The first civilian governor of Borno State, Alhaji Mohammed Goni, has died at the age of 78.
A family source, who confirmed the death said the former governor died on Wednesday evening from an undisclosed illness.
In 1979, Goni was elected as the first civilian governor of the former Borno State on the platform of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party and was in office from October 1979 to September 1983.
He was also part of the Progressives Coalition led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
Goni founded the Borno Radio Television to counter the propaganda being pumped out by the Nigerian Television Authority at the time.
Before the 1983 elections, he defected to the Unity Party of Nigeria, running unsuccessfully for reelection against the Nigerian People’s Party candidate, Sheikh Jarma.
Mohammed Goni was born in 1942 in Kareto, Mobbar Local Government Area, Borno State. He attended Maiduguri Middle School (1953–55), Borno Provincial Secondary School (1956–61), Provincial Secondary School, Kano (1962–63) and the Institute of Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1964–87), where he gained a BA (Administration), specialising in international affairs.
In 1977, he transferred to the Nigerian National Supply Company. In April 1979, Mohammed Goni resigned from the National Supply Company and entered politics. He was elected as the first civilian governor of the former Borno State, on the platform of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP), and was in office from October 1979 to September 1983.
