Major General Mohammed Abdullahi

Former Chief of Staff for the Presidency

Career: Director General, Nigerian Security Organisation; Director of Military Intelligence; Managing Director, Atoto Press, Ilorin; National Security Advisor, Government of General Abdusalami Abubakar, 1998-99; Chief of Staff under Olusegun Obasanjo, 1999-2007; Chief of Staff (re-appointed by Umaru Yar'Adua), 2007-08.

Commentary: Mohammed Abdullahi has been involved in Nigerian politics since the 1970s. He was a key member of the Murtala Mohammed-led group which in 1975 overthrew Yakubu 'Jack' Gowon (1966-75). Other members were Mohammed Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida, both of whom went on to become heads of state. Olusegun Obasanjo was Mohammed’s deputy in 1975, becoming head of state after his assassination. When he became president in 1999 he appointed Abdullahi as his Chief of Staff. Abdullahi served in the position for all 8 years of Obasanjo’s presidency and the first year of Yar'Adua’s, until he was forced to retire in a purge of suspected Obasanjo loyalists.