Tijjani Muhammad-Bande of Nigeria President of Seventy-Fourth General Assembly
On 4 June 2019, the United Nations General Assembly elected Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, Permanent Representative of Nigeria, President of its seventy-fourth session. (See Press Release GA/12149.)
As Permanent Representative (from 2018 to 2019), Mr. Mohammad-Bande worked with colleagues from all regions of the world in pursuit of common objectives. He served as Vice-President of the Assembly’s seventy-first session and was active in several other forums, including as Chair of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations, member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre and Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Group.
Between 2010 and 2016, Mr. Mohammad-Bande was Director-General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Nigeria’s most reputable policy institution for training leaders from the public and private sectors, including high-echelon officers of the armed forces. One of his signature initiatives in that regard was the establishment of the Political Parties Policy and Leadership Development Centre, the first of its kind in Africa.
From 2000 until 2004, Mr. Mohammad-Bande was Director-General of Le Centre Africain de Formation et de Recherche Administratives pour le Développement (CAFRAD), in Tangier, Morocco. Established by African Governments in 1964, CAFRAD is the continent’s premier intergovernmental institution for governance reform. Under his stewardship, the Centre improved much-needed training for senior African public servants, conducted specialized research on African governance issues, and worked with various partners, in particular the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Having begun his academic career at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Nigeria, Mr. Muhammad-Bande rose from Graduate Assistant in 1980, to full Professor in 1998 and ultimately to Vice-Chancellor in 2004, a position he held for five years. During his tenure, the institution ranked first among Nigerian universities in the accreditation of academic programmes (2007).
Mr. Muhammad-Bande won merit awards and honours from institutions and Governments, including those of the United States and China, and was most notably named an Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic, one of Nigeria’s highest national honours.
He earned a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Arts and a PhD in political science from Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria, Boston University in the United States and the University of Toronto in Canada (1987), respectively.
Mr. Muhammad-Bande is married and has four children. His hobbies include swimming, soccer, field hockey, farming and music.
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* This supersedes Press Release BIO/4963 of 3 May 2017.