A former Federal Super Permanent Secretary Ahmed Joda is dead.

The elder statesman died on Friday in Yola, the Adamawa capital, where he had his permanent residence.

He was born in Girei, a town and local government area near Jimeta, the administrative section of the state capital.

He died at 91, according to a family friend, Fenny Fwa, a prince of the Mbula Kingdom of Adamawa State who described Joda as a detribalised Nigerian who had the ability to “sooth the nerves of a nation in perpetual conflict.”

Joda began his civil service career in the then Northern Regional Government.

He later joined the Federal Civil Service and rose to be one of the ‘Super Permanent Secretaries’ of the 1970s.

He retired as Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Industries under the military government of Yakubu Gowon.

Over the decades, he served as chairman and board member of various companies, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).

He attended Yola Elementary and Middle schools before proceeding to Barewa College, Zaria.

After completing his secondary education in 1948, Joda was admitted to Moor Plantation, Ibadan and worked briefly at an agricultural centre in Yola before entering the field of journalism at Gaskiya Corporation, Zaria.

He later worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Commission(NBC) serving as the editor of NBC Kaduna and joined the Northern Nigeria Civil Service as Chief Information Officer and later permanent secretary in the regional Ministry of Information.

In 1967, he became a Federal Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information.

In 2015, Joda headed the Committee which prepared the transition of Muhammadu Buhari from president-elect to President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The Nation