Former diplomat, Dapo Fafowora, has made damning comments circulating on social media about President
Muhammadu Buhari’s named Chief of Staff, Professor Ibrahim Gambari.
79 years old Fafowora was Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations from 1981 to 1984.
He made the comments as soon as speculations of Gambari’s appointment went viral online and was confirmed by his nephew, the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Zulu Gambari.
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Here's what Fafowora wrote;
“I know him quite well. I was the one who in 1981 brought him to the UN at his request as a member of the Nigerian delegation.
“He was then a senior lecturer at the ABU. In fact, the late Prof Audu, who was then Foreign Minister actually advised me against inviting him to the UN. But he had strong academic credentials which impressed me. He had obtained his first degree in political science from the LSE, and a doctorate from Colombia University in New York. We were looking for strong delegates to the UN General Assembly and I considered him the kind of delegates we were looking for.
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“After 3 months he returned home and sent me a note thanking me for giving him the first opportunity to visit the UN as a delegate and giving him his first experience at multilateral diplomacy.
“However, he sent President Shagari a secret and private note that while he was at the UN he observed that I had not been attending the meeting of Islamic states at the UN. President Shagari sent the note to Prof Audu who forwarded it to me in New York. He didn’t even ask me for any comments on Gambari’s secret memo as Prof Audu fully understood that Nigeria had traditionally not been attending meetings of the Islamic states as we were not then a member of the Group.
“Gambari asked for a private meeting with President Shagari which Prof Audu advised against. I was shocked that someone I had helped so much turned round to betray me so blatantly. I did not tell him I knew about the secret letter he had sent to the UN. When Shagari was overthrown by Buhari, Gambari became Foreign Minister. When career ambassadors were being suddenly retired I was at first not on the list.
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“In fact, I remained at my post in New York for another 3 months during which the MFA tried to reverse the decision to retire me. I had done absolutely nothing wrong in my entire career in the diplomatic service and only got into trouble for helping a young academic who turned against me to fulfil his own personal ambition.
“Since then, he and I have only met twice in very difficult circumstances. First at a dinner by a mutual friend in New York several years after my retirement. He could barely look directly at me. He was clearly embarrassed.
“Then when Buhari won the elections in 2015 I headed a team that was set up to prepare a paper for him on our Foreign Policy. Subsequently, Alhaji Joda asked him to join the team.
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“What I have written in this long piece is just some of my personal experience and encounter with him. Everything I have written here is in my memoirs ‘Lest I Forget’ which he has seen and read. It is nothing new.
“But I think it important that the character of our top govt officials should be revealed and not covered up. We have, as a nation, paid dearly for supporting appointments to high office that are often detrimental to our nation. Enough is enough and this has to stop.”
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