Buhari’s innermost confidant and power broker Ismaila Isa Funtua is dead

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Ismaila Isa Funtua, a close associate of President Muhammadu Buhari, is dead.

A presidential aide, Bashir Ahmad, in a tweet on his verified twitter handle described Funtua’s death as sudden.

“Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un! Just heard about Mallam Ismaila Isa Funtua’s sudden death. This life! May Allah accept his soul, forgive his shortcomings and grant him Jannah al-Firdaus,” he tweeted.

He died in Abuja while undergoing a routine medical check-up. He was 78 years old.

According to a yet to be confirmed report, he reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest during the medical check-up.

Born in Funtua, Katsina State, he was a pioneer student of the Federal Training Centre, Kaduna. He trained as an administrative officer at the Institute of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, Zaria, and also as an administrator at the Manchester University in the UK.

He was the Monitor General of the Course 9 of the prestigious National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru.

Funtua served the Katsina Native Authority for seven years as Administrative Officer.

He later served in various ministries in the defunct Northern Region before his secondment by the Northern Region government as the Personnel Manager of the 10,500 strong United Nigerian Textile Company, Kaduna.

From there he became a successful entrepreneur. He was the founding managing director of Democrat Newspaper and former president of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN).

The deceased was life patron of NPAN and chairman of Bulet Construction Company.

Funtua was the Minister of Water Resources in the defunct Second Republic that lasted between 1979 and 1983.

As a member of the 1994-1995 Constitutional Conference, the statesman was on the committee that came up with models in key areas of Nigeria’s existence.

One of such was a special committee of 37 people on zoning and rotational presidency, which resolved that rotation of power between the North and South be entrenched in the Constitution.

It would be recalled that his death takes place three months after Abba Kyari, former chief of staff and another close confidant to the president died.

Like Buhari, Funtua hailed from Katsina state. One of his sons is married to the president’s daughter.

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