By Chris Paul Otaigbe
“I like to refer to myself as a Teacher by Training and a Diplomat by accident…” that was how the new Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President, Ibrahim Gambari introduced himself at one of his many United Nations speech engagements. This particular event was titled: Peacekeeping Operations-Trends and Lessons Learnt.
Ibrahim comes highly recommended for the job. As a matter of fact, his appointment would have been seen by many as the right fit. There are certain persons whom when they are elevated to a particular position neither you or they predicted or expected, you nudge yourself and say, “exactly, that is where he should have been all along…”
This must be the sentiment that must have rang through the minds of many Nigerians at home and abroad, as well as friends of Nigeria all over the world.
As Nigeria’s permanent representative at the UN, Ibrahim has served the country creditably well with no blemish against his name for over three decades of service at the world body.
Although, some of his ardent critics would love to hate him for his role during the June 12 heat, describing the erudite and accomplished Diplomat as a military apologist or sympathizer. Others choose to describe him as a very wily operator, who has been able to move effortlessly between the two worlds of authoritarianism and liberal democracy.
What they may not understand about the Ilorin-born global citizen, is that Ibrahim was intensely serving the sole objective of preserving the soul of a united and peaceful Nigeria, seeing what he was seeing from the high towers of the UN with an international political microscope.
His appointment as the new CoS, like his accidental emergence as a diplomat, can similarly be seen as coincidental.
If Abba Kyari had not died, Gambari would have remained the unsung and unnoticed high diplomat, working for the good of the country at the realm of global diplomacy.
At over 75, not a few worries about his age and, thus, agility for the highly demanding job.
Nonetheless, his emergence as the new Chief of Staff is calming as it is refreshing, especially when one considers the storm that consistently blew around his late predecessor.
Under the Late Kyari, the country was constantly under heat because many believed the Late CoS had transformed himself into the unelected de facto President of the country, stirring the ship of the Nigerian State towards the rock.
Nigerians would not have bothered about such outsourced presidential powers, provided it was for the greater good of the country. After all, the Principal, President Buhari, has been known to always display the wisdom of deferring to, or penchant for depending on his deputies, as the case may be, for the running of the country on his behalf.
The retired military General loves to surrender to the superior cerebral energies of his subordinate intellectual generals.
That experiment worked well with him and the Late Tunde Idiagbon and the nation was better for it while the duo’s administration of the country lasted.
However, Nigerians believed he was on the road to achieving that with his Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo when alleged power play in Aso Rock saw Abba Kyari been given more visible powers than the Vice, whom many have applauded as a great deputy to Buhari.
Coming fresh from his global assignment as the nation’s representative for over two decades, the new CoS brings to the table, some level of sophistication in decent governance.
He was born on 24 November 1944, in Ilorin, Kwara State, to a Fulani ruling class family. Ibrahim Agboola Gambari attended King’s College, Lagos. His nephew, Ibrahim Sulu Gambari, is the Emir of Ilorin.
Gambari subsequently attended the London School of Economics where he obtained his B. Sc. (Economics) degree (1968) with a specialization in International Relations. He later obtained his M.A. (1970) and Ph. D. (1974) degrees from Columbia University, New York, the USA in Political Science /International Relations.
Gambari began his teaching career in 1969 at City University of New York before working at the University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, Kaduna State, the second-largest university in Africa.
From 1986 to 1989, he was Visiting Professor at three universities in Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown University and Howard University.
A Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution, also in Washington D.C. and a Resident Scholar at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, the Rockefeller Foundation-run center in Italy. Gambari served as Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985 under General Mohammadu Buhari’s military regime.
From 1990 to 1999, he holds the record of being the longest-serving Nigerian Ambassador to the United Nations, serving under five Heads of State and Presidents.
At the United Nations, he held several positions.
In 1999, he was the President of UNICEF and later became UN Under-Secretary-General and the first Special Adviser on Africa to the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan from 1999 to 2005.
He was the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2007 under Secretary-General’s Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon. His last appointment in the UN was from January 2010 to July 2012, when he was appointed by Ban Ki-moon and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission as the Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur.
Founder and Chairman of the Savannah Centre, Gambari co-chairs Albright-Gambari Commission, while he is a member of the Johns Hopkins University Society of Scholars.
Decorated with the title of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) by the Government of Nigeria, he has the honor of being accorded, honoris causa, the title of Doctor of Humane Letters (D.Hum.Litt.) from the University of Bridgeport.
On March 4, 2013, Ibrahim Gambari was named by the Governor of Kwara Abdulfatah Ahmad, as the Chancellor of the Kwara State University.
His last assignment at the United Nations was the joint special representative of the Secretary-general and chairperson of the African Union Commission/head of the UN and AU hybrid mission in Darfur (UNAMID) from January 2010 to July 2012.
UNAMID under Gambari was the world’s largest international peacekeeping mission.
Since joining the United Nations in 1999, Gambari thrived, managing crises from Angola to Cyprus and raising money for Iraq’s reconstruction. According to U.N. staffers, his old-school capabilities as a diplomat, coupled with his Muslim faith and eminent standing in Africa, made him a formidable mediator.
The Sudan assignment provided an opportunity to test, whether Gambari’s experience and easy rapport with unsavory political players could translate into concrete progress on the main challenges of the day: a settlement in Darfur and resolution of the standoff over the South’s quest for independence.
In the peacekeeping assignment in Darfur, Gambari headed a joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping mission for Darfur with a 26,000-man blue helmets team. Regarded as the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation in the world, with a nearly $1.8 billion budget, he also had the responsibility of being the most senior U.N. official with direct access to Bashir.
One of his most trying periods, serving his country, was the June 12, 1993 saga. Nigeria, under the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, held a presidential election on June 12, 1993, in which the Late Moshood Abiola was the presumed winner over Bashir Tofa, his only opponent. The announcement of the election result was stopped by the Military government and subsequently annulled by Babangida. From that time through the interim government of Ernest Shonekan to the regime of the late Sani Abacha, the country was thrown into a deep crisis.
The event generated pro-democracy/June 12 groups led by Prof. Wole Soyinka who fled abroad with his own civilian army to continue the struggle outside the country.
Gambari found himself on the other side of the struggle as an opponent to the popular will of Nigerians. The pro-June 12 combatants saw him as a traitor of the sort, not worthy of representing the Nigerian people on the global stage.
With the cerebral muscle of the Professor and wisdom of the Elder statesman in him, he was able to stir a reconciliatory course whenever he met with them on the turf of the global discourse on the Nigerian situation.
Dr. Kayode Fayemi, now Governor of Ekiti State, was one of Prof. Wole Soyinka’s lieutenants and intellectual militants in the war against the juntas in the country during the heated years of the June 12 struggle.
In his book, “Out of the Shadows”, first published in 2005, Dr. Fayemi narrates his encounter with the new CoS
Around the third week of September 1998, Fayemi received a rather surprising call from Professor Gambari, then, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. The Ekiti State Governor had come to respect and like Professor Gambari in the years of the June 12 struggle.
“He became clearly one of our strongest opponents on the diplomatic turf in the sense that he never indulged in any sycophantic praise of the dictatorship in Nigeria. Unlike Tom Ikimi, who was really a good opponent to have, I crossed swords with Professor Gambari several times in international gatherings, and even after I attacked him, he would still come around to me and say ‘Aburo (my brother), let us remember that Nigeria is greater than any one of us, and we must always protect Nigeria’s interest’.” Said Fayemi.
Recalling a particular lecture the Professor gave at the Royal African Society in London in 1996, Fayemi noted that Gambari, in his usual style, refrained from defending the Military regime’s battered image, but concentrated on Nigeria’s role in peacekeeping in the world.
“When I stood up and quoted his own reflections in his book, Theory, and Reality in Nigeria’s Foreign Policy Making, as a basis for my question, that he seemed to have moved away from his argument that the domestic basis of foreign policy could not be ignored, he just smiled and said to the audience, ‘This is a matter between me and Kayode. Please, allow me to have this debate with my brother in camera’.” Said Fayemi.
Fayemi said Prof. Gambari used to annoy him enormously with a disarming charm, but the June 12 Combatant soon realized the nation’s top Rep at the UN gained enormous respect from other diplomats, particularly, in the UN, as a result of his unobtrusive approach.
“Anyway, I was curious to receive Professor Gambari’s call, partly because I did not realize he had my number. (It turned out that a friend in New York had given him the number). His question was direct: ‘Aburo, I need to reach Professor Soyinka urgently’.” Fayemi reported.
Obviously, Gambari had tried all the numbers of Soyinka, available to him, “and I understand that you may be able to help me.” Gambari requested of Fayemi.
Fayemi joked with him, telling him in Yoruba dialect that the big masquerade is never seen in the afternoon, implying something serious must have made the Prof request for Soyinka’s number.
Fayemi then inquired if Gambari could tell him (Fayemi) what this was in connection with, so he could give Professor Soyinka advance warning.
“He demurred and I did not push since I suspected what it was about. I promised to get back to him. By the time I got through to Professor Soyinka, Professor Gambari had already reached him by other means.” Said Fayemi.
Professor Soyinka quickly summoned a teleconference of the steering committee of the UDFN to discuss the reason for Gambari’s call. It turned out that the new head of state, General Abdul-Salami Abubakar, was on his way to New York for the General Assembly of the United Nations and had requested a meeting with Professor Soyinka.
“We were not unanimous in our view as to the necessity for a meeting with General Abubakar, but in the end, we decided that Professor Soyinka should see him but not alone, as the junta had originally proposed and not without a clear set of positions consistent with what we agreed in Bromley.” He said.
On 25 September 1998, Professor Soyinka, the Vice Chairman of UDFN, Professor Julius Ihonvbere, and the Secretary-General, Professor Sola Adeyeye met with General Abubakar at his New York hotel in the company of Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
As he takes his seat in Aso Rock, Ibrahim would be playing the unprecedented role of being the one Ministers would report to, instead of the President.
If indeed, the Late Abba Kyari was a kingpin in the cabal that has been alleged by the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, to using the President to misgovern the country, then he would have the onerous task to prove himself to the First Lady and the larger body of Nigerians who have bought into Aisha’s cabal conspiracy theory.
As a prominent UN official, the eyes of the world would be on Ibrahim to prove himself as the right fit for the job. If his credentials and pedigree are anything to go by, Nigerians should rejoice at the appointment of this accomplished diplomat because he now has the opportunity to practicalize the theories about good governance he has propounded all over the world.
He has the singular privilege to stir the floundering ship of the State to a safer, brighter, and prosperous destination.
With his gigantic stature as an eminent member of the UN community, coupled with his level of education, experience, and exposure in both local and global understanding of democracy and the Rule of Law, Ibrahim will ensure his Principal never strays away from the Law.
As one who has virtually seen it all, he may have no need to engage in power tussle to outmaneuver existing players at the nation’s highest power roundtable. And so, it is likely, therefore, that Nigerians may begin to see a brighter light in the sphere of governance going forward, because Ibrahim has to show the world, in the light of all he has been preaching about the potentially great Nigeria, that he understands and feels the level of poverty and deprivation Nigerians have suffered.
He would have to prove to his colleagues at the UN office and the rest of the world that he is not just a ‘Talker’ but also a ‘Doer’. More importantly, he would have to deploy his power as the active alter ego of the President, to build bridges that may have been burnt in the last dispensation, to unite the country from the kitchen cabinet, through the first family to the larger family of Nigeria in order to build the greater Nigeria he has always evangelized about as a permanent Rep of the country on the global stage.
With his years of experience at the world’s apex body, coupled with his skills in executing highly sensitive assignments on the field, Nigerians are waiting to see if he would bring that rare and precious wealth and wisdom to help direct Government’s policy to make Nigeria work.
The new Chief of Staff is a very bright and discerning personality, but it is still to be seen whether he will be able to have any impact or he will simply be another placeholder in a long line of people who have had little or no positive impact on the situation in Nigeria.
