HISTORIAN, ACCOMPLISHED PUBLIC SERVANT AND INTELLECTUAL BUREAUCRAT
The well-rounded historian and intellectual bureaucrat was born on June 15, 1955, in Lembi, a suburb of Kumo, Gombe State.
He attended the Local Education Authority School, Pindiga, between January 1962 and December 1969 for his first leaving school certificate. The young Muhammad Ahmad proceeded to Government Secondary School Gombe, between January 1970 and December 1974 to obtain his West African School Certificate.
His unquenchable thirst for knowledge led him to Bayero University College, Kano, for his IJMB programme, between July 1976 and September 1977; Bayero University, Kano, for his first degree in History/Education, between October 1977 and June 1980; Bayero University, Kano, for his master’s degree, between October 1982 and September 1984 With burning ambition and aspiration for success, MuhammadAhmad enrolled at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, for his doctorate degree, between October 1986 and September 1989. He also attended the Senior Executive Course of the prestigious National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State, between January 1998 and November 1998 where he was admitted into the Membership of the National Institute (mni). At the National Institute he was adjudged to be a highly gifted intellectual – bureaucrat who possessed attributes of patience, astuteness and modesty. He was retained by his Syndicate at the Institute as a Rapporteur throughout the course in recognition of his brilliance as a writer.
By virtue of a successful career in the public service, he could be said to have earned the tag of a seasoned administrator. Ahmad has on enviable work experience, stretching more than 37 years. Upon graduation from secondary school, Ahmad spent a year as a teacher at the Bajoga Primary School, Gombe LEA. This was between June 1975 and June 1976. In 1980, after his graduation from the University, Ahmad was deployed to the Batoro Community Grammar School, Shagamu, Ogun State, between 1980 and 1981, for his compulsory National Youth Service Corps. Having completed his one-year NYSC service, Ahmad joined the now defunct AdvancedTeachers’ College, Gombe, BauchiState, as a lecturer and head of the school’s History Department, between July 1981 and December 1984. Ahmad was appointed the Vice-Principal of the Government Secondary School Gamawa, in October 1984. It was a position he held for a short spell, because the College of Education Azare came calling in December 1984.
They appointed him Lecturer and Acting Head of the History department, until June 1985, when he was appointed Secretary of the Bauchi State Scholarship Board – a position he occupied until May 1986. Between June 1986 and September 1986, Ahmad was deputy director, planning and monitoring, Bauchi State Scholarship Board. Four years later, in 1990, he was appointed Assistant Director, School Services, Bauchi State Ministry of Education. In August, same year, he was redeployed to the Planning Department of the Ministry as its Assistant Director. He served until December 1990, when he had to leave to head the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit of the National Commission for Nomadic Education, in Kaduna.
Having been dependable all the while and carried out his assignments to applaudable conclusions, Ahmad was appointed a Director-General in the Bauchi State Public Service (Special Services and Political Affairs, January 1991 to May 1995; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, May 1995 to September 1996). By October 1996, when Gombe State was created, he was appointed one of its pioneer Director-Generals (Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, October 1996 to January 1997; Special Services and Political Affairs Bureau, January 1997 to January 1998). In November 1998, he was appointed a Permanent Secretary in the Gombe State Public Service, a position he occupied until May 2000, when he was transferred to the Federal Government as Deputy Director, Interstate Boundaries, of the National Boundary Commission. A few months later, in October, he was appointed Acting Director and head of Inter-State Boundaries Department (he variously held other positions as a member of the Management Committee of the National Boundary Commission, Secretary of the Ad-hoc Committee for the Withdrawal and Transfer of Authority in the Lake Chad Area, Secretary of the Presidential Committee on the Management of the Akwa Ibom/Cross River Inter-state boundary, Coordinator of the Implementation of the Onshore/Offshore Dichotomy Abrogation Law in 2004 and acted as Ag.Director-General of the National Boundary Commission for various weeks, between 2001 and 2005).
Between June 2005 and August 2006, Ahmad was appointed Executive Director, Finance and Administration, Nigeria-Sao Tome & Principe Joint Development Authority (JDA). In January 2007, he returned to the National Boundary Commission and pioneered the Directorate of Border Regions Development, which later metamorphosed as Border Communities Development Agency (BCDA).
For two years, between October 2008 and October 2010, he was the pioneer Consultant to the African Union Border Programme, Peace and Security Department, African Union Commission, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In that capacity, Ahmadbecame clearly involved in boundary diplomacy especially in the advocacy of the African borders as agents of peace and integration. In that regard, had organized regional and sub-regional conferences on African boundary matters, organized the preparation of the Handbook of Boundary Delimitation and Demarcation in Africa and actively participated in the preparation of the African Union Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation.
After many years of commitment to the objectives of the National Boundary Commission and helping to steer it aright, Ahmad was appointed Director-General of the National Boundary Commission on March 4, 2011. He holds the position till date.
Ahmad has been entrusted with not a few delicate missions, conducted well versed researches, published widely on African boundary issues and bagged a number of commendations on the way in his long, meritorious career (among the recent ones are commendation by the Director-General of the National Boundary Commission for being the Secretary of Nigeria’s team on the withdrawal of Nigerian Military and Civilian presence from the Lake Chad Area, following the ICJ’s ruling in December 2003; and commendation by the leader of the Nigerian delegation to the Cameroon-Nigeria Mixed Commission, Prince Bola Ajibola, SAN, CFR for the successful organisation of the Monitoring Mission of the Mixed Commission Observer Group and for reporting the state of Nigerians in the Bakassi Peninsular, in April 2007).
This advocate of fairness and propriety speaks Fulfulde, Bolewa, English, and Hausa languages fluently. He also has some basic knowledge of Arabic and French. He is married with children.