By Ibrahim Adebowale
Major General Abdullahi Mohammed (retd.), a former Chief of Staff to ex-Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, has died at the age of 86.
Family sources confirmed that the retired general passed away in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja.
Born in 1939 in Ilorin, Kwara State, Mohammed attended the prestigious Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in the United Kingdom, and joined the Nigerian Army in 1958. He rose through the ranks to become Director of Military Intelligence and was a key participant in the 1975 coup that ousted General Yakubu Gowon.
He later served as Military Governor of the defunct Benue-Plateau State between July 1975 and March 1976 and subsequently as Director-General of the National Security Organisation (NSO), the forerunner of the Department of State Services (DSS).
After retiring from military service, Mohammed ventured into business as Managing Director of Atoto Press Limited in Ilorin.
He returned to government in 1998 as National Security Adviser to General Abdulsalami Abubakar, playing a pivotal role in Nigeria’s transition to democracy.
Following the return to civilian rule, he was appointed Chief of Staff to President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 — a position he retained under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua until his resignation in 2008.
Mohammed was widely regarded as one of Nigeria’s longest-serving and most influential presidential aides.
