Walter Carrington: The ex-US envoy who contributed to Nigeria’s democratic struggles
Walter Carrington, a former Ambassador of the United State to Nigeria, described as a lifelong African specialist by the New York Times and as a ‘Friend of Nigeria’ by many Nigerians, died on Tuesday August 11, 2020, at age 90.
His wife Arese Carrington announced his death on Wednesday. She said: “He passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones at the age of 90 years old on Tuesday, August 11th, 2020.”
Carrington was appointed the U.S envoy to Nigeria in 1993 by President Bill Clinton just after the June 12, 1993 election, adjudged the most credible election in Nigeria’s history, was annulled by the military government of Ibrahim Babangida.
Arriving Nigeria at a time of political upheavals, Carrington knew he was coming to face a herculean task, but it was not unfamiliar terrain for him. From his early days as a student, he had committed himself to activism and speaking against oppression in the society. This made him the first student elected to the National Board of Directors of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) where Martin Luther King Jr. was also a prominent member. It wasn’t surprising that Carrington had constant headbutting with the military regime of General Sani Abacha from the period he started his diplomatic assignment in November 1993 (12 days before Abacha took over power) till he left in 1997.
Born July 24, 1930, in New York City, to Walter R. Carrington, a Barbadian immigrant and Marjorie Irene Hayes. Carrington was the elder of his parents’ two children (a male and a female).
A graduate of Harvard College in 1952 and Harvard Law School in 1955, Carrington was drafted into the U.S Army when he finished from the law school, and he was there for two years. After then he started his law practice in 1957 and at age 27 he was appointed by the governor of Massachusetts as the Commissioner of the Commission Against Discrimination, Massachusetts. The appointment made him the youngest commissioner the state ever had.
Before his arrival in Nigeria in 1993 as a diplomat, the activist-envoy had visited Nigeria in 1959 as an international student for a programme called the Experiment in International Living where the students toured major cities in Nigeria before independence in 1960. He had also been a Professor of African Affairs and written extensively about the continent ahead of his appointment. He also served as a Director of all Peace Corps Operations in Africa (1961 -1969), and as the United States Ambassador in Senegal (1980 -81).
In Nigeria, Carrington went beyond the call of duty, integrated himself into the local affairs and culture and immersed himself fully into championing the call for democratic rule in Nigeria. He openly supported the pro-democracy protesters against the Abacha regime, identified with the activists labelled as rebels by the military. In words and in action he opposed the military regime and gave anti-Abacha speeches at several events. At the time when the anti-military activists were being hunted, the American Embassy became their place of refuge.
By doing this, Carrington etched his name in gold and his rare activism as a diplomat earned him the moniker – ‘Omowale’ (the son has come home) from the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) chieftains who were the most wanted activists by the Abacha regime. Before him, another prominent foreign figure named ‘Omowale’ in Nigeria was American activist Malcolm X by the Muslim Students Society of the University of Ibadan, during his visit to Nigeria in 1964.
As expected, oppressors and liberators are never on the same page, the Abacha regime made several moves to hound Carrington for associating with pro-democracy advocates. His diplomatic immunity was the only shield that protected him from ending up like the activists jailed and others like Kudirat Abiola, Shehu Musa Yar’adua, Alfred Rewane who were killed by the military. Expelling him from Nigeria also proved abortive, he was a pain in the neck of Abacha.
During a wave of bombing incidents in Nigeria in 1996, Carrington was summoned to Abuja by the Foreign Minister on Christmas Eve for an official dressing down. The military regime also accused him of having knowledge of the attacks due to his close contacts with opposition groups.
In September 1997, when he was set to leave Nigeria as a diplomat, heavily armed policemen mounted a blockade at the venue of a farewell reception organised in Carrington’s honour in Lagos. When the location was changed, the security operatives burst into the new venue threatening to shoot a speaker and ordered the foreign guests, including the envoy himself, to leave the premises.
He was quoted by The New York Times as saying the incident as ”the most surrealistic experience I have had here yet” in Nigeria.
After this incident, the Minister for Special Presidential Affairs at the time, Wada Nas, was quoted by AFP as saying Carrington’s ”stay in Nigeria must be described as four years of waste during which nothing was accomplished between the two countries in economic, cultural or political terms.”
Nas’ unpopular opinion about the diplomat didn’t change the name which had been etched in gold in the hearts of millions of Nigerians who saw Carrington as a ‘Friend of Nigeria’.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a tribute on Wednesday, described Carrington as a “long time friend of Nigeria and an astute and courageous diplomat” who “openly supported the people of this country when they fought for the return of democracy following the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential elections won by the late Moshood Abiola.”
Senator Shehu Sani, a former Senator and activist who was also jailed by the military under Abacha said Nigeria “owe a debt of gratitude to the man who courageously stood on the side of democratic forces during the struggle against military dictatorship.”
Abdulmahamud Aminu, a former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), also described Carrington as “a great friend of oppressed Nigerians during the halcyon years of military dictatorship and remained so years after.”
Carrington was more than a friend of Nigeria like many like to describe him. Beyond all cultural and geographical barriers, the American fell in love with a Nigerian Arese Ukpoma. If citizenship were issued by marriage like it is done in other developed societies, Carrington qualified to be called a Nigerian.
“It is true in my case, that most black Americans come to Africa to seek their heritage. I came and found my destiny,” Carrington said in an interview in 2013.
He met Arese, a Medical Doctor and Public Health Consultant, at his first diplomatic function in Nigeria. She had also worked as the Associate Director of the Harvard School of Public Health’s AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria.
The U.S Consulate in Nigeria described Carrington as a champion of civil liberties, democracy and closer ties between the U.S. and Nigeria.
That was the cause for which Carrington stood throughout his time in Nigeria as U.S envoy. He fought for democracy with the enthusiasm expected of a patriot. In another day and age, he might have been destined to be an African as many have said he had an African heart.
When he eventually left Nigeria in 1997, he continued to lend his voice to the democracy struggles and played a crucial role in the renaming of the street on which Nigeria’s U.N. mission and New York consulate is located after Kudirat Abiola, the most politically active wife of MKO Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election.
Carrington told the New York City Council in October 1997 that he was “convinced” that the Abacha government assassinated Kudirat Abiola in 1996. He said: “She was indefatigable in her efforts to unite all those who fought for a return to democracy in Africa’s largest and potentially richest country.”
Before his death at 90, he witnessed Nigeria’s transition to democratic government and the 20 years of democracy in Nigeria Carrington said this is one of the events that made him feel fulfilled, “I feel fulfilled about the end of apartheid in South Africa, I feel fulfilled about the return of democracy to Nigeria.”
Shortly after he was sworn in as Lagos governor in May 1999, Bola Tinubu, renamed the street housing several foreign embassies in Victoria Island after Walter Carrington. In 2003, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo conferred on him the national honour award of Officer of the Federal Republic (OFR).
In fulfilment of her father’s dream to honour Carrington for the role he played in enthroning democracy in Nigeria, Basirat Fawehinmi-Biobaku, daughter of late human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi, launched a book – ‘A Duty to Speak: Refusing to Remain Silent in a Time of Tyranny,’ at his 80th birthday in Lagos in 2010.
Also in his honour, the U.S Consulate General in Lagos initiated the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative (CYFI), a youth-based initiative launched in 2011 to “bring together Nigerian youth of exceptional vision, skills and experience to design and implement projects that have a positive impact on Nigerian society.”
