By  AKIN THOMAS

The diplomatic excellence and the strategies adopted in reversing the strained relationship occasioned by Nigeria’s military dictatorship and getting America to smile to Nigeria once more, thereby quickening the march to democratization, will remain in Africa’s book of diplomacy for the benefits of present and future generations.

Ambassador Hassan Adamu’s strategies and his diplomatic approach to the re-establishment of friendly relations and political cordiality between Nigeria and America in the close of 1900s is now the subject of a new book just published by a Nigerian Journalist who monitored the political scenario surrounding the ambassadorial appointment of Dr. Hassan Adamu. Being a non-career diplomat, his acceptance to take up the challenge of wooing America for Nigeria’s eventual democratization process took some of his friends and close business associates by surprise.

A new book titled Hassan Adamu: The Diplomatic Exploits of a  Nigerian Ambassador in America: … is the newest African book on International Relations and Diplomacy written from the perspective of a Nigerian journalist, Dayo Duyile.

The author of the book, Dayo Duyile, a university lecturer and journalist of many years of professional media experience, has chronicled the events which led to the breakdown of diplomatic trust between Nigeria and America in the 1990s: the roles played by the military governments of the late Gen. Sanni Abacha, and Gen. Abubakar; the real diplomatic exploits, political strategies, and the Washington manoeuvres of Ambassador Hassan Adamu; the roles of nationalist Nigerian communities in America are all put together in a sort of political and historical perpespective in the 168-page book. The book is richly illustrated, pictorially, exhibiting the social and political aspects of Nigerian diplomacy and some elements of social relations as exhibited by Ambassador Adamu.

The 20 chapters of the book deal with various aspects of the political and diplomatic assignments of Dr. Hassan Adamu during his three years sojourn in Washington D.C.

The book begins with an updated profile of the subject, and deals exhaustively on the diplomat’s journey to an unfamiliar terrain. It crowns this aspect of him with a brief narration :”From Entrepreneurship To Ambassadorial … “

The book deals intensely into other aspects relevant to the envoy’s diplomatic engagements, the difficulties he encountered, the NADECO issue in America, the Hard drug dilemma, the position of the White House in Nigerian affairs, the role of Gen. Abubakar, then Nigeria’s Head of State: the march towards democratic dispensation up to the return of President Olusegun Obasanjo to political power in 1999.

All these and more are featured in Dayo Duyile’s book on Ambassador Hassan Adamu’s diplomatic exploits in America. It is a book for all lovers of Nigeria to read and digest. It is a good reading material for journalists, diplomats, politicians and scholars of international politics and diplomacy.

The captains of industry should not be left out of the reading pleasure deriveable from a book of this nature.

Reading through the chapters of the new book presents the reader with first hand information about the intricacies, difficulties and challenges which Ambassador Hassan Adamu encountered while doing the Neoman’s job and how he conquered them all.

One will also have the impression, a wonderful one for that matter, that Ambassador Adamu was a genius in diplomacy as he has always demonstrated in his business administration, and as President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), a position he held for many years during which he improved the country’s manufacturing sector.