There are Nigerians and there are Nigerians. There are Nigerians who evoke our more circumspect, if not judgemental, nature. Brash and supercilious, those few bad eggs are, sadly, the ones that most foreigners prefer to see as the image of the “typical Nigerian”.
It has become one of my pet psychological games to watch the reaction each time I introduce myself as a Nigerian during those jamborees that come under the rubric of international diplomacy. It’s always intriguing to watch how attitudes visibly change from warm to cold and to alarming. Europeans assume you must be uppity and vain. Or plain dangerous. Africans instinctively take on a defensive posture. The more well-meaning West Africans refer to you as “big brother” in barely concealed sarcasm. Our Francophone brethren immediately begin to think of how to gang up. There’s a lot of flotsam and jetsam that one encounters in those brainless circuses.
There are Nigerians who stand out. Men and women of ‘timber and calibre’; men and women of pedigree – of culture, intellect and decorum. Historically, the Nigerian foreign service had a long tradition of bringing out such outstanding men and women. Independence foreign minister Jaja Wachuku was a diplomat of staggering intellect who won several laurels as an outstanding student of Trinity College Dublin. Among the pioneer crop of foreign service officers, Emeka Anyaoku was a man of distinction who went on to become Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations. The late Leslie Harriman could have held his own in the highest royal courts of the world. So svelte and so witty he was. One of our pioneer ambassadors in Brussels, Pius Okigbo of blessed memory, was not only the doyen of Nigerian economics; he was a polymath – historian, lawyer, economist, businessman and chess champion. Among the younger generation, Judith Attah, Lawrence Agubuzu, Ignatius Olisemeka, Bolaji Akinyemi and Ibrahim Gambari stood out among the common run.
I have gone through this rather circumlocutory route just to make a point. Our envoy in Brussels, in the person of Felix Awanbor, recently deceased, stood among the league of Nigeria’s greatest diplomats. It was with immense sorrow and shock that we learned of his passing at a Brussels hospital on Thursday, the 15th of January. For several months he had not particularly enjoyed the best of health. We used to call each other often, but towards winter and Christmas the calls became rarer. Every Christmas since he presented his credentials to the King of Belgium three years ago, he always sent us rather generous hampers. He did the same last Christmas. Having taken my annual leave in December and much of January, I regret that I was yet to send him a note to express my gratitude and to wish him and his wife Susan and family the best of 2015. Alas!
The late Felix Edobor Awanbor was born on 21st September, 1956 in Benin City, where he grew up. Being of Ishan ethnic stock, who are cousins to the great Bini people, he and myself always exchanged notes about the rich tapestry of Bini Kingdom, with our mutual love for the 800-year-old monarchy and for the person of HRH Omo n’Oba n’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Oba Erediauwa, the Oba of Benin.
Felix Awanbor studied political science at our premier University of Ibadan, graduating with an Upper 2nd in 1980. He later earned a Masters in Law and Diplomacy at the University of Lagos. He joined the Foreign Service in September 1981 and served in Tehran, Moscow, New York and Paris before being posted to Brussels. He had risen to the rank of director in the Inspectorate Division of the Foreign Service before being appointed as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Kingdom of Belgium and the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and the European Union.
I recall several discussions we had over his adventures as a young diplomat in Tehran soon after the Iranian Revolution. He gave gory accounts of the devastating war between Iran and Iraq and how, as a young diplomat, he had to deal with several young Nigerian adventurers who joined Saddam Hussein’s rag-tag army. He was also in Moscow when the Soviet Empire collapsed and Russia was plunged into economic and political chaos. Ever the diplomat, he had this uncanny ability to recall dramatic situations without betraying any emotions. All you would get is a chuckle and a soft, tender wink of the eye.
The late Ambassador Awanbor was Nigeria’s most outstanding envoy in Brussels in more than a decade. Soon after he assumed duties in Brussels, our embassy, located at the posh Avenue de Tervuren, assumed a new facelift. Always with an eye for detail, he improved the facilities at the Embassy and showed himself to be a consummate administrator. With the support of his highly able and loyal deputy chief of mission, Ambassador Rabiu Ibrahim, he reached out to the Nigerian Diaspora community. These gentlemen made us feel that we were their concern. Whenever distinguished Nigerians came to Brussels, they would arrange for us to meet with them. They did the same when President Goodluck Jonathan was in Brussels and when several ministers and personalities such as John Cardinal Onaiyekan came to the European capital.
The late Ambassador Awanbor was generous with entertainment, but was not ostentatious. He was instrumental in organising several investment missions by Belgians looking to do business with our country. He had appointed me keynote speaker during last year’s first ever Belgium-Nigeria Investment Summit. He assisted several of our bankers to access lines of credit with the mammoth European Investment Bank (EIB).
Felix Edobor Awanbor was not only an outstanding diplomat; he was a civil servant par excellence, an astute administrator, a distinguished patriot and a devoted husband and father. Of a humble disposition, he was mild-mannered and humane; loving the Lord greatly and worshipping quietly in His temple.
To me, he was not just a friend; he was a brother. De profundis ad te, Domini clamavi.
Obadiah Mailafia
