UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser
on Africa, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari has lent his support to the advocacy for
the convocation of a sovereign national conference by the government.
He said the conference was imperative for
Nigerians from all cultures and social levels to debate how best the country
should be managed.
He said the quest for peace in Nigeria would
not be realized unless the people embraced justice.
�The myth that surrounds Nigeria as a
federation is not a reality, and all of us have to find a way to change the
situation for the better,�� Gambari said at a reception in New York to mark
his 60th birthday anniversary.
Gambari was Nigeria�s ambassador to the world
body for more than nine years.
He also reviewed the events at the UN, and
concluded that Secretary-General Kofi Annan was doing his best to accomplish
his assignments �in a manner that would make the black race proud��.
The envoy who dedicated his successes to God,
said he believed in doing the proper thing.
�Ten years ago, I celebrated my 50th birthday
anniversary and since then five of my colleagues who had at various times
been in government in Nigeria, including Brig.-Gen. Tunde Idiagbon, have
died,�� he said.
Among the personalities in attendance at the
function were Gambari�s wife Fatima, Dr. Orobola Fashina, Director of the
World Intellectual Property Organisation and Mrs. Halima Wali, wife of
Nigeria�s ambassador to the UN, Alhaji Bashir Wali.
Others were Prof. Chudi Nwazurike and
ambassadors of Angola and Kenya to the UN, as well as Amb. Shola Omorogie of
the UN Security Council.
Fashina paid tributes to Gambari for his
contributions to the reform which Nigeria�s foreign relations had gone
through.
He said it was only the current Foreign Affairs
Minister, Amb. Olu Adeniji who endorsed Gambari�s decision to establish the
Foreign Service Academy when he was Nigeria�s Foreign Minister at the age of
39.
Fatima commended the organisers of the
reception, and described her husband as �a decent, humble and honest
person�.
�He is a renowned diplomat, an academic of
note, a distinguished scholar and a man of God,�� she added.
Gambari�s children Bolaji, Olaitan and Jumoke, said their
father had provided large �shoes of life� that they were finding difficult
to fill.
