Former Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ambassador in Moscow and the Hague, Ambassador Jibrin Chinade gives his impressions of Chief Emeka Anyaoku in this interview by LEON USIGBE.
What would you say is the kind of relationship you share with Chief Emeka Anyaoku?
I think the first thing I will say is that we were all Foreign Service officers. He joined the Foreign Service in 1962. I joined the Foreign Service in 1964. So, he was my senior in the ministry. Later on, when he joined, he was special assistant to our then permanent secretary, Francis Nwokedi, and was later posted to New York, United Nations Office, our Permanent Representative office in New York under Chief debo Adefuye. I was then working in the ministry. And then, I was posted to London in 1965. He was appointed from New York by the then Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as assistant director in the Commonwealth Office when The Commonwealth was established in London then, and he came over from New York to London. I was then a young Second Secretary, and he was working in the Commonwealth Office, then as a Nigerian Foreign Service officer or Nigerian diplomat. I was a young officer then working in the High Commission as Second Secretary, Political which covered my schedule in the new Commonwealth Office. So, I’ve known the Chief since 1966, which is a long time indeed, and from then on, of course, the long story which would later develop.
From your knowledge of him, what kind of person is Chief Anyaoku?
Chief Anyaoku is a very simple person to describe. He is straightforward, honest, disciplined, dedicated, with a lot of intellect, an erudite scholar, as a diplomat, and later on, I will say as a politician, but he is first and foremost a very nice person to know and work with. He’s so cultivated, so cultured, so polite. I worked with the Chief as a member of the Presidential Advisory Council; we were appointed by the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in 2000. The president organised that council called the Presidential Advisory Council to advise him on matters of foreign policy and international relations. Our chairman was Chief Emeka Anyaoku. And I think about seven or eight of us: Professor Jide Oshuntokun, Joy Ogwu, Ambassador B.A. Clark, and so many others with the full secretariat at the Federal Secretariat. So, from 2000, up to 2015, we worked very closely with the chief as our then chairman, and I was a member of that council. So, I worked very closely with him. We established extremely good personal official relations with the chief, and which is still existing today.
You were both long-term diplomats. Looking at his contributions as a top Nigerian diplomat, what would you say is his impact for Nigeria, for foreign relations?
You have to divide into, I will say, two or three stages. First, when he came in as a Foreign Service Officer in 1962. He was personally selected by the then Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. They met at an official meeting of the Commonwealth Development Association. And he was there working with the Commonwealth Development Office. The Prime Minister was so impressed with the chief. He said, young Emeka, why don’t you join the Nigerian Foreign Service? Nigeria then was independent from 1960. We are talking of 1962. So, the chief came in as a Foreign Service officer, and was also selected by then Permanent Secretary, Chief Francis Nwokedi, as his personal assistant. He was posted to the United Nations to work under Chief Simon Adebo, who was one of the best administrators this country has ever produced. Then, he came into the Commonwealth Office as an assistant director and rose to the rank of Secretary General. He was elected by all the 54 members of the Commonwealth, the first African to hold that post, for 10 years. So, you can see his distinction as an excellent administrator, excellent diplomat, and excellent representative of his country, Nigeria.
If you have to look back to his time as Commonwealth Secretary General, what would you say were his most impactful contributions?
Absolutely, I think he made the greatest contributions when he was elected as Secretary General in 1989 at the Kuala Lumpur conference, by the heads of state. He defeated John Malcolm Fraser, the then Prime Minister of Australia, which was a great achievement. He was supported by Margaret Thatcher (of (Britain). He was supported by all the members of the Commonwealth at that conference, and he was elected as the third Secretary General of the organisation. He did very well for five years, and he was also re-elected after five years for a second term as Secretary General. During that period, he consolidated and defined the roles of the Commonwealth under what you called the Harare Declaration. He came up with the Harare Declaration, which emphasised good governance, accountability, anti corruption, leadership, and democracy. This was what the Harare Declaration was all about. And he wanted to sell this philosophy, this notion, this mission to all members of the Commonwealth, because he also worked very hard for the liberation of Southern Africa. He was very instrumental to the independence of Zimbabwe. He worked very closely with Margaret Thatcher. Yes, Margaret Thatcher! He worked very closely with her; he worked very closely with then Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, late Queen Elizabeth, who was then the head of the Commonwealth, and they were able to find a solution to the situation in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe was then under Ian Smith, but he was able to transfer the country to Dr. Robert Mugabe as an independent, sovereign country for all people of Zimbabwe. Later on, he worked very hard on Angola; he worked very hard on South Africa. His greatest contribution really was his work with the Eminent Persons Group, which was led by General Olusegun Obasanjo. They worked very hard on Nelson Mandela, South Africa, Frederik de Klerk, and they were able to really negotiate a peaceful transition of power in South Africa, from the white people, the apartheid white rulers making South Africa a democratic country. That was his greatest achievement.
Finally, what lessons can modern day crop of Foreign Service personnel and Nigerians in general take from his life?
I think they can learn a lot. Yes. People can learn a lot from the chief. First and foremost, he’s very humble. With all his achievements, his political success, his diplomatic niceties and excellent relationship with all the world leaders, he has always been humble, simple and polite to everybody. He was an excellent chairman. He was our chairman for 15 years on the Presidential Advisory Council, and the chief would always be the first man to be at the meeting. You can imagine then he was over 80. He would be the first person to open the meeting whenever we were called. Some people would come late with all sorts of excuses, but Chief Emeka Anyaoku would be there to start his meeting at the time scheduled for it. I think Nigerians can learn a lot, first and foremost, self discipline. He is somebody who has cultivated a lot of inner strength in himself, to discipline himself to what is right and what is wrong. He’s somebody the young generation can learn how to be polite from. He’s always an extremely nice person to deal with. I’ve never seen the chief in any angry mood. He will always find a way to convince you or to disagree with you, but he will put it in a way that you yourself will feel humble that you are talking to somebody who is extremely a good person.
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