ONE of Nigeria’s foremost international figures, Prof Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, has retired from active United Nations service, after serving the global agency for more than 12 years as Under Secretary-General. He has been asked to propose a strategy for the adoption of a hybrid international peacekeeping mission for Somalia on the pattern of the United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), which he led in the last three years.The UN scribe has also offered Gambari the status of an honorary UN Ambassador. While thanking him for his service at the UN, the Secretary-General. Apart from his contributions in Darfur, Ban also praised Gambari’s previous services in Myanmar, both of which were assignments the former Nigerian Ambassador to the UN undertook after Ban took over the charge at the UN after Kofi Annan.
Under Annan, Gambari had led the UN Political Affairs Department. The UN scribe praised the former Nigerian UN Ambassador for his “leadership and commitment to the peace and security of Sudan in the last three years. Your previous contribution to Myanmar as Special Advisor also helped greatly to the democratisation of Myanmar. At the United Nations headquarters there has been a number of occasions indeed when the Secretary-General Ban have had to practically invoke the name of Gambari in media interactions listing him as one of his “top advisers” especially when he wants to prove that, as Secretary-General, he takes Africa seriously.Gambari was, indeed, the very first holder of that post in late 1999 after serving as Nigeria’s Ambassador to the UN for almost 10 years. It was from there that he went to lead the UN Political Affairs Department. So, it was understandable when Ban waxing personal, in his tribute to Gambari after it was confirmed that the prominent Nigerian international diplomat would not only be quitting the Office of Joint Special representative in Darfur but also ending his service as a top UN official.
As Gambari was retiring from the United Nations, which he joined in 1999, he has been receiving commendation letters from several countries including presidents and prime ministers.For instance, Gambari has also been offered a year, long international fellowship in Singapore just as the AU is also engaging his immense diplomatic skills and global experience. Also, late last year the government of South Africa honored Gambari with the “Companion of Oliver Tambo,” South Africa’s highest decoration for foreigners.Past winners of this award have included Zambia’s Kenneth Kaunda, Ghana’s Kofi Annan, Kenya’s Ali Mazrui, Nigeria’s Emeka Anyaoku, Brazil’s former President Luiz Lula da Silva, and the US’s Harry Bellafonte.
According to a news release of the investiture performed personally by President Jacob Zuma recently in South Africa, Gambari won the honour chiefly for his role as the last chairman of the United Nations (UN) Special Committee against Apartheid between 1990 and 1994. In this role, Gambari visited South Africa frequently and warned western governments against a precipitate lifting of economic sanctions imposed on the apartheid regime.
Confirming his retirement from the UN, and the offers from Singapore and AU, Gambari in a brief interview in New York, also noted that the honor from the South African government was not just to him, like he said at the Ward investiture late last year.Said he: “this honor is not just to me as an individual but to Nigeria, which has played a major role in the struggle against apartheid … the time has come for history and generations to come to recognise the role the country and the anti-apartheid movements played in Africa.”
It would be recalled that Nigeria established the Southern African Relief Fund in 1976 to provide scholarships and other assistance to South African students and refugees. Its public servants had a “Mandela Tax” deducted directly from their monthly salaries, while hundreds of South African students were trained in Nigerian universities. The country also attended meetings of the Frontline States of Southern Africa, chaired the UN special committee against apartheid for 25 years, and hosted a UN anti-apartheid conference in 1977.
His full names being Ibrahim Agboola Gambari, CFR born November 24, 1944 and from Ilorin, Kwara State, is a Nigerian scholar and veteran diplomat. The Nigerian Minister for External Affairs between 1984 and 1985, he began his teaching career in 1969 at City University of New York before working at University of Albany. Later, he taught at Ahmadu Bello University. From 1986-1989, he was Visiting Professor at three universities in Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Georgetown University and Howard University. He has also been a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution also in Washington D.C. and a Resident Scholar at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center, the Rockefeller Foundation-run center in Italy. He was accorded, honoris causa, the title of Doctor of Humane Letters (D.Hum.Litt.) from the University of Bridgeport. He is a member of the Johns Hopkins University's Society of Scholars. He was decorated with the title of Commander of the Federal Republic (CFR) by the Government of Nigeria.
Congratulations to a great Nigerian, he has really made me proud by his great and honourable deeds.
SOURCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Gambari
http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=111575:gambari-retires-from-un-gets-au-assignment&catid=176:newspeople-a-goodpeople&Itemid=703

"There is a spirit in man,d breadth of God
Almighty"...I sensed this man is a different
Breeds from d "usuals" he must av been converted!
Congrats