Borno government appoints ex-minister as SSG

Borno State Governor, Babagana Umara Zulum, has approved the appointment of former Nigerian Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Malam Bukar Tijani, as Cabinet Secretary of Borno State.

The Governor also reappointed Professor Isa Hussaini Marte as Chief of Staff.

Both appointments were announced by Governor Malam Isa Gusau's spokesman in a statement released Wednesday.

The statement notes that Zulum took into account Tijani's very high-level experience in his service as a minister from July 2011 to September 2013 and as Assistant Secretary-General/Assistant Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Tijani, 62, was born in Damasak but hails from Dikwa Local Government Area in Borno State. The former minister holds a Master of Science (diploma) in tropical agricultural development from the University of Reading in the UK, obtained in 1989.

He previously earned his Bachelor of Science in Plant and Soil Science from 1982-1984 at the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama, United States of America.

The former Minister is a Fellow of the Agricultural Society of Nigeria, Fellow of the Soil Science Society of Nigeria, Member (Honorary), People's Republic of China, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Recipient of Letter of Recommendation for Meritorious National Service as a Minister of the Federal Republic by the President of Nigeria, Recipient of Letter of Commendation for a Job Well Done in Forming the First Farmers Council in Borno/Yobe States, Certificate of Merit - US National Dean's List (1984), Certificate of Merit - US National Dean's List (1983), Recipient of the Honor Roll Scholastic Achievement Certificate from Tuskegee University, Alabama, USA (1983) and Top Alumnus of his degree in Agriculture from Borno College of Agriculture, Maiduguri (1980).

The Chief of Staff, Professor Isa Hussaini Marte hails from Marte Local Government Area in Borno State. He was appointed Governor Zulum's chief of staff on August 17, 2020.

The professor previously served as the Borno State Higher Education Commissioner from August 2019 to August 2020. He also served as the Commissioner for Health in 2021 while serving as Chief of Staff. He held both positions under the Zulum administration.

Isa Hussaini Marte is a Professor of Pharmacology specializing in Cancer Research and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Society for Neuroscience, Fellow of the American Association for Cancer Research and Member of the Council of Pharmacists of the Nigeria, among others.

Marte received a doctorate (Ph.D.) in pharmacology from King's College London in 1987. He received a master's degree in pharmacology from Chelsea College, University of London in 1983.

In 1997, he earned an MBA from Averett University, a private, non-profit university in Danville, Virginia, United States of America. He obtained a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Before his graduate studies, Professor Isa Hussaini Marte attended the Central Primary School in Yerwa Maiduguri, before joining the Government Secondary School in Yerwa Maiduguri, where he obtained his West African Studies Certificate in 1975 .

Marte joined the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maiduguri in 1981, but left in 1982 to pursue a postgraduate program at Chelsea College, University of London. After obtaining a doctorate (Ph.D.) in pharmacology from King's College London in 1987, he returned to Nigeria to join the services of Ahmadu Bello University, where he was appointed as a senior lecturer in 1991. He has left university to join the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Development, Abuja as Chief Research Officer and was later appointed as Head of Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Technology.

In 1993, he joined the University of Virginia School of Medicine as a research associate in the Department of Pathology. He held this position for two years and in 1995 he was appointed research professor. He held this position for five years and in 2004 he was appointed Visiting Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy, ABU Zaria.

In 2010, he was appointed Dean of Pharmacy and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Maiduguri, a position he held until 2014. In 2013, he was elected a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of sciences, the same year he was appointed visiting professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Virginia.