From last week, this is the concluding part of the  narrative on the individuals who were appointed  and served at different times as Nigeria’s ambassadors to different  countries, including Chief Edwin Ogbu and the late Major General Joseph Garba.

Mention must be made of Chief Arthur Christopher Izuegbunam Mbanefo (94) who was born on June 11, 1930 in Onitsha, Anambra State. He had his education at the Government School, Ogwashi-Uku, 1937-1939; St. Mary’s School, Port Harcourt, 1940-1941; Christ the King School, Aba, 1942; Practicing School, Uyo, 1943-1944; Government School, Afikpo, 1944-1945; St. Benedict’s School, Ogoja, 1946; St. Patrick’s School, Calabar, 1947-1953; Accountancy Studies, England, 1962; Centre for Applied Management and Technology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA, 1965-1966; Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, former Republic of Biafra, 1968-1970; became partner, Akintola Williams and Company, April 1965; also Managing Director, AW Consultants Limited, 1973; Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, July 1986; fellow, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria; director, Umarco Nigeria Limited since 1971; director, UACN of Nigeria Limited since 1978; and president, Institute of Chartered Accountant of Nigeria, 1978-1979. 

He became Nigeria’s ambassador to the United Nations in the year 2000. 

Alhaji Maitama Yusuf Sule (October 1, 1929 – July 3, 2017) had his education at the Shahuri Elementary School, Kano, 1937-1939; Kano Middle School, 1940-1942; Kaduna College, 1942-1946; Special Higher Elementary Teacher’s Course, Zaria, 1947; teacher, Kano Middle School, 1947-1954; visiting teacher, 1954-1955; chief information officer, Native Authority, 1955-1956; member, House of Representatives, 1954-1966; chief whip, Northern People’s Congress, 1955-1959; federal Minister of Mines and Power, 1959-1966; state commissioner, Kano, 1967-1974; chairman, National Council for Arts and Culture, Lagos, 1974; chief public complaints commissioner for the federation, 1975; later permanent representative to the United Nation, 1981-1983; also elected chairman, United Nations Special Committee Against Apartheid, 1981-1983.  

Ambassador Judith Sefiya Attah, a princess from Okene in Kogi State, was the Minister of Women Affairs under General Ibrahim Babangida (83). According to records, she is the first Ebira woman to obtain a university degree. 

In 1987, she became the first female ambassador/permanent secretary (and later director-general), a position she held up till 1991, when she was again posted as the first female ambassador to Italy with concurrent accreditation to Greece and Cyprus. Ambassador Attah was recalled in January 1995 to serve as the first minister of the newly-created Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare and member of the Federal Executive Council, FEC. 

Professor Ibrahim Agboola Gambari served as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari from 2020 to 2023. He previously served as permanent representative of Nigeria to the United Nations from 1990 to 1999, and Minister of External Affairs from 1984 to 1985.

Professor Gambari was born on November 24, 1944 in Ilorin, Kwara State to a Fulani ruling class family. His nephew Ibrahim Sulu Gambari is the Emir of Ilorin. Gambari attended King’s College, Lagos. He subsequently attended the London School of Economics where he obtained his B. Sc.(Economics) degree (1968) with specialisation in International Relations. He later obtained his M.A. (1970) and Ph.D(1974) degrees from Columbia University, New York, United States in Political Science /International Relations.

Gambari began his teaching career in 1969 at City University of New York before working at the University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University, in Zaria, Kaduna State. From 1986 to 1989, he was Visiting Professor at three universities in Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown University and Howard University. He has also been a research fellow at the Brookings Institution also in Washington, D.C. and a Resident Scholar at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, the Rockefeller Foundation-run center in Italy. He has written so many books and published in reputable journals in foreign policy and international relations, such as  Theory and Reality in Foreign Policy: Nigeria after second Republic. 

 Professor Gambari served as the Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985 under General Muhammadu Buhari’s military regime, after he was the director general of The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA). From 1990 to 1999, he holds the record of being the longest serving Nigerian Ambassador to the United Nations, serving under five Heads of State and Presidents.

Gambari has held several positions in the United Nations. In 1999, he was the President of UNICEF and later became UN Under Secretary-General and the first Special Adviser on Africa to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from 1999 to 2005. He was the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for Political Affairs from 2005 to 2007 under Secretary-General’s Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon. His last appointment in the UN was from January 2010 to July 2012, when he was appointed by Ban Ki-moon and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission as the Joint African Union-United Nations Special Representative for Darfur. 

In terms of outstanding and reputable ambassadors, Nigeria is not in short supply, not at all. Too many of them are still around. They are our greatest contribution to the world of diplomacy. Ambassadors don’t suffer in comparison with other top government officials. 

Nigeria is still one of the important villages of the world. 

*Eric Teniola, a former director at the Presidency, wrote from Lagos.