what I could see on TV, US engagement with China and how he brokered US engagement with the Middle East and his quiet role in engaging US interests on the continent of Africa. So my interest basically grew out of a love or a desire to be like another human being – Henry Kissinger – so my studies took me in that direction and when I finished, in 1993, the first place I applied to was the foreign services of Kenya and out of 3,800 applicants they chose 8 and I was one of them.
Any particular moments that stand out as highlights of your career? Absolutely! The highlight of my career was when Kenya was in the United Nations Security Council, prior to that, we had been in the council once in 1969, I was a kid then then, so in 1996 Kenya was elected to be a non-permanent member of the Security Council. There was a Nigerian Professor who was then permanent representative of Nigeria to the council, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, took us round and he said“ You are getting into a very important place I do not want you to go and re-invent the wheel, come with your team and I will show you the ropes” so our entry and knowledge about the security council was through Gambari, the tricks of the trade, what to do and what not to do, how to press the big powers, when to back off, we got this knowledge from him. By the time we got in the council, and we sat in council for the first time in January 1996( the election was in October 1995) it was almost like attending a PHS seminar in international politics. I was dealing esoterically with the challenges in Bosnia – for an African diplomat our focus is mostly the continent itself and the issues of development – but now we were talking about and dealing in a substantive form for the first time with issues in far flung places in the world, so the 2years in Security Council were truly one of the most exciting in my career and I will really mark that as a huge learning experience for me.
What does the job of a diplomat entail? You have to understand the power lines in international diplomacy. You have to push your agenda, but you always have to know who the big boys are, and you always have to understand that if you have to push your agenda with them you have to negotiate beforehand. From what I’ ve experienced, the job of diplomacy is constant engagement and not to assume that your position is right, but your position is always negotiable and what you are looking for all the time is how to secure your permanent interest and those permanent interests change. Right now Nigeria’ s permanent interest is that of securing the homeland from terrorists and so on – Security challenges. Tomorrow it could be different, it could be how to secure the homeland on the economic front. But in the end, how you determine your national interests and how you deploy, how you leverage the instruments of national power in the achievement of those interests is the key.
Give us a summary of Kenyan mission in Nigeria The Kenyan representation in Nigeria, prior to my arrival, wasn’ t so strong. When the federal capital moved from Lagos to Abuja our office moved, we rented space at a place. We decides and it was a well thought out decision that Nigeria is and continues to be in the Western African sub-continent, therefore we built this Chancery at a cost of over 2billion Naira. We decided that we needed an enduring footprint, because it reflects our understanding of the continent, that we are going to be here forever and that we have to be in a place that shows our presence in a way that reflects our engagement with Nigeria. One of the first trips that President Kenyatta made anywhere was to Nigeria and subsequently President Jonathan has visited Kenya four times. Firstly on a personal level, the relationship between our
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