On Thursday, Nigeria was appointed as the Acting President to preside over the UN General Assembly’s 81st plenary meeting that held at the UN Headquarters in New York.

The man who represents Nigeria at the United Nations is Professor Tijjani Mohammad-Bande, Nigeria’s Ambassador/Permanent Representative.

On 31 March, 2017, the presidency announced the appointment of Prof. Tijjani Bande as he replaced Professor Joy Ogwu who held the position for seven years. Before the appointment, Professor Bande was the Director-General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies where he served a six-year tenure that started in 2010 following his appointment by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Before his stint at the NIPSS, Bande was the Vice Chancellor of Usman DanFodio University, Sokoto between 2004 and 2009. He held a position similar to the one at NIPSS for five years heading a pan-African institution that trains top-level public servants, Centre African de Formation et de Recherche Administrative pour le Development (CAFRAD), translated as the African Training and Research Centre in Administration for Development.

Professor Bande holds a Master degree in Political Science from Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts in the United States and a PhD in the same discipline from the University of Toronto, Canada.

Upon his appointment as Permanent Representative, Bande arrived New York on 1 May to assume office and had only presented his credentials to the UN Secretary General, António Guterres nine days before his presidency at the plenary meeting days ago.