Gambari: A pleasant surprise

PROFESSOR Ibrahim Agboola Gambari’s appointment as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari came as a very pleasant surprise. Buhari has put a round peg in a round hole. This is because Agboola Gambari is eminently qualified to be the Chief of Staff in the Presidency. It is, indeed, a feather on the president’s hat. I met Ibrahim quite close to half a century ago. It was on a Sunday morning in front of Teachers’ College, Columbia University, New York. He was coming from the main hall and I was going to Thorndike Hall of the same institution. We exchanged addresses and telephones. Readers! The rest is history.

Who is Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari? Ibrahim is a figure of God wonderfully and fearfully created. Although he was born into a royal family, he comes to the level of us offspring from poor farmers, shoemakers, bicycle repairers, barbers and painters, to mention but a few. Ibrahim attended Ilorin School System; King’s College, Lagos; London School of Economics and Columbia University, in the city of New York. He told me that he had one of the scholarships during the time the late Chief Richard Osuolale Akinjide was the Federal Minister of Education. He was hired as a professor in Albany State University, New York, United States. Professor Gambari later returned to Nigeria and worked at Ahmadu  Bello University (ABU), Zaria. He later became the Head of Department of Political Science of that institution. Later on, Ibrahim rose to the rank of Director of International Institute Nigeria.

Gambari became the youngest Foreign Affairs Minister under the Buhari-Idi-Agbon military regime.  John Hopkins University in the United States was lucky to have Gambari as a visiting scholar. He left John Hopkins and became the Ambassador for Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations. Okpara and I wrote pages of articles on how Professor Gambari became the longest serving Ambassador at that time. During the period, he struggled to bring Nigeria to the Security Council. Agboola became the President of Apartheid Committee (UNO) policy when Dr. Nelson Mandela was released from prison after 27 solid years. Ambassador Gambari brought the Nigerian government to the global world and the global world to the Nigerian government.

His humble life continuously and constantly impacted on the lives of millions of people globally. If there is no humility in the dictionary, we the people would have inserted one for the sake of our brother and friend, Agboola. Ibrahim worked with Kofi Annan as the Assistant Secretary-General to the United Nations. Ambassador Annan’s successor as UNO’s Secretary-General retained him. The University of Ibadan, Nigeria, gave an award to Ibrahim. This confirms Agboola Gambari as a man of intellectual prowess. He published books and wrote several papers about effective lectures. Most of the books written by our friend and brother are in use in universities and other higher institutions of learning. What do we learn from this honest, patriotic, hardworking and humble man? We look at his virtues as a role model.

Ibrahim, what do I need to remind you of? Remember that you had a think-thank group while you were at the UNO. That group was thrilled the way you exhibited kindness, managed Nigeria’s resources and your open door policy. We are happy  that youths across the globe can continuously and consistently gain from your wealth of ideas. Please permit me on behalf of my family to wish you the huge successes a hardworking diplomat deserves.

• Ajao writes in from New York, United States.

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