Ahead of his 80th birthday on Tuesday, former Nigerian Ambassador to Germany, Prof. Akinjide Osuntokun, reminisces on his life as a lecturer, a diplomat, an author and member of the Canadian Society of African Affairs conferred with Presidential Honour of Equatorial Guinea among others. He spoke with GBENGA ADERANTI
.Recalls ugly encounter with Ojukwu, Ogundokun in Germany
.Says my wife’s death at 53 nearly destroyed me
How do you feel to be 80?
Well, I feel great. I thank God that I’m in good health, reasonably good health, with a sound mind and sound body. To God be the glory.
In retrospect, what would you have done differently?
It is very difficult to say, because I’m a man of faith. I always believe God has a plan for all of us, for each person in this life. If I say I would have preferred to live a different life, I would not be talking like a man of faith. But as a human being, there are many mistakes one makes along the line.
I would have probably preferred to be a professional, a lawyer or something like that, so that I can be independent of the government.
I will be on my own, not looking forward to anybody paying salaries or things like that. I always feel it is better to be, especially in a country like our own, you need to be a professional.
But apart from that, I won’t say I have any regret. Whatever one has done in this life, without sounding a bit pessimistic, I think it is preordained.
I entered the University of Ibadan to read Geography, and on registering, I met an old-boy of Christ School, Ado-Ekiti: the late Mr. Ogundana.
He was a PhD student when I was registering for my undergraduate degree. He told me that the head of the department was the only professor in the Department of Geography then.
He said the man was a racist, who did not believe that any African could make anything higher than Second Class Upper, and that no African could make First Class in Geography. He asked me, “Is this the kind of department you want to come to? If you have any other option, go and register there.”
I looked at the whole thing because this is honest advice, and I went to register in the Department of History. I see what he did for me as an instrument of divine direction, because if I had read Geography, I would not have been an expert in International Relations.
I would have ended up possibly a professor of Geography and that would have been it. I wouldn’t have had the kind of rich life which I had in being an expert in History, Diplomacy and International Relations.
I could see the hands of God moving me towards the area he wanted me to be, so I have no regret.
You said you would have preferred to be on your own. Does that mean you detest paid employment?
In the context of Nigeria, where the salaries the professors and lecturers earn cannot take you home. The salaries are very poor. You can’t have a satisfactory life if you don’t have money.
When we see our colleagues in other professions, particularly in Law, and to be a lawyer, all that you need to do is to have a liberal educational background which we had, and I see the tons of money that lawyers make. So one would have been probably more materially fulfilled than what one has.
Of course, I know that money is not everything. Journalism is also a good idea. If you are a good journalist, you can survive on your own without being into paid employment.
At least you can start a newspaper of your own.
At the time people like us graduated, the sky was the limit for any profession. If you were a good journalist and you were good at it, you could make a good living. Of course, now things are different; journalists have to be in paid employment.
You must have had your own life’s toss and twist story; I would like you to relive some.
I have many. When I was growing up, I was the last child of a family of eight. My mother had eight children and I was the last one. My elder brother was a minister under Awolowo-Akintola administration.
It was the peak of the crisis of Action Group in 1961-62. I entered University of Ibadan in 1963 at the height of the crisis when Chief Awolowo faced treasonable felony trial.
My brother went with the Akintola faction, and generally, it was very unpopular with the students’ generation at the University of Ibadan, and I was a victim of all kinds of snide remarks, all kinds of abuse, all kinds of nicknames.
It was really surprising to me because I had no hands in it and I didn’t participate in politics. I was only connected through blood relations.
Large populations of the students did not spare me. That really made me unhappy because I don’t believe that a child should be blamed for the crisis that was going on at that time.
I had my lows.
Of course in life, when I grew up, I was determined to be a successful person academically. My target was to be a professor and, thank God, I have been one. My target was to write books, thank God, I have written a couple.
But I have been in the valley, because when I lost my wife in 2003, she was only 53 or thereabout. She was somebody I shared my youth, my successes, and for her to just be snatched away by death nearly destroyed me.
I remember a sister of mine got really angry with me, saying I wanted to commit suicide because my wife had died.
Not literarily but because she felt I was too melancholic. Her death really affected me and it made me withdraw to myself. And to begin to enjoy the life of solitude and almost enjoying being lonely, I don’t think it was good for me. But I thank God that it is almost 20 years now and I have survived it.
There were attempts to persuade me to marry another woman, but it wouldn’t have been fair to the memory of my wife, nor would it have been fair to the person I would have married, because I would have been comparing the two of them.
But I thank God it made me bury myself in my writing, my commitment to whatever the activity I enjoyed, especially writing. I have had a few problems being able to speak the truth to power. Abacha put me away for six months in military detention in Apapa, for speaking the truth.
The truth I spoke was if he continued with the policy he was pursuing at home, the government of Nigeria would have problems and we would pay dearly for it. And that was the truth and it became a prophecy. At the end of the day, they couldn’t go anywhere.
His ministers couldn’t go anywhere except North Korea. They didn’t like the criticism and I paid dearly for it.
I nearly died in the military detention for doing nothing than giving public lecture and writing. These were the lows, but time is a healer, I have almost forgotten all about that now.
But I have had successes for anybody that has been following the trajectory of my career. I have been an ambassador to one of the most important countries in the world, Germany, thanks to the late Admiral Aikhomu, General Nwachukwu and (former) President Ibrahim Babangida.
Without the three of them, I don’t think I would have been an ambassador, because they were ones who had the power to decide what anybody could get.
Of course, I was a ministerial adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before I became and ambassador.
For 11 years, I served with Chief Emeka Anyaoku and four others as honorary presidential adviser on international affairs from 1999 to 2015. Of course, I wasn’t paid any salary; it was an honorary assignment. It was the closest one could get to helping the country to make its foreign policy, and I’m very proud of it.
How do you react to challenges?
Throughout my life, I never lobbied for any job. I always believe that my work and my aptitude would speak for me. I believe in excellence. As I said before, I’m a man of faith. I believe God has endowed me with some attributes which not many people have.
When I go to interview for job, I always believe that unless a person is totally biased against me, he cannot but give me the job, because I don’t believe any human being can ask me any question, whether in the liberal arts, social sciences or even in the sciences, that I would not be able to cope with.
I read extensively and I try to master every detail. So, whatever the challenge I have, I believe I can conquer it if you give me the opportunity.
I also try to educate myself. This is why I said I don’t lobby for any job.
I believe that whatever work I have done, if dispassionately looked at, will speak for me. Whatever the assignment that I have been given, I have done it with all the excellence God has endowed me with.
Whatever the challenges that face any man, you can conquer them. I have been to many places many people will not believe.
Shortly after the Angolan crisis in 1988, I and one Ambassador Subair were sent to Angola to carry some messages to the Angolan government, and we actually went to the war front to see the areas that were devastated by the South African troops. There I saw thousands of human skulls in a place called Cuito Cuanavale.
I have had my own narrow escapes, of course. During the ECOMOG operation in West Africa too, I was an adviser to General Nwachukwu.
We went to Burkina Faso at that time, to Liberia, to Sierra Leone, at the war front to see what was going on, and we had to travel in a presidential plane that no one could guarantee the security of those aircraft. But thank God, as I said before, one went through all that and one was able to survive.
There are no challenges man cannot conquer if one is determined and if one is a man of faith.
Let us go back to your detention experience. What is that thing you would not forget while you were being held by the DMI?
It was terrible. There was one interesting example which I as a student of International Affairs would always remember. There was this young fellow from Ivory Coast, who was accused of spying for his government. He was brought to the detention centre.
I don’t know what he did, he was shot in the leg and his leg was broken. The thing that kept coming to me was that if this man, a diplomat, you don’t arrest a diplomat and shoot him in detention.
This would create an international crisis. I don’t know what eventually became of him. Eventually, he disappeared. I don’t know whether he died and was secretly buried.
There were quite a few people who I was in detention with and would suddenly be taken away, either early in the morning or in the night and we would never see them again. Following day, we would hear that they were facing trial in the military court.
I started wondering because I didn’t know why I was detained. I started wondering whether some people were planning a coup and put my name as part of the regime whether as a minister and adviser of which I wasn’t consulted.
I started wondering what really could have been my offence. I knew I was critical of the government, but to be in a military detention was a bit frightening.
There, we were not being fed. I was there with almost 100 soldiers from the rank of brigadiers to lieutenant colonels, lieutenants and captains, and perhaps majors, whom I learnt were members of a course when they were in the military institution.
I was in the middle of them. There were a few business people who were told had embezzled money or something.
Some kinds of crazy things were happening.
We were not fed. There was no provision for our feeding and there was no way my people could smuggle money to me to feed myself. The Commandant of the detention was Lt. Col Frank Omenka. Apparently, the man was from Delta State.
I learnt later that he ran away when Abacha died and he had an oil business in Brazil. I think he has since remained in Brazil; he hasn’t come back home.
Though we were not being fed, money had to be smuggled in to buy us food. There was some kind of kitchen in the detention camp that was selling Nigerian food to whoever had money.
Since I didn’t have money, I couldn’t buy. There was a brigadier, I would not mention his name, his wife was bringing him food and the brigadier would have been about my age.
He just looked at me with compassion and was sharing his food with me. The food was not particularly tasty; I think he enjoyed boney fish, fish full of bones. That wasn’t my kind of food, but I had no choice than to eat whatever I could get.
And then there was no provision for sleep. About 10 or 12 of us were sleeping in a classroom or an office that were used by soldiers during the day.
We were sleeping on the floor. There were rats, big rats, big gutter rats that came looking for food in the night, crawling over us.
It was the mercy of God that we survived. When the Pope visited Nigeria during our detention, we were told that he intervened on our behalf with Abacha, some of us who were not criminals to be released.
I was not told why I was detained. Then one day, Brigadier Sabo Ibrahim, I think he was the Director- General of the Army Intelligence, came visiting the camp and we were lined up like criminals and he was examining each of us one by one.
When he got to me, he asked Omenka, “Who is this?” and Omenka said, “He is Professor Jide Osuntokun from the University of Lagos. And Brigadier Sabo Ibarahim said, “This is the professor that is throwing bomb in Lagos.
” I had to scream that “I’m an historian; I don’t know anything about bombs.” I was angry and I said, “If you find out that I was the one throwing bombs in Lagos, please take me out and shoot me right away. I’m sick and tired of suffering. Then he just smiled, and he went away.
Subsequently, a few weeks later, suddenly I was called by Lt. Col. Omenka to come to his office, and he said Professor, and I said yes sir. He said go and carry your things. I said you brought me here; I had nothing except the one I was wearing. There was nothing to carry and I had no money.
Then he took some ward of currency, I don’t know how much exactly he gave. I think it should be up to N5,000. He said Professor, take this and go back to your house.
That was the way I was released without any trial, without any accusation, without any interrogation.
I was just treated like a common criminal. This was somebody who just finished representing our country as an ambassador.
In fact, one of the worst experiences I had, one of my nieces, out of curiosity, discovered where I was locked up and she came looking for me. She was detained without my knowledge.
I didn’t know until I came out of detention. She was detained for one day, daring to look for me.
Another interesting episode I never try not to remember was a time a few of us who were sick were taken to the military hospital for treatment.
We were handcuffed and legcuffed. It was difficult to alight from the truck that took us there.
When we got to the waiting room, all the ladies that saw us ran because they thought these must have been hardened criminals. I was taken to a naval doctor who happened to have known me very well.
He said how are you sir? I said I’m not feeling very well. He said what exactly is the problem? I said well, I’m sleeping on the floor, sometimes the floor is wet and cold; maybe I’m developing pneumonia.
I can’t breathe well. He gave me some drugs and he asked if he should give me sleeping tablets so that I could sleep. I said see, I don’t think I need it because it won’t make any difference. I’m sleeping on bare floor, wet cement floor, whether you give me sleeping tablet or not, I still won’t be able to sleep.
Having said all these, there was a young man, Moshood Fayemiwo. He was the president of the Students’ Union, University of Lagos. He was some kind of journalist when he came out. His cell was underground the room where we were detained.
He was in a special cell underground and he was not allowed to see the sun. Usually in the evening, we would all congregate on top of his cell to sing.
While singing, he would try to call my name maybe to chat with me, and I was always afraid. This young man, leave me alone, don’t call my name. He was under the ground. His case was terrible. How would you lock up a man under the ground? He could not see the sun.
One of the things I would like the government, whatever democratic government we have, such thing should not be permitted. The place still exists till today, Child’s Street, Apapa. The place is called Military Interrogation Centre. This is where we were detained.
That was how I was released. Omenka gave me N5,000. I had washed my cloth.
I only had my pant, knicker. Because I was looking haggard, as I was looking for a taxi that would carry me to Ibadan, all the taxis I was waving to, they thought I was a mad man until one of them was brave enough to stop.
I said, can you take me to Ibadan? He looked at me several times and he said yes. And he looked at me and said do you mind if I carry other people, and I said yes.
He took me to Ibadan. When I got to my brother’s house, my grandniece, when she saw me, she thought she was seeing an apparition, that I was a dead man. She screamed and called my niece, everybody in the house rushed down.
When they saw me, they all started crying. I just said don’t cry, just call my wife, I want to see my wife. Of course, I called the poor woman who, of course, rushed to Ibadan that same night. And we all cried and cried together.
It was a bitter experience. I was bitter and I asked, is this the country my brothers and I fought for? What kind of country is this? Is this the same country that I served as an ambassador? It was as bad as that. I pray that Nigeria does not experience that kind of regime again.
I understand that the late Odumegwu Ojukwu came to visit you in Germany. What did you discuss with him?
He came as a leader of a delegation sent by Abacha when Obasanjo and Yar’Adua were locked up on the allegation of planning a coup against Abacha. Ojukwu led a delegation to Germany, including Abiola Ogundokun.
They insisted that they wanted to go to German foreign ministry. I as an ambassador had to arrange it. When we got to the German ministry, we were told that we would only have 15 minutes of presentation.
Ojukwu then decided to speak and he spoke how magnanimous Abacha was, particularly to Abiola. Ojukwu was a dramatis, that Abacha was such a kind man, that he allowed seven of Abiola’s wives to visit him. And the Germans felt scandalised.
Of course, Ojukwu said that for the purpose of dramatic effect. The German said how many wives does he have if seven of his wives were allowed to visit him in detention? That was the kind of drama that I was unfortunate to have to arrange.
When we left there, Ogundokun and Ojukwu nearly started fighting, because while we were at the German Ministry, Ogundokun interjected Ojukwu, that the Germans should allow him to speak, that as a Yoruba man, he would like to tell the Germans that the problem of Nigeria was the Yoruba people.
Here was I, an ambassador, of course ethnically Yoruba, and here the so called Yoruba delegate saying my people were the problem of Nigeria. I couldn’t say anything. Eventually we went back.
I did not utter a word. Eventually, I had to give them dinner in my residence and I called Ogundokun aside, thinking that he was a genuine man, trying to tell him that the policy of the government they were representing would not lead us anywhere and was wrong for saying what he said in the German foreign ministry. I did not know that he had a tape in his agbada.
As soon as he got home, he and others must have gone to Abacha to say I was a NADECO ambassador, because Professor Wole Soyinka was in Germany at that particular time.
He asked me whether I knew where Wole Soyinka was. Of course, I knew he was in the Maritim Hotel, he and Ulli Bier, and he said he wanted to go and beat up Professor Wole Soyinka.
Abiola Ogundokun?
Yes, Abiola Ogundokun. He is now an old man. He has been in politics, probably all his life. He said he would like to know where Professor Wole Soyinka was. He said he would beat him up for criticising Abacha. Did they expect me to tell him so that they could go and beat up a Nobel Laureate? Of course, I said I didn’t know where he was.
They must have gone to the head of state to say I was a hostile ambassador. Abacha did not appoint me; he met me in the post. They quickly arranged that I should come back home. Of course, there was no problem in coming back home, only to come and be detained.
Those were the interesting things I would say. But time is a healer. All that is in the past now. Some of the things I said have come to pass. Look at where we are today. Is this the country we want to be? Is this the country we were born into?
The situation is worse than most people think because essentially, our country is bankrupt financially. We don’t have money; we are broke.
Eighty per cent of its income is from oil, it is being stolen. By who, for what and how? Our country is a potentially great country.
We have the people, we have the intellect, we have the resources, we have the climate, we have lots of land, water; there is nothing God has not given us.
But look at where we are. Now we have an insecurity situation that we have not been able to handle. Without security, there cannot be development.
Thousand s of Nigerians who could have built the country are outside the country doing menial jobs all over the world, up to India and Pakistan. You will find Nigeria eke out miserable existence.
It is really sad. I’ve written extensively on it that the structure we are following is the wrong structure.
If we had remained a federation like our forefathers negotiated, a federation of strong federating units, not the kind of what we have where the centre holds all the power, all the resources.
The centre that does not have resources is the one holding all the resources of the country, and it is distributing it the way it wants. Our country is completely upside down.
This is the problem. Whoever captures the centre captures everything. The structure we have in Nigeria is wrong. It will not take us anywhere.
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