Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Ibrahim Gambari as his new chief of staff, secretary to the government said on Wednesday.

Gambari was Nigeria’s minister for external affairs during Buhari’s military regime from 1984 to 1985 and later became an under-secretary-general at the United Nations.

He replaces Abba Kyari, who died last month after contracting the coronavirus and was one of the most powerful men in Nigeria, acting as a gatekeeper to the president.