•A dynamic and patriotic civil servant bows out

His appointment to head the transition team for the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 reflected his stature. He was in his eighties at the time, and known as a seasoned public administrator who had attained glory in the Federal Civil Service. It was striking that he was given the role 37 years after his retirement from the apex of the civil service in 1978. Buhari had unsuccessfully run for president thrice, 2003, 2007 and 2011, before the historic 2015 election in which he defeated incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan.

“We were to receive handing over notes from the outgoing government, study them, analyse them and tell them what to do,” Ahmed Joda described the work of the presidential transition committee he headed. It is unclear to what extent the input of the committee influenced Buhari’s performance in his first term from 2015 to 2019.

From 1967 when he was transferred to the Federal Civil Service, from the Northern regional government, following the outbreak of the Nigerian civil war, he was a visible presence in the Federal Government till he retired. He was at various times a federal permanent secretary in the federal ministries of Information, Education and Industries, and was one of the so-called super federal permanent secretaries under the Yakubu Gowon military government.

Joda, who died on August 13 at the age of 91, has been extolled for his patriotism and public-spiritedness. It is noteworthy that former President Olusegun Obasanjo said in a posthumous tribute: “I know that if not for people like Joda and other senior permanent secretaries after the first upheaval, we would have had Nigeria broken into pieces.” It is ironic that he died 51 years after the end of the civil war amid fresh separatist agitations.

His distinguished public service career ensured that he was busy in retirement, serving as chairman and board member of various companies, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Pastoral Resolve, SCOA, Nigeria, Chagoury Group, Flour Mills of Nigeria, and the Nigerian LNG. Significantly, he was appointed to notable positions in the country’s important oil and gas, and telecommunications sectors after he had left the public service.

As he advanced in years, there was always an important role for him, which showed his experience and value. He was a member of the 1988 Constituent Assembly, and in 1999 he was appointed a member of the Committee to Advise the Presidency on Poverty Alleviation.

Before his defining years in the regional and Federal Civil Service, Joda had studied and worked at College of Agriculture at Moor Plantation, Ibadan, in present-day Oyo State, after his secondary education at Barewa College, Zaria, in present-day Kaduna State. He later worked as an agricultural officer in Yola, in present-day Adamawa State. He was born in Yola to a Fulani family.

His dynamism took him to journalism. He joined the Nigerian Citizen newspaper, which later became New Nigerian newspaper. “I was reporting court cases, police cases, criminal and motor accidents and happenings around Northern Nigeria. I spent only one year in the Nigerian Citizen, Gaskiya Corporation,” he said.

He went to England to study journalism. “In Pittman College, I had my theoretical training while my practical training was in the Daily Express which made me work in London, Glasgow and Manchester,” he said

When he returned to Nigeria, he joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, and became the organisation’s regional news editor for Northern Nigeria. He stayed there until October 1960, when he joined the Northern regional government as Chief Information Officer and was later Permanent Secretary from 1962 to 1967. This was the beginning of his stellar career in public administration.

He received Nigerian national honours that underlined his exemplary public service and contribution to the country’s development. At the age of 35, he received the Officer of the Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) in 1965. He also received Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) in 1979, and Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) in 2002.

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