Chief Emeka Anyaoku is a former Secretary General of the Commonwealth. In this interview monitored on Arise Television, he shares his experience as a diplomat and the role he played during the Nigerian civil war, among other issues, ANAYO EZUGWU writes

Many of those who knew you as a youth said you were very logical. They extolled your interpersonal skills and suggested that you were very friendly and had virtually no enemies. That sounds like you were destined to be a diplomat…

Well, as a young man, I was very keen on social relationships. I made friends fairly easily. So, the idea that I had no enemies arose from the friendships that I made.

You later became a student union leader, which I suppose underscores that popularity at the University of Ibadan in the 1950s. And those who knew you then, said you were in the thick of discussions and debates about the political future of Nigeria. What do you recall of that pre-independence period?

I remember clearly that in 1957, incidentally, I was at the University College of Ibadan not University of Ibadan. So, the degrees we took were London University degrees.

The student union to which I belonged took a decision to send three delegations to the three national leaders, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Chief Obafemi Awolowo. I was privileged to be one of the four people who went to see Chief Awolowo in Ibadan.

We were urging at the time that Nigeria should be a unitarily governed country, unaware then of the particular challenges that a pluralistic country like Nigeria would face.

You actually campaigned for a unitary rather than a federal structure in Nigeria. What memories do you have of that seminal period in the country’s history?

I would say that the early years of independence were the golden years for Nigeria. I was privileged to be a member of the Nigerian diplomatic service. Incidentally, I was recruited into diplomatic service by the then Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa. On the day Nigeria became independent, I was in London.

I was at the time at the headquarters of the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), which was my first job. The CDC recruited me from the University College of Ibadan and sent me to London for training purposes and after that posted me to the headquarters of the CDC in London.

So, on the day of independence, I was in London, but I did join the celebration at the Royal Festival Hall. For all of us who were in the UK, it was the most exciting day and the experience of becoming independent. Becoming citizens of an independent country was one that excited all of us.

Some have suggested that beyond the immediate joy that independence brought, what the new Nigerian leadership didn’t focus on subsequently was what came after independence…

Well, at that time, the differences in the country were not very much pronounced and the three regional premiers that we had, were determined to work together.

The Prime Minister of the country, Tafawa-Balewa was a true Nigerian who tended at the time to minimize the differences between the different peoples of the country. But, of course, as time went on, the pluralism of Nigeria became increasingly apparent and that brought its own challenges.

And that was the period immediately following independence, essentially between 1960 and 1965…

Yes, or possibly I would say, between 1960 and January 1966, the period I would describe as the golden years of Nigeria, because the pace of development internally in the regions was very impressive. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate at the time was in the neighborhood of eight per cent. And then externally, Nigeria was hugely respected internationally.

At the United Nations, for example, a Nigerian was appointed the first third world commander of a UN peacekeeping force in the Congo – the late General Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi, when in 1964, the United Nations faced a major crisis arising from disagreement between the western group of countries led by the United States and the eastern group of countries led by the Soviet Union over Article 22 of the UN Charter.

Between 1960 and January 1966…the pace of development in the regions was very impressive. The GDP growth rate at the time was in the neighborhood of eight per cent

The three ambassadors who were called upon to resolve the crisis, one of them was the Nigerian ambassador. Others were Japanese and Indian ambassadors. Nigeria was a hugely respected country at the time. The Nigerian passport was respected all over the world. It was a period that I would describe as the golden years of Nigeria. And there was no sense at all that things would change politically following independence the way that they dramatically did…

At the time, there was absolutely no fear that the country would backslide as it subsequently did. I think when the military intervened in governance in January 1966 was the beginning of sliding back for Nigeria.

Looking back at your career and how you joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation as it was then known. Subsequently, you came in contact with Tafawa-Balewa, Nigeria’s prime minister at the time and he was so impressed with you. He persuaded you to join the Nigerian foreign service, after which you were posted to its permanent mission in New York. Pick up the story from there…

Well, the then chairman of CDC, Lord Hawick, was on an official visit to Nigeria and had a meeting with the Prime Minister. Lord Hawick was accompanied by the Regional Controller of CDC, Sir Peter Magnazagan, and myself as the Executive Assistant in the CDC regional office in Lagos. When we went to see the Prime Minister, he was with the Minister of Finance, Chief Festus Okotie-Ebo, and we were discussing how CDC could help Nigeria with investment.

The Prime Minister asked a number of questions about CDC-supported projects in West Africa, in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and southern Cameroon. Lord Hawick said to me, Anyaoku, you are dealing with this, will you answer the Prime Minister’s questions.

So, I answered the prime minister’s questions. At the end of the meeting, as we were leaving, the Prime Minister called me back and said, young man, you know that we still depend on British consultants and British officers. Indeed, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance, who accompanied Chief Okotie-Ebo to the meeting was an English man, Mr. Clark. And the Prime Minister said to me, you’re working for a British government institution. You should come and work for your own country. I see you as a good material in our diplomatic service. That was how I ended up in the diplomatic service.

What is particularly amazing about all this is how at that reasonably young age, you were already able to be in the presence of people like the prime minister. Is it because a lot of people who were running Nigeria were essentially quite young?

They were quite young, but in my case, I was particularly lucky because the chairman of the CDC, Lord Howick, was visiting and had to have a meeting with the Prime Minister. And I, as an Executive Assistant in the West Africa regional office in Lagos, had to accompany my Regional Controller to the meeting. So, my exposure to the prime minister was a matter of luck.

In 1966, if I’m correct, you joined the Commonwealth Secretariat as Assistant Director of International Affairs. Did you leave the Nigerian Foreign Service at that point?

No, I didn’t quite leave the Nigerian Foreign Service. In fact, what happened was that in November 1965, the first Commonwealth Secretary General, Arnold Smith of Canada, visited Nigeria, and in a conversation with the prime minister, he said he was keen to build up the newly established Commonwealth Secretariat, a team of Commonwealth diplomats, who, he would help him make nonsense of the myth of racial superiority. So, he said he wanted a Nigerian Foreign Service officer of the middle rank, who would help him in that respect.

That was how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked by the prime minister’s office to submit three names that the prime minister would decide on. Three names were given to the prime minister and he said, send Anyaoku. That was how I went to the Commonwealth Secretariat, initially on secondment from the Nigerian Diplomatic Service.

So, the prime minister was very pivotal in your development?

Yes, he was. He was persuaded by the first Commonwealth Secretary General, who said he needed a Nigerian who would help him establish that people of different races were equal. And the prime minister thought that I would fulfil that.

That was why and how I got seconded to the Commonwealth Secretariat Between 1968 and 1969, there was a campaign by the military government of General Yakubu Gowon to recall you from the Commonwealth, saying you were not a suitable Nigerian nominee because they were anxious about your loyalty to Nigeria.

But the Commonwealth ignored that request… Well, the Commonwealth Secretary General took a principled position that all the Commonwealth staff in the Secretariat owed a collective allegiance to all the Commonwealth countries and not to individual member countries of the Commonwealth.

That was a result of the fact that during the crisis, all Foreign Service officers of Igbo extraction were required to take oath of allegiance to the federal government. I found it a little difficult to do so because I said that the Federal Government had not protected the Igbos in Northern Nigeria and the pogrom had taken place and all that.

So, the government in Lagos quite rightly said that if I couldn’t take an oath of allegiance to the Federal Government, they no longer trusted me completely. The Secretary General took what I described as a principled position, and in the end, I was allowed to stay in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Between 1968 and 1969, there was a campaign by the military government of General Yakubu Gowon to recall you from the Commonwealth, saying you were not a suitable Nigerian nominee because they were anxious about your loyalty to Nigeria. But the Commonwealth ignored that request…

Well, the Commonwealth Secretary General took a principled position that all the Commonwealth staff in the Secretariat owed a collective allegiance to all the Commonwealth countries and not to individual member countries of the Commonwealth.

That was a result of the fact that during the crisis, all Foreign Service officers of Igbo extraction were required to take oath of allegiance to the federal government. I found it a little difficult to do so because I said that the Federal Government had not protected the Igbos in Northern Nigeria and the pogrom had taken place and all that.

So, the government in Lagos quite rightly said that if I couldn’t take an oath of allegiance to the Federal Government, they no longer trusted me completely. The Secretary General took what I described as a principled position, and in the end, I was allowed to stay in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Nigeria was in the thick of the civil war by that time. How did that war unfold for you but you were involved in organising peace talks between Nigeria and Biafran representatives?

That is so because the interesting thing was that the first international attempt to broker peace between Nigeria and Biafra was made by the Commonwealth Secretary General, who invited Nigeria and Biafran governments to send delegates to come and discuss the possibility of a ceasefire and peace.

At that time, the interesting thing was that the Nigerian and Biafran delegates would come to my house independently, of course, because my wife is a Yoruba lady, and we had friends across Nigeria and Biafra.

When the Secretary General put a proposal for ceasefire; I remember the Biafran delegation was led by late Sir Louis Mbanefo and he had people like Chritopher Mojekwu and others with him. I called Mojekwu, who was a very close confidant of Emeka Ojukwu. I said: How would you think your boss would react to this? Mojekwu said to me, there was no way Ojukwu would agree to those proposals. And I said, in that case, Emeka and I are friends, I would like to go and talk to him.

He said, you probably are the only person who could talk to him about that. So, in the middle of the civil war, I went to Biafra. I went on one of the Mercy flights from Amsterdam to Lisbon and Sao Tome to Uli Airport. It was a very hair-raising experience for me.

I remember when I told the Secretary General that I would like to go and see Ojukwu and talk to him about the proposal, he said to me, that’s very dangerous. I mean, I wouldn’t send you there. But if you decide to go on your own, that’s your own decision. I said, yes and I did go and I did have a chat with Ojukwu. When we were coming to land at Uli Airport, the lights were switched off and suddenly the lights on the ground came on and we could see that.

We landed at midnight and immediately we landed, the lights went off. So, we taxied in total darkness. And when, after three days, I returned to London, it was also equally hair-raising because I returned via Gabon in an aircraft that had no seats because the aircraft was a relief plane.

I read somewhere that you had to duck under tables or something because you came under fire…

My first morning in Umuahia; I was talking with the Biafran Foreign Minister then, Matthew Mbu, and his permanent secretary, Godwin Onyegbula.

Then all of a sudden, the Nigerian Air Force bombers flying overhead, obviously bombing areas in Biafra, and we had to duck under the table. It was both my first and my only experience of the war because after the three-day visit to Biafra, I never went back to Biafra until the end of the war.

The war ended in 1970 and you remained in the Commonwealth until 1983, when you were appointed Nigeria’s Foreign Minister by the Shehu Shagari administration. But before then, you had encountered General Gowon at the end of that war…

Yes. In April 1972, the Commonwealth Secretary-General sent me as his special envoy to heads of states of the Commonwealth in West Africa to persuade them on the issue of recognising Bangladesh, which emerged as a country as a result of a war between India and Pakistan.

I went first to the Gambia, met the president; went to Sierra Leone, met the president; went to Ghana, met the then head of state, General Acheampong, and then came to Nigeria and met with General Gowon.

And when I came to Nigeria, the week I arrived, the Daily Times had had an editorial that Nigeria must not recognise Bangladesh because Bangladesh had been East Pakistan.

Of course, the Daily Times was seen as the official newspaper, the government sort of newspaper but it had tremendous influence on the thinking in the foreign affairs and the Nigerian government. Daily Times had taken the position that Bangladesh was a result of secession and Nigeria had fought a civil war to prevent secession, which was a very valid point of view.

So, during my meeting with General Gowon, I tried to persuade him by telling him that all Commonwealth governments had agreed to recognise Bangladesh and Commonwealth decisions were taken by consensus and consensus meant that anybody who disagreed would be prepared to leave with the majority position without necessarily supporting the position.

General Gowon eventually said to me, all right, if all the rest of the Commonwealth agreed to recognize Bangladesh, Nigeria would go along, but not to support it, but we will live with it. That was how at the end of the meeting with General Gowon had the foreign minister, the permanent secretary minister of foreign affairs, and Gowon’s principal secretary, Ambassador Hamzat Hamadou, General Gowon said he wanted to talk to me alone.

So, the rest left and General Gowon said to me, Mr. Anyaoku, during crisis you did not support our national government, why? I said to him, Your Excellency, I thank you for the way, which you put the question to me and I owe it to you to answer. Sir, you know I was in London and was getting the reports about the killings and massacre of Igbos in Northern Nigeria. I expected that the least the Federal Government would do is to condemn it and go further by taking steps to prevent it or stop it but this did not happen.

So, I lost fate in my Federal Government but at the end of the civil war, you restored my fate in my country by the unprecedented policy of No Victor No Vanquish. That was a very impressive policy and that completely restored my fate in my country. General Gowon said to me, well, I have heard that you are a very principled man and you just showed it to me.