OpEd: My Ibrahim Agboola Gambari Story By Babafemi A. Badejo, Ph.D | Sahara Reporters My write-up, this time around, is limited to my story of the Ibrahim Agboola Gambari that I know. READ MORE:
On May 12, 2020, news got leaked that Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, a quintessential and consummate bilateral and multilateral diplomat had been appointed as the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria. I tried to reach him to congratulate him but the number I had just rang till the normal disappointing announcement that asks to try later. So, I passed my greetings through a mutual friend who I know would deliver. That was it for me.
Retired General David Jemibewon as a graduate student at Unilag took a course that I taught. We got to like each other. I indicated interest in having international experience. He wrote a beautiful letter on me to Professor Gambari who was then the Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations. I had tried to corner Gambari’s predecessor, late General Joe Garba, at an anti-apartheid meeting in Lagos. I was an activist those days. I was pushed aside by the Security guys.
That was it. However, as things would turn out, I became the local fulcrum for the quest of General Olusegun Obasanjo’s failed attempt to become the UN Secretary-General. Dr. Hans D’Orville, who had insisted I be the local leader in Nigeria, was the international fulcrum. Late Prof. Ade Adefuye, my big brother from my first day at Unilag as the first Faculty member I met and whose young age became an inspiration, agreed to be coopted.
This assignment boosted my relationship with Prof. Gambari who started treating me like a younger brother. He was very religious and at the same time liberal and very tolerant of the foibles of people like myself who lacked the discipline of religious precepts. So, I had no reservation to write to him that I was going to a conference in South Carolina in late 1992 and asked if I could stop to see him in New York on my way back to Nigeria. I requested for accommodation assistance.
I arrived Mogadishu thinking I would only spend 6 months and return to my academic post and practice of law on the side to survive. While in Mogadishu, I met late McIver. I do not remember his first name. I think an English name as well as Kayode or so. With his surname, one would have thought he was from Great Britain. But he was actually a Yoruba man from Kwara State of Nigeria. We became very good friends. He subsequently told me that he was the second person nominated by Professor Gambari.
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