the Nigerian Armed Forces.”

It added, “General Mohammed played critical roles in Nigeria’s history. He was a patriot who fought to keep the country united and later served as National Security Adviser and the first and longest-serving Chief of Staff to the President.”

Condolences poured in from President Bola Tinubu, former Presidents Obasanjo and Abdulsalami Abubakar, Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, and the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji (Dr) Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari. The IEDPU prayed for Allah’s mercy upon the late General, asking that he be granted Aljanat Firdaus and that his family find strength to bear the loss.