What Type Of Deputy Chief Of Staff Will Ibrahim Hassan Be? -By Abdu Abdullahi

His name is Barrister Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, a son to the late icon Shettiman Hadejia, Alhaji Hassan Hadejia of blessed memory, a prominent leader from the northern Nigeria.

Senator Ibrahim Hassan was one time a commissioner for justice in Jigawa state and later elevated to the rank of the Secretary to the State Government. He emerged twice as a Deputy Governor in the state. He won the senatorial election of Jigawa-east Senatorial District under the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 elections.

Recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed him as the Deputy Chief of Staff to the presidency to synergize with Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila to generate stupendous achievements and standard for the Tinubu presidency. Indeed, the appointment is prolific and competence- effective, because Senator Hassan is famous for his gentlemanliness, frankness, self-discipline, intellectual pedigree and moral vision of high esteem and dispossesses himself of a sense of affront.

When the news of his appointment was released, the people of Jigawa state were excited for two major reasons. One is that a worthy ambassador will fly the banner of the state to showcase his stock of positive performance to move the nation forward. Two is the fact that we are undoubtful he will deliver his mandate effectively without succumbing to the game of unessentials and shenanigans, having identified him as a man who has built indefatigable human traits to secure his holistic character.

The role of Ibrahim Hassan as Deputy Chief of Staff will be split into two main categories: bureaucratic as well as political. Interestingly, he has humongous knowledge of the two domains drawn from his indelible experiences both in private and public life. Hassan’s private life is overwhelmingly characterised by his upbringing in Kaduna as well as his stay in Lagos. He has therefore carved for himself a niche for a cosmopolitan status with a considerable and compelling degree of socio-economic and political exploits.

In his frantic efforts to weather the storm, Senator Hassan will pilot his office diligently while co-ordinating his programs and the core agencies needed to run the Tinubu administration successfully. His self- discipline will augur well for his aspiring and motivational undertaking to yield the needful. He will be an obedient Deputy Chief of Staff just as he was a faithful Deputy Governor. His soaring infatuation for performance to achieve good outcomes will lead his vision to unprecedented level in this new task.

Despite the fact that the political role has largely been abused by the office of the Chief of Staff both at the federal and state levels, Hassan’s political trajectory has never found him wanting of gross abuse and exurberance. This could be traced to his consummate principles and moderately political ambition. He is a man of himself who sees politics not as a conduit for generating opportunism. In an interview with the Vanguard newspaper of November 15, 2020, Ibrahim Hassan revealed his life philosophy, ” My father made a name for himself. I am also making my own now. My lack of desperation is due to my pedigree.”

Since he is self-assertive and politically humble, this noble vision will be an engine room for the opening of a new chapter in his life. He was at the state level of performance, moved to the National Assembly and now at the federal executive government to serve a new purpose that is larger than what he delivered in the past. He served his state with tremendous abiliity that yielded positive results. His progressive inputs plus outputs at the National Assembly have endowed the people of his constituency with numerous dividends of democracy both in human and physical developments. They are largely and overtly re-enforcing, cushioning and touching. We are optimistic that his new job will reconstruct his progressive mind for the outcome of desirability and reliability in a changing environment.

Through out his life, he has given time the honour and value it deserves.His prudent time management confers him the laurel of a ‘ notorious’ disciplinarian. To support this argument, this was what he said, ” Once I am able to accept your invitation and time is 10, know that I will be there exactly that time. That is why some people have stopped inviting me to functions because they know I don’t play with time”. This testifies that he is not ‘time plunderer’ as is the case with many government functionaries. The relevance of this moral virtue to Hassan’s new assignment is how he will be a productive manager not only on time observation, but also it will have an overall influence on discerning and discharging his responsibilities. In other words, it is just about amalgamation of discipline, commitment and focus. These are principal drivers for progress and development.

Apart from his dogma of being a principled figure, there is good news that barrister Ibrahim Hassan possesses a strong political will which many politicians lack. Its deployment as Deputy Chief of Staff will bring prospects for the administration. In an interview with the Sunday Sun of 26 March, 2023, he was quoted as saying,” Let us also focus on putting together a team that will have task of delivering these objectives and they fail, we have the courage to change them. You cannot have the same set of ministers for eight years despite the failure we have in some places.” The core theme of this quote lies in its power of deploying the spirit of political will.

Hassan’s invigorating talents will keenly be tested on two major grounds; His unwavering passion for high quality service delivery and insatiable desires for result oriented policies. The aura of his capacity to mix these two symbiotic elements will provide an enabling environment and conducive platform for targeting and reaching higher aspirations. I am deeply optimistic that he will serve as a large bridge between Tinubu’s policies and their executions, between national interest and national development, between progress and agents of progress and between Hassan’s ability and discharging his responsibility.

By the time he swings into actions, we are going to witness a Deputy Chief of Staff who will demonstrate patience, high quality ability, energy, discretion and tact. But above all, he will also be tough for generating effects. With this deserving and quintessential engagement, Tinubu is rest assured that he has not fixed a square peg in a round hole.