
Ambassador Dapo Fafowora and Ibrahim Gambari
By Ambassador Dapo Fafowora
I know Ibrahim Gambari 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 delegate we were looking for.
So I invited him as one of our delegates to the UN General Assembly.
He was at the UN in New York with me.
I gave him and his wife my city apartment which I was not using free for 3 months plus a car.
I liked him and I was not seeking any favours from him.
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.
But Gambari, now FM and Rafindadi, the head of the NSO who had worked under me in London, and was now head of the NSO worked together to secure my retirement.
In fact, when I called him from New York to confirm from him news about my retirement he first denied it.
Thereafter, he no longer took my calls.
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.
But Gambari is more subtle and even more dangerous(than Abba Kyari) and will substitute the national interests for his own personal interests. I have no doubt about that.
Last year, he suddenly called me to ask if I would kindly represent him at a public lecture he had agreed to chair.
I told him I could not and that he should look for someone younger.
He immediately hung up on me.
Now, he may be the kind of person Buhari is looking for to succeed Abba Kyari as COS.
They are very much alike.
But Gambari is more subtle and even more dangerous and will substitute the national interests for his own personal interests. I have no doubt about that.
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 government 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
Join The Conversation
12 Comments
This man did say, at the hight of Abacha brutality that democracy was not food and that Nigerians did not need democracy. Apparently the democracy is now food for him
These kind of people are everywhere in our lives. God should save us from enemies within .
Why now? pls forgive and forget the past. let’s move the Nation forward
People may forget what you did to them; but not how you made them feel. Why do treacherous and shifty characters find it very easy to make it to the top? It shows the imprimatur of leadership selection is fraught with venal considerations covertly extraneous of national interest.
What a sad story of betrayal of trust and ingratitude by Gambari. Fawora’s refusal to represent Gambari is justifiable.
How could Gambari wickedly bring down his boss Fawora on whose back he climbed up, without any meaningful efforts to seek forgiveness, then years after, called erstwhile boss to go and represent him. As what? As his slave?
My love for Fawora has gone up with this revelation. Must everyone be slaves to the Fulanis? What a people and their ambition of dominion and supremacy over the rest of the ethnic nationalities.
The Fulanis as a metaphor for betrayal, disloyalty, disaffection, sadism, cronyism, prejudices, bigotry, encroachment, nepotism, injustices, lopsidedness, cluelessness, POWER MONGERING and supremacy.
What a people. So selfish and inhumane. What a man Buhari brought to continue his polarization, disunity and improprieties.
What a wicked and nepotistic regime. What a failed government. What a situation. I take a stroll. Nonsense.
Gambari is a Fulani Man with a Yoruba character. No wander he has a Yoruba name (Agboola), Nonsense, I too, take a still!
….stroll..
But this is the problem with the people they are appointing, they have no good record. It is not a matter of unforgiveness, but rather a character issue.
Ambassador Dapo Fafowora has no forgiven spirit. Someone you said is against you, asked you to represent him and you refused. The reason is that you do not want the renewal of friendship. Hide your thought about him. We don’t need it now.
How do you forgive someone who is a user and can not see their wrong doing. It is good for the Gambari man to be exposed. He is a traitor by blood and actions
Your comments smacks of naivete. That’s a flawed character, you don’t get it!
You are one ignorant scumbag. Did Gambari ask Ambassador Dapo Fafowora to forgive him for betraying him in the first place before asking him to go represent him? Afterwards it was Ambassador Fafowora who made him known to the world in the first place. You need to think well before you make your comments.
You May Like
Latest
Adekunle Ajasin University’s gate shut indefinitely
Match Day 6 results in 2020/2021 NPFL
Dangote slams $30,000 lawsuit on American mistress
Gunmen abduct Bridget Esene Immigration Service spokesperson in Benin
10-year-old boy, 19-year-old nabbed for child theft in Anambra
Ibadan socialite Gatuso shot dead
Leading Nigerian lawyer Abdullahi Ibrahim is dead
Herders’ menace: Alaafin’s warning that Buhari ignored [Flashback]
Bagudu condoles with Commissioner over brother’s death
Umahi imposes curfew on Effium
D’banj, Clarence Peter, others endorse Ned Nwoko’s Malaria Eradication Project
Lagos police arrest POS robbers, fake sergeant with Indian hemp
Akeredolu, South-West govs meet Miyetti Allah Monday
Tanker crashes: FRSC chief deploys safety engineers to Akungba-Akoko
‘Save & Win’ promo: Polaris Bank to unveil first set of millionaires
Confirmed: Mesut Ozil now Fenerbahce player
The people have the right to secure their communities: Yoruba Ronu LF
Elephant Club renovates Lagos school
1 dead, 3 injured in Bauchi accident – FRSC
Federal projects: Bayelsa receives N27bn refund from FG
UNILAG to conduct virtual post-UTME test