Governor Babagana Umara Zulum has approved the appointment of Professor Mohammed Arab Alhaji as Executive Director of Borno State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, SPHCDA.
The appointment which is with immediate effect, was announced by Governor Zulum’s spokesman, Malam Isa Gusau, in a statement issued on Wednesday morning.
59 years Professor Arab had served as Borno’s commissioner of health from July 2022 to May 2023.
He had also served as Chief Medical Director of Borno State’s Hospital Management Board from September 2020 to July 2022.
Professor Arab is a medical doctor with specialization in pediatrics, gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition.
The Professor was an Honourary Consultant Paediatrician at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, a locum (backup) consultant at Borno State Specialist hospital in Maiduguri, and visiting consultant to General Sani Abacha hospital in Damaturu, Yobe State.
Arab had managed University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital’s Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition / Infectious diseases specialist clinics.
He had worked as a resident doctor in Ibadan and Kaduna.
As an academic, Professor Arab authored and co-authored about 50 local and international academic publications as at 2020, and he mentored dozens of medical doctors.
Arab had served in more than 20 Technical Committees as Facilitator/Investigator to several Government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)’s programmes which included the Federal Ministry of Health, Borno State Government on health projects, the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Alliance for International Medical Action (ALIMA) among others.
Governor Zulum congratulates the highly experienced and extremely dedicated medical professor and looks forward to his continued service with excellence at the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, SPHCDA.