Ambassador Bola Dada
Ambassador Bola Dada shares his experiences in international affairs as a former diplomat with ADEOLA BALOGUN and JESUSEGUN ALAGBE
When did you retire and how are you spending your time now?
I retired from the federal civil service
in June 2009, and since my retirement, I have been working in the farm. I
am a farmer as well as a consultant. I consult for people on oil and
gas and on any business connected to any of the countries where I worked
before. I provide information and materials to anybody who is
interested in businesses in such countries like Iran, which is the last
country I was posted to. I am now into snail farming.
Apart from Iran, where else did you serve?
I started my posting with what was called
attachment in those days. When I joined the federal service, it was
still very fine and well organised. I joined in 1976, just four months
after my National Youth Service Corp. The country was still nice then.
In fact, by the time we finished, jobs were already waiting for us. Then
we were divided into three groups. Some of us that had degrees in
Political Science were sent straight to the Institute of International
Affairs to obtain a diploma in International Missions. That was when
Professor Bolaji Akinyemi was the Director General and late Alhaji
Abubakar Rimi was Executive Secretary. We spent about one year in the
institution to become full-fledged diplomats. Some of us were sent
straight on attachments to various missions. We were about six. Others
were retained at the headquarters. My first attachment was supposed to
be for one year, but I spent 15 months, and that was in Madrid, Spain.
While in Madrid, I also covered the Vatican because countries didn’t
normally send their envoys to the Vatican directly as you could not have
two ambassadors in a country. We had an ambassador in Rome, but an
ambassador in Rome could not cover the Vatican. They were two different
entities. So, it was our mission in Spain that covered the Vatican.
After that I came back to our headquarters. I was posted to the Passport
Office in Abeokuta. By that time, our ministry was considering how to
hand over the Passport Office to the Immigration. So 12 of us were sent
to 12 states as Passport Control Officers. I was the Passport Control
Officer for Ogun State. Then passport officers were sent to their states
of origin.
Where were your next overseas postings?
My next overseas postings were to
Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies, then to Morocco, and from
Morocco, I was posted to Sudan. I was chased out of Sudan for knowing
and talking too much. I was then sent to Uganda. From Uganda, I covered
Rwanda and Burundi. Funny enough, right from when I was in Morocco, I
had always been the deputy head of missions, even as a junior officer.
In Trinidad and Tobago, for instance, I was the second-in-command even
though I was a junior officer. From Uganda, I was sent to Iran which was
my last posting. So you could see that out of the six countries that I
covered, I was made to serve in three Arab/Islamic countries, which you
could say was a deliberate way of turning me into an Arabian and Islamic
expert by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – which was not supposed to
be so. Also, I was made to serve in three African countries which was
not supposed to be. Normally, a diplomat is not supposed to serve in one
continent twice, let alone three times. I was not supposed to be sent
to Sudan when I was posted there. I started from Spain (Europe), then to
the West Indies (America), then to Morocco (Africa); then to Sudan
(another African country).
So, why were you sent to Sudan?
I could not explain it. In fact, at a
stage, the Minister of Foreign Affairs then, Alhaji Sule Lamido, tried
to offer some explanations. He said he believed it was an act of
carelessness or sloppy attitude of some officers in the administration
department. Otherwise, if they had been doing their work well, they
should have seen my posting records. Since I had served in Morocco, I
should never have been sent to other African countries, especially an
Islamic country. Since I once served in Morocco, an Islamic country, why
did they send me to another African and Islamic country? Lamido said,
“Dada, don’t worry, I will make redress. Now tell me as we are now any
country of your choice. I know they have robbed you and I am ready to
intervene in my capacity as the Foreign Affairs minister. Right here on
this desk, I can post you to any country you like. Just mention it.”
When he gave me the offer, I told him, “Your Excellency, don’t worry.
They might have posted me out of wickedness or sloppiness, but I believe
it is the work of God. Nothing happens to a man that God does not know.
Don’t worry yourself; I don’t blame any officer. So I am ready to stay
here. I want to fulfill that purpose.” Besides, I had been there for
barely six months; so if he had sent me somewhere else, it would have
affected my family, especially my children. They were yet to settle
down, just adapting. They were little then. He wanted to compensate me
by posting me to the United States, but for my children, I stayed.
Was it the government of Sudan that was worried that you knew too much and therefore sent you out?
That is why the minister also thought of
making such explanations and to offering consolation… maybe out of
complaints from the northern elements from within and outside the office
because the ambassador was an Islamic fundamentalist from Kano. In
fact, he boasted that he was in total control because he was the
stenographer to the late Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello. The embassy
was single-handedly opened by the Sardauna with the help of Mohammadu
Ribadu. So the ambassador believed the embassy was his legacy and that
of the Hausas and Muslims. In fact, Sudan was our first embassy after
Britain and New York. Sudan was next after those two countries because
it was the main focus of the Sardauna and the Hausa/Fulani Muslims. If
you look at the map, Sudan is enroute to Mecca. It is the shortest route
to Mecca from Kano. So it was a strategic Islamic portal for the
Hausa/Fulani Muslims. As a result, at that time when late Chief Obafemi
Awolowo and Nnamdi Azikwe both focused on London and opened their
embassies there, Sardauna opened his own in Sudan. He had no interest in
the West but in the Islam/Arab world. The building was a four-storey
structure; it served as an embassy and hotel to pilgrims. He stayed more
in that hotel in those days. As a result, most of our ambassadors were
Hausas and Muslims.
Did you have any clash with the Head of Mission there, or what really happened?
There was a clash of interest. I was
doing what I was supposed to do as a diplomat – to send political and
economic reports. And when he was not around, I also sent ambassadorial
dispatch. But whenever he was around, I was expected to pass my reports
through him as the Head of Mission. I did not care he had no clue about
diplomacy because before he became I went to Sudan in 2000 and met him
there. Anytime I sent my reports through him, which was quite
professional, he would pick holes in them, even though I had experience
in International Affairs for 24 years. He would pick a quarrel and sit
on it because it was always different from his own expectation. As an
ambassador, he too was expected to write reports. Ambassadors used to
send dispatch two or three times in a week but political reports were
sent once in two months or so. At times, he would send my reports to the
host country which was not allowed in international diplomacy Due to
this clash between us, I was sent out for my safety and that of my
children because later, I became a target of the host country. They
could have framed me or eliminated me. So it was going on like that
until a director in the African affairs then visited and reported the
case to the ministry. So it was Ambassador Femi George who advised that I
should be sending my reports to the headquarters but that I should
still give him my drafts.
Did you discover anything inimical to the interest of Nigeria in the reports of your boss?
Many! He was actually being selective in
his reports. At that time, the war between the Northern and Southern
Sudan was on and he was always behind the North who were Muslims. I
discovered he was pro-Northern Sudan. He picked whatever he liked, never
giving the true picture. On two or three occasions, former President
Olusegun Obasanjo invited him and asked if he was still Nigria’s
ambassador. He asked him how many embassies Sudan had. At that time
also, Sanni Yerima, former governor of Zamfara State was in Sudan for
two weeks and underwent indoctrination. He was exposed to all the
training camps of Osama Bin Laden, who was my neighbour. In fact, Osama
Bin Laden’s office in Sudan was just a few blocks away from our embassy.
No report was made. Our embassy never reported Osama Bin Laden. In
addition to having his headquarters in Sudan, Osama Bin Laden also had
many firms and industries which he only used as a façade because he was
actually using those firms as training camps for Al-Qaeda. Among his
trainees were many Nigerians from the North. They would leave Nigeria as
if they were going to study but were at the training camps of Osama Bin
Laden. I got wind of all these things and told them, but my reports
were dismissed. It was a policy of “see nothing, say nothing” because
they were working for Muslims. They were not able to draw the line
between Arabisation and Islamisation. What Sudan was practising was both Arabisation and Islamisation
which led to the breakaway of the South from the North. That was the
dangerous part of it which was also my major concern. In fact, that was
the main concern of Mo Ibrahim, the richest Sudanese. That’s why it
pained him seriously up till now that Sudan must not have divided just
because of religion. And it’s one of the reasons why he established the
Mo Ibrahim prize. That is the motive behind the prize. Up till today,
the man is still pained.
Are you saying what was being practised in Sudan was exported into Nigeria?
When Sudan came under pressure during the
US Bill Clinton era, they sent Bin Laden away. Osama Bin Laden had
established himself there. In fact, one of his wives was the daughter of
the Speaker. So when Sudan was under pressure to send Osama Bin Laden
away, he decided to divide his Al-Qaeda army into three; he took the
first team to Afghanistan and kept the second team in Sudan; the third
group he sent out to be disturbing the whole world, including Magreb
which is close to Mali, Chad and Niger. I raised an alarm in 2001 that
Al-Qaeda was in Nigeria – that Al-Qaeda had penetrated Nigeria through
Chad. You know Chad has a border with Borno State. We have about eight
million Nigerians in Sudan: people who settled there after pilgrimage.
Many who couldn’t reach Saudi Arabia just settled there. And Al-Bashir
(Sudanese president) was a descendant of Borno State. I reported all
these, including the fact that Yerima was there at that time but I was
ignored. Yerima got back to Nigeria and the following day, he declared
Sharia. And from then, they were sending students for Jihadist training.
Then when I got wind of the distribution of Osama Bin Laden Al-Qaeda
groups, I reported. I told them to check our borders between Mali,
Niger, and Chad – that Al-Qaeda was on the move. It got to a stage that
it became evident that my report was becoming a concern to our permanent
secretary then who incidentally had intelligence security background as
a former director of the Nigeria Intelligence Agency. His name is
Ambassador Heart. He brought in his NIA background into the Foreign
Service. He knew what was sensitive and newsworthy. So he took the case
seriously and played his part. But instead of our government sending
inspectors were to check the veracity of my reports, they didn’t do
that; they would just call the NIA man there who was also a Borno man
who would refute anything I said. He would tell them not to mind me
because I was a Christian and a religious bigot. In fact, he said
Obasanjo deliberately sent me there to spy on the ambassador. That was
how they usually dismissed my reports.
What did Obasanjo do when he got wind of your reports?
I wouldn’t know what he did but I guess
some of the reports did not get to him. One of such was about a Sudanese
consulate in Kano who spent 50 years as a consul-general in Nigeria.
That is not allowed, but in the case of Sudan, because of the close
relationship with Ahmadu Bello and Muhammadu Ribadu, they allowed Sudan
to open a honorary consulate in Kano and instead of putting a Nigerian
there, they put a Sudanese. I drew attention to this anomaly and by the
time I left the place in December 2001 before I was sent out to Uganda,
the Sudanese man was spending his 50th year there as a consul-general in
Nigeria. Where does that happen? I knew of it from a Sudanese official
himself at one party at the Ghanaian embassy. I sent a report asking why
they would allow a consul-general to spend 50 years in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, his activities had nothing to do with consular job; it was
mainly for Islamic purposes. That is why Sudan is being kept on the US
watch list as a terrorist country. And this is a country that our
country is romancing.
Do you see a link between the Boko Haram insurgency and what happened then?
There is a lot. As far as I am concerned,
Boko Haram is an offshoot of Sharia. Meanwhile, in 2001, I learnt from a
Southern Sudanese while I was there that at Khartoum sometime in 1994,
some Sudanese officials were lamenting that the then presidents of
Nigeria were not radical Muslims; they were lamenting that the golden
days of Islam had gone. They were not happy that General Ibrahim
Babangida and Muhammadu Buhari did not follow in the footsteps of Ahmadu
Bello. So they planned on strategising again. They went to Kano to do
that. Whatever the strategy they made that time, there is a link to what
is happening now. Meanwhile, Babangida compensated them by dragging
Nigeria to the Organisation of Islamic Countries, still they were not
satisfied. Also, there was a kind of covenant between Sudan and Libya to
destabilise Nigeria to promote Islamisation. So, what is happening to President Goodluck Jonathan now may have something to do with that pact. They call it Afikaya, a
doctrine that all African states must be governed by Muslims only.
Gaddafi fought for it rigorously before he died – that all African
presidents must be Muslims and in any African country where by error a
Christian is there, they should make life difficult for that person
until he is deposed. I got wind of it in one document. I read it with my
eyes that all African countries must be governed by Muslims and any
country that is mistakenly being ruled by a Christian, they should make
life difficult for him. They said it’s the injunction of the Quran. I
read it. Boko Haram insurgency may have stemmed from such injunctions
and as a result of the faulty policy of ambassadorial appointment and
deployment. According to the Nigerian Constitution, ambassadorial
appointment must be 75 per cent career-oriented and 25 per cent
political. Ambassadorial jobs should be given to people who have
experiences related to such jobs, not just anybody. That’s the
constitution which was violated many times. In fact, the greatest
violator was Babangida.
How?
He made a level 10 officer an ambassador
at that time when we had level 15, 16, 17 officers. How could you make a
level 10 or 12 officer an ambassador? It’s wrong. He made Ladan Baki, a
level 12 officer an ambassador simply because it was the man that saved
his life. Baki was an NIA man who leaked out to Babangida the plan of
Buhari to sack him. That’s why he compensated him. Otherwise, Babangida
would have been sacked and forgotten today. Another violation is that he
appointed a Muslim as an ambassador to the Vatican. How could you make
an Alhaji to be an ambassador to the Vatican? He also appointed late
Saka Fagbo to Saudi Arabia because the man had terminal ailment and as a
Muslim, he believed that once he died in Saudi Arabia, it’s
Aljanastraight; and he gave directive that he must be buried in Saudi.
Is that the purpose of ambassadorial appointment? So, many of these
people go there for something else rather than performing ambassadorial
duties. That’s why we have all these problems today.
Did you choose to go to Iran?
I never chose to go there. I don’t know
why they deliberately posted me to Iran, after serving in three
Arab/Islamic countries. I am a Christian but I was sent to Islamic
countries to serve.
Was there any religious affinity between Northern Nigeria and Iran like what you observed with Sudan?
Actually, I did not stay long there. I
did not really have the time to find out. But I think there is a bond
between Nigeria and Iran too because exactly one year after I made my
concern known, that was the time when the security operatives arrested
some men smuggling containers of arms into the country from Iran.
What do you think Nigeria can do about the Boko Haram issue?
It has its roots in Sudan and has
connections with Libya. So, let’s start to tackle it from the root. I
think the government is already doing something about it through the
help of France, because most of these countries are Francophone
countries. If they would not listen to us, they would listen to France.
By the time France talks to countries like Cameroon, something good will
come out. Let’s deal with the problem from the root. We need France’s
assistance. Our traditional and political rulers should also change
their bullish mindsets about Nigeria. Also, no part of the country
should think they can bully the other parts or that it’s their right to
rule the other parts.
Are you aware if the Sudanese consul-general who celebrated his 50th anniversary is still there in Kano?
That should be the work of the State
Security Service. I left the place in 2001. But I am sure the SSS should
know. At a time, that man was used for a different purpose apart from
being a consular. They were operating an airline then – Sudan Air, which
apart from carrying passengers, was also a cargo airline. I don’t know
what they were carrying. I raised the dust to investigate, but I don’t
know if they are still operating.
Do you think the National Conference can solve all these issues?
I believe so, if they would allow it.
That’s why some people are working against it. Like I told you, when
Nigeria was amalgamated, it was born out of bad faith and evil spirit
which is still hunting us today. Nigeria is a product of evil spirit.
When Lord Luggard amalgamated us, he didn’t plan to build a nation, but
to build a colony to loot for the benefit of Britain. When the Nigerian
politicians took over, they continued with that spirit. The spirit
entered our politicians and that’s why our politicians loot today. Our
problem is not leadership, it’s our weak foundation. No one can govern
Nigeria successfully now because of the faulty foundation. So the
foundation has to be pulled down before we can see any way out. The
confab is the only way out for Nigeria.
Do you think Nigerians can live together?
We have always been living in peace, so
we can. Once the evil spirit is chased out, we can. All these issues
must be addressed at the National Conference before any progress can be
made. But strangely, many of the people who are at the conference are
old people. I don’t know what they are doing there.
How did your job then affect your family?
My family was always safe. They were not
really affected. Government made provision for them. They went to
American schools there. So they were not negatively affected.
Compare your life as an ambassador to life now as a farmer
I thank God. Now, I’m able to stay with
my people and family. I have time to come closer to God now through my
church. I know my church and they know me too. Now as a farmer, I eat
organic food; food that are natural and fresh. I enjoy my life better
now.
0 comments:
Post a Comment