Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State, has revealed how Professor Ibrahim Gambari, the newly appointed Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, purportedly opposed pro-democracy activists during the military regime.
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Narrating his ordeal as a pro-democracy activist in exile in his 2005 book, “Out of the Shadows”, Fayemi said Gambari, who served as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the United Nations from 1990-1995, was one of the strongest opponents of Nigerians advocating the return of democracy in the diaspora.
According to Fayemi, who was a former director of the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in the United Kingdom, Gambari made life difficult for Nigerian activists as he never focused on the country’s dented image nor engaged in exaggerated praise of the various military regimes in the international arena, but rather highlighted the country’s role on peacekeeping globally.
“Around the third week of September 1998, I received a rather surprising call from Professor Ibrahim Gambari, Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. I had come to respect and like Professor Gambari in the years of our 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 anyone of us, and we must always protect Nigeria’s interest,’” Fayemi wrote.
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Making reference to a particular encounter, Fayemi wrote that despite the consistent attack directed at Gambari by him and other pro-democracy activists, the former UN ambassador to Nigeria exhibited an unaggressive mien both in private and public.
The Ekiti Governor added that the new Chief of Staff to the President devised means to ensure that his objectives are quickly achieved irrespective of the obstacles in his front.
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“I recall particularly, a lecture he gave at the Royal African Society in London in 1996. As usual, he refrained from defending the 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’.
“He used to annoy me enormously with this disarming charm, but I realised he 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 realise 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. I have tried all the numbers I have and I understand that you may be able to help me.’ I joked with him that we do not normally see the big masquerade in the afternoon, and I am sure this must be pretty important. Could he let me know what this was in connection with so that I 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.
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“By the time I got through to Professor Soyinka, Professor Gambari had already reached him by other means. 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. 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,” Fayemi wrote.
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Gambari’s appointment as President Buhari’s Chief of Staff was announced by Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), on Wednesday.
The new Chief of Staff, who hails from Kwara State succeeds Abba Kyari, who died of complications from the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on 17 April.
The senior presidential aide, a professor of Political Science and International Relations, served as minister of External Affairs from 1984 to 1985 under the military regime of Buhari.
He held several positions at the UN, such as the UN Under-Secretary-General and special adviser to the UN Secretary-General on Africa between 1999 and 2005.
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