By Abubakar Imam
Towards the end of last month, a distinguished son of Ilorin, Alhaji Ahmed Ladan Gobir, was popularly elected as the new President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM). His election as the Number One member of the leading and influential professional body and the subsequent positive reactions of leaders and stakeholders to the exciting development led to many questions, which informed this piece.
A number of our people do not really know him. Many think that he is not from Ilorin. They think that he is from any of the Northwestern states of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States.
These assumptions are premised on his physique, which is like that of a typical Hausa man; his names and the fact that, like his brethren, he speaks impeccable hausa, that many view did not betray his Iloriness. It may also have been fueled by the fact that he has not worked in Ilorin except for a short period between 1998 and 1999.
I must confess that I equally found it very difficult to believe that he was from Ilorin the first time I met him in Zaria in 1995. He had been invited to preside over a chess game contest organised by a group of friends led by my very good friend and brother, AbdulRasheed Isiaka Aiyelabegan,the Registrar, Chartered Institute of Transport Administration (IOTA), at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. To me, Alhaji Gobir looked every inch an undiluted Hausa man.
However, he is a “Dahiri of Garin Alimi”, whose Yoruba phonetic ability reflects an undiluted Ilorin dialect. He is also among the leading elite and a member of our community’s intelligentsia who have been strongly but quietly working for the progress of Ilorin Emirate in their own ways.
Alhaji Ahmed Ladan Gobir, a trained historian, seasoned legal practitioner, and accomplished management expert, was born in Ilorin on July 10, 1963. He is a member of the distinguished Gobir dynasty of Ilorin, a family that has produced many remarkable technocrats, shining professionals, and monumental patriots. His father was Alhaji Amuda Ahmadu Gobir, otherwise known among his contemporaries as Amuda Agba. His late father was a teacher and technocrat of note. The new CIPM President’s mother is Alhaja Kalihat Iya Kosemani Alake Gobir, whose father was late Alhaji Abdulrahman Office of Ita-Ajia and former Chief Scribe of the Ilorin Native Authority and a close friend and confidant of the longest serving Emir of Ilorin (so far), Shaykh Abdulkadir Shuaib Dan Bawa, who reigned between 1919 and 1959. His mother is also a member of the earliest set of Ilorin women to receive western education alongside the likes of late Alhaja Fatimah Birda’u Gobir (who died on May 31, 2024), late Alhaja Amope Edun, late Alhaja Alarape Mustapha, late Alhaja Habu Kawu and a host of others.
The new CIPM President shares the same maternal grandfather with a former Hon. Minister of State, Transport and Aviation and former Chairman of the Appropriation Committee of the House of Representatives during the second republic, Alhaji Babatunde Aremu Yahaya (Babs).
Born to a father, who was not only a teacher but who also hailed from a family that produced some of the most distinguished earliest elite in Ilorin Emirate, Alhaji Gobir was enrolled as a pupil first at Magwan Primary School, Kano, and later at Ansar ud Deen Primary School, Jos, before he finished his primary education at St. Michaels (ABS 1) Primary School, Kaduna.
Following his successful completion of his primary education studies, he was brought to the land of his forebears for secondary school education. He was, therefore, between 1974 and 1980, trained at the famous Government High School, Adeta, Ilorin. He received his West African School Certificate from the school in 1980, the year he lost his beloved father.
As someone who was determined to excel in life, Alhaji Gobir quickly proceeded to the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was admitted into the star-studded Department of History of the then Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS). At the famous ivory tower, he eventually received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History in 1984. He graduated the same year and from the same institution with his friend and brother-in-law, Alhaji Ahmed Bolaji Nagode,the Director-General of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN); Alh. Abdulfatahi Bakinni,a legal practitioner and former Member of the Kwara State House of Assembly; and Alh Olaitan Balogun, who all received their B.Sc. in Political Science as well as Alh. Idris Amasa Saidu, who earned his B.Sc in Accounting and later retired as a topnotch of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, among several others.
In 1996, Alhaji Gobir simultaneously obtained a Diploma in Computer & Data Processing from Soft Designs Computer Institute, Zaria, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from his alma mata, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The desire of this outstanding son of Ilorin Emirate to become a “learned gentleman”, as lawyers loved to refer to themselves, propelled him into going back to the classroom again as a student in order to pick a degree in Law. His port of call was no where else but the same Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, which he consequently attended from 1998 to 2002 at the end of which he was found worthy of the institution’s LL.B degree and was so conferred. He subsequently attended the Nigerian Law School, Abuja, and was called to the Nigerian Bar.
This seasoned manager of human and material resources had earlier began his exciting working career as a member of the National Youth Service Corps. He offered his mandatory youth service between July 1984 and June 1985.
He subsequently joined the services of the then Federal Ministry of Mines, Power & Steel as an Administrative Officer II in 1985. Alhaji Gobir was upon his employment posted to the famous Ajaokuta Steel Company Ltd in the present-day Kogi State. After a few years of hard work, he was deservedly promoted to the rank of Administrative Officer I. He was also the Personal Assistant to the then Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company in the course of which he handled the strategic responsibility of staff recruitment, training and disciplinary matters. He equally served as Secretary to several ad-hoc committees, among others. He served in the enterprise otherwise called “the Bedrock of Nigeria’s industrialisation” till 1989.
Between 1990 and 2000, Alhaji Gobir was a staff of the Cotton & Agricultural Processors Limited, Zaria. The firm is an associate company of the Kaduna-based New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC), which itself is owned by the 19 states constituting erstwhile Northern Region. He was initially engaged as Manager (Industrial Relations). He subsequently rose to the rank of the Assistant General Manager/Company Secretary & Head HR. At the firm, he was also saddled with several responsibilities including Human Resource Management, Industrial/Employee Relations as well as providing secretarial services to all the management committees of the Company.
Sequel to an engaging 10 years of exciting contributions to the growth and development of the company, Alhaji Gobir joined the Crittall-Hope Nigeria Ltd, Lagos in 2001. He was initially deployed as the General Manager and Head of the Kaduna subsidiary, Crittall-Hope Kaduna Ltd. He eventually became the Company’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer in 2013 prior to leaving its services in 2018.
This patriot of high repute eventually joined the services of Dangote Cement Plc, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, Africa’s foremost business and industrial outfit with interests in many African countries in 2018. He joined as a Senior General Manager and was designated as Regional Human Resource Advisor and Head Organisational Development (Pan Africa).
While holding the position, he provided human resource advisory services at the Head Office of the Company and directly to twelve (12) subsidiary companies based in Cameroon, Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. He was eventually promoted to the position of Group General Manager, Human Resources, Dangote Group.
Alhaji Gobir had earlier, between 1998 and 1999, served as the Honourable Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Co-operatives in the last military administration in Kwara State. He served as a Commissioner and Member of the Kwara State Executive Council under the leadership of Lt. Colonel Rasheed Alade Sekoni (rtd).
This prolific management expert has also served as the Chairman, Kwara State Investment and Property Development Company, Ilorin. He was also the Chairman of the Kwara State Industrial Trust Fund Limited, Ilorin as well as Chairman, Laekmind Investments Limited, Kaduna.
Alhaji Gobir equally served as a Director of the following companies at one time or the other. These companies include MFB Fertilizers and Chemicals Company Limited, Kaduna; MFB Investments and Holdings Company Limited, Kaduna; Crittall-Hope Kaduna Limited, and Woodkraft Industries Limited, Kaduna. He was also a Board Member, Kaduna State Water Corporation.
The new CIPM President also served as Vice President (SMI) and a Member of the Governing Council of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. He was also at various times a Member of the Governing Board of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Member, National Labour Advisory Council, Member, National Steering Committee of the Open Government Partnership, and Member, Federal Government Tripartite Committee on the Review of the Minimum Wage.
Alhaji Gobir, who has attended several management and career development courses within and outside Nigeria, is a distinguished Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria and Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered).
This great son of Ilorin Emirate is a member of several Ilorin-centred sociocultural organisations, particularly the Third Estate Group, Ilorin Emirate, through which he offers various forms of supports and services to the people of his ancestral community.
Alhaji Gobir is married to Hajiya Maryam Folawiyo Gobir, a daughter of the Nagode family of Ilorin, who is also a legal practitioner. The marriage is blessed with children who are also doing very well in their various careers.
I congratulate Alhaji Gobir on his election. I also congratulate the people of Ilorin Emirate for producing the President of a leading professional body. I wish this eminent son of Ilorin a very successful and rewarding tenure of office.
Imam is Chief Scribe, Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union.
