Politics
OLUSEGUN Adekunle, chairman of the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NIETI, has congratulated Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, as he is conferred with national honours.
Realnews reports that on Tuesday, October 11, President Muhammadu Buhari bestowed on Mustapha, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, CFR.
Adekunle, also former permanent secretary in charge of the General Services Office, GSO, in the Office of the SGF, described the honour on Mustapha as befitting to someone who worked diligently to serve the country in various capacities.
“I have worked with him closely as a Permanent Secretary in the General Services Office and as the Secretary of the Presidential TaskForce on COVID-19. He is a dedicated and committed public officer who led by example.
“He worked tirelessly to support the President to build a lasting legacy. His team spirit and exemplary leadership demonstrated at the FEC, PTF COVID-19 are legendary,” he said.
Realnews reports that Mustapha w has also received the National Productivity Order of Merit Award
a lawyer, is a policy wonk, a consummate politician, businessman and management consultant with a repository of experience garnered while working in many organisations, including being the managing director, Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority.
The SGF also worked with Messrs Onagoruwa & Co in Lagos, as counsel in 1983 and had a stint at an Italian consultancy firm, Sotesa Nigeria Limited earlier.
In 1994, he established his own law practice firm, Messrs Mustapha & Associates and served as its principal counsel until 2000. He later worked in another law firm, Adriot Lex & Co. serving as principal consultant from 2000 to 2006.
The 65-year-old workhorse was boardroom czar. He served on several boards of companies in the manufacturing, financial services and oil and gas sectors both in Nigeria and international scene.
His foray into politics started in the 1980s. Between 1988 and 1989, he was a member of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Constituent Assembly, the body that drafted Nigeria’s 1989 Constitution.
In 1989, Mustapha was the state chairman of the Peoples Solidarity Party, PSP, in defunct Gongola State. Between 1990 and 1991, Mustapha was Adamawa state chairman of the Social Democratic Party, one of the two state-created political parties during Babangida’s regime.
He later ran for Adamawa State governorship election in 1991 and again in 2014.
Among other things, he was the deputy national chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria, which later merged with other parties to form the All Progressives Congress on February 6, 2013, in anticipation of Nigeria’s 2015 general elections. He later worked in the presidential campaigns and was among the members of the party’s transition committee in Nigeria’s 2015 election that brought Buhari to power. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the party.
Born in North Eastern Nigerian state of Adamawa, Mustapha attended primary school in Hong, Adamawa, and proceeded to North East College of Arts and Sciences in Maiduguri, Borno State, for his high school education and graduated in 1976. He bagged a Bachelor of Law Degree in 1979 from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and proceeded to the Nigerian Law School, Lagos, for mandatory one-year law school and graduated in 1980 before doing the mandatory national youth service between 1980 and 1981. He is a member of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, African Bar Association, International Bar Association and Human Rights Institute.
He was appointed to his current position on October 30, 2017.
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, early this year President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Mustapha the chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 saddle with mapping out policy measures to contain the pandemic. This onerous assignment came at a time the world new very little about the COVID-19. It was also when some world leaders painted grim statistics of what was to befall Africa as millions of people were predicted to lie dead in the streets. Thankfully, this has not happened.
How the calamity was averted and managed is what Mustapha, the policy wonk will give us in the Lecture entitled: “Managing COVID-19 Global Pandemic: The Nigeria Experience”
A.I
Tags: Boss Mustapha NIETI Olusegun Adekunle
