A diplomat departs

• Adieu, Joe Tonye Iyalla

Ambassador Joe Tonye Fubara Iyalla, who died on January 30 at the age of 90, shone in what was seen as the golden era of Nigeria’s Foreign Service.

A former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olugbenga Ashiru, now deceased, had captured that remarkable period in a 2009 newspaper article:  ”At the end of the civil war in 1970 and with the commencement of the rise of Nigeria’s profile in international arena, the then government headed by General Yakubu Gowon carefully nurtured a foreign service that was focused, articulate, dynamic and well funded.”

He added: “It deliberately selected the best dramatis personae that were to run the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its diplomatic missions abroad. In selecting these officers the overriding consideration was based on merit; while square pegs were put in square holes; professional diplomats were allowed to run the ministry and the diplomatic missions abroad. General Gowon resisted pressures from several quarters to also inject political appointees into the service and the country was the beneficiary.”

Iyalla was among the stars of that time. A graduate of University of Ibadan, Iyalla was the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States of America from May 1968 to May 1972 when the Nigerian Civil War (July 1967 – January 1970) was a burning issue. His appointment to that important diplomatic position in that period was testimony to his competence. He was Permanent Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, from 1972 to 1975. He had also served as the Secretary of the Federal Public Service Commission; Assistant Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Addis Ababa, and Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria in New York.

As Nigeria’s wartime ambassador to the United States, Iyalla, an Ijaw from Bakana in Degema Local Government of Rivers State, demonstrated patriotism and commitment to the idea of “one Nigeria.” “We cannot be complete until we have 12 states. And no section can be left out,” he was quoted by the Baltimore Afro-American newspaper of March 9, 1968.

After he returned to Nigeria and became the second most powerful man in the Foreign Ministry, his performance reflected the confidence that informed Nigerian foreign relations in that era. It was a time when the diplomatic service seriously projected the country as a sovereign nation and continental leader.

“Ambassador Iyalla had a reputation as a strong Permanent Secretary,” said an autobiographical account by Ambassador Oladapo Fafowora, who had worked under him. A report based on declassified U.S. diplomatic documents highlighted Iyalla’s strength of character and how he had deployed this attribute as permanent secretary. “By October 17, 1972, Mr. Iyalla, then a permanent secretary, summoned the American ambassador, Mr. Reinhardt, to his office for an upbraiding that lasted more than three hours,” the report said.

Iyalla was reported to have raised some issues with the American ambassador, which he considered as a “trend” that showed America’s disrespect for Nigeria. Iyalla had vowed to fight this tendency. Among other complaints, Iyalla had complained about the case of one Nazif Mohammed, a member of the Nigerian embassy staff in Washington, who in July 1972, was “manhandled by the Washington police.”

Iyalla had also protested about the handling of the case of a Nigerian man, one Dr. Adigun, who was killed in Los Angeles. He had described the murdered man as a decent, upstanding Nigerian citizen, and had said it was unacceptable that Nigeria was neither informed at the time, nor investigations carried out by the authorities there. “The ambassador…offered apologies for some of the issues,” the report said.

He earned a Nigerian national honour, Order of the Federal Republic (OFR), for his diplomatic services. The Nigerian diplomatic service of today ought to learn from Iyalla’s legacy. He was a career diplomat who helped to project a respectable image of Nigeria with impressive dynamism and professionalism.