Arts Council in 1982. As head of the council, he worked with Tiv peasants in Central Nigeria using Kwagh-hir puppetry theatre as a social change agent. He also established the legendary award-winning Benue State Arts Council dance troupe. In 1994, he was appointed into the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria as the Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Power and Steel under the Sani Abacha administration. In 1997, he was transferred to the Federal Ministry of Health as the Minister of State – a position he held until the end of the administration in 1998, when Abacha passed on. As Minister of State for Health, he is known to have used drama to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Particularly, in Benue, he worked with Kwagh-hir artists to produce ‘Anakande’ which effectively addressed the global epidemic when Benue State had the highest prevalence rate in Nigeria. While at the Ahmadu Bello University, Hagher was a Head of Department and an elected member of the University Senate on different occasions. He was also the University Senate's representative to the Centre for Continuing Education Academic Board. Hagher also served on the committee on Commercialization of the Nigeria Television Authority, Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria, and the National Copyright Council. He was also elected as a member of the Constitutional Conference of 1994–1995. Envoy Iyorwuese Hagher was appointed by President Olusegun Obasanjo as Nigeria's Ambassador to Mexico with concurrent accreditation to Panama, Costa Rica and Guatemala (2003-2008). In 2008, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua again appointed him as Nigeria's High Commissioner to Canada: a position he held until 2012. He engaged in cultural diplomacy, using theatre, drama and poetry to enhance bilateral relations between Nigeria and the host countries. This also availed him the opportunity to lecture in some universities in those countries. He is renowned for his cultural and citizenship diplomacy and won a commendation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for his non-fiction book, Nigeria: After the Nightmare. Politics Iyorwuese Hagher began his political life in 1977 when he was appointed the Benue State Arts Council Chairman. This enabled him to resuscitate the top ranks of the defunct United Middle Belt Congress (UMBC) into the movement led by Joseph Tarka, his political mentor. The national movement started by J. S. Tarka evolved into the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) which formed the government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979 and 1983. Hagher continued to