President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Rukayyatu Gurin as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Administration and Women Affairs in the Office of the First Lady.

The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, confirmed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

Ms Gurin is a Doctorate degree holder in Curriculum Instruction from the University of Maiduguri.

She was at various times a lecturer at the University of Maiduguri; a Deputy Director at the National Universities Commission (NUC); and a Director at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru.

Ms Gurin was a senior lecturer at Baze University in Abuja before her appointment.

According to the statement, Ms Gurin replaces Hajo Sani who was recently appointed as Nigeria’s delegate to the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) in France.

Mr Adesina also announced that the president also approved the appointment of Mohammed Kamal Abdurrahman as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Health and Development Partners in the Office of the First Lady.

Mr Abdurrahman holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Maiduguri.

He worked at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Yola Specialist Hospital, Sithobela Health Centre in Swaziland, and at the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) before his appointment as a personal physician to the First Lady in 2015 and reappointed in 2019.  

“Abdurrahman will combine his new role with his position as the personal physician to the First Lady,” Mr Adesina added.

Meanwhile, the Constitution of Nigeria does not create an office for the country’s first lady or potential first gentleman, but official funding and staff have been allocated to the first lady of Nigeria since the country’s independence.

Some have argued over the years that it is a waste of taxpayers money considering the number of aides that will be employed under the office of the first lady.