Kano Elders Forum has elected Prof. Ibrahim Khalil Umar as its new chairman. This followed the death of the former chairman, Malam Magaji Dambatta, OFR, CON, sometime this year. The appointment took palce during a meeting at the Government House, Kano which had in attendance, Gov. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and other prominent sons of the state.
Prof. Umar holds a B. Sc. in physics and mathematics from Ahmadu Bello Universityin Zaria, a M. Sc. in physics from Northern Illinois University, USA and a Ph.D. (1974) in physics at the University of East Anglia, United Kingdom.
In 1976, he became the first Nigerian academic in physics to teach at Bayero University, where he later became Vice Chancellor from 1979 to 1986. He was also Sole Administrator of the Federal University of Technology, Minna between 1994 and 1997. In 1978, he served in the national constitutional assembly that drafted the Constitution of the 2nd Republic.
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He represented Nigeria at the Executive Assembly of the World Energy Council from 1990. He was a member of the Nigerian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) General Conference from 1989 and was appointed Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria in 1989.
Prof. Umar served as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the IAEA for 2000-2001. In 2004 he was the Director of the Centre for Energy Research and Training, where the first Nigerian research nuclear reactor is located.
Also, the during the meeting the elders constituted five committees on Taxation, Public Enlightenment, Public Properties Protection, JAMB and Committee on Begging and Hawking.
During the meeting, Governor Kwankwaso briefed the elders on the developmental strides of the state government and stressed the need for them to continue to mobilize the people of Kano towards the continued success of his administration. He prayed for the peaceful repose of the soul of late Malam Magaji Dambatta and recalled the good works he rendered to both Kano and Nigeria as a whole.
He thanked the secretary of the forum, Barrister A.B. Mahmood, SAN, for his commitment and sense of patriotism, hoping that the new chairman would continue from where the late late chairman, Alhaji Magaji Dambatta left.
Halilu Ibrahim Dantiye, mni, fnge
Director of Press and Public Relations
to the Executive Governor
