El-Rufai Appoints 39-Year-Old Development Economist, Chief Of Staff

The Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-rufai, has announced the appointment of Mr Muhammad Sani Abdullahi, the immediate past Commissioner of Planning and Budget as his new Chief of Staff. Abdullahi was also the Director of Strategy for the Governor’s 2019 re-election campaign. Mr Abdullahi is an international development expert, before moving to Kaduna State, he served as a policy adviser at the Executive Office of the United Nations Secretary General under the leadership of Ban Ki Moon in New York. He was a member of the core team that developed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He joined the Kaduna State Executive Council in 2015 as its youngest member.

Muhammad is the Governor’s third Chief of Staff. Previous holders of the office include Muhammad Bashir Saidu and Ms Hadiza Bala Usman, who left the office after her appointment in 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari as Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). Abdullahi obtained his master’s degree in Development Economics and Policy from the University of Manchester and obtained a second Masters from Ahmadu Bello University where he studied International Affairs and Diplomacy. He holds certificates including in Public Finance at the London School of Economics; Sustainable Development at Columbia University and Advanced Project Management at Oxford University. He was part of the 2017 cohort of Georgetown University’s Leadership Seminar. Until his appointment as Chief of Staff to the Governor, he was a key figure in the last administration holding sway as budget czar in Kaduna and acknowledged nationally as a reform champion.