Gbenga Ashiru: when the eagle took flight into the sun

He was affectionately called ‘Asha’ which means, the Eagle, in the sense that he carried the aura, charisma, and majesty of the Eagle, and yet had the heart and serenity of a dove.   Ambassador Ashiru had a successful career in the Foreign Service. He rose through the ranks to become an Under Secretary, the […]

He was affectionately called ‘Asha’ which means, the Eagle, in the sense that he carried the aura, charisma, and majesty of the Eagle, and yet had the heart and serenity of a dove.
  Ambassador Ashiru had a successful career in the Foreign Service. He rose through the ranks to become an Under Secretary, the highest administrative rank in the ministry next to the Permanent Secretary.
He was Ambassador to North Korea and High Commissioner to South Africa, which is an important post reserved for high ranking and influential political figures or very senior and trusted career officers.  He was decorated with one of the highest national honours of France and an MFR  in Nigeria in recognition of his contributions to national development and international relations.
After his retirement from the service, he continued to work for the good of Nigeria in attracting much needed Foreign Direct Investments to Nigeria by leveraging on his extensive international connections.  It was in the course of such endeavours that he led a team of Nigerian Bankers, Industrialists, and Businessmen on a Coast to Coast business trip  to Italy, Spain, and Greece along the Mediterranean Sea in  a Holiday cum Business Cruise Ship, and  I had the privilege of facilitating for the group  contacts and meetings with the business  communities of Monaco and France at the French Riviera  in Monte Carlo.
His appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs marked the apogee of his career.  His approach to this job was professional. He asserted Nigeria’s  leadership position in Africa by calling the bluff of the partial International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague,  when on his suggestion, President Omar Bashir was invited to Nigeria, against the court order for the latter’s arrest. That singular act ended the court’s incessant harassment of African leaders on spurious human rights charges. Ambassador Ashiru also secured dozens of top international jobs for Nigerians at the United Nations, the African Union and other international organizations to compensate for Nigeria’s tremendous contributions to the international  community.
He had a successful and stable  family life with his beautiful medical Doctor wife.  He lived well and packed all that needed to be done  in life into a purposeful 66 years, which is just a few years short of  the Biblical 70 years. He was a father, and grandfather with successful children who are also following the good examples of their parents in their various calls in life.
He was anything, but a politician and as such, he could not survive for too long in the murky waters of political intrigues and sycophancy prevalent  in Africa.
He was committed to the work of God, such that even during the trying times of his ailment, he still raised funds for his Church in Lagos from far away South Africa.  
This period of mourning is yet an opportunity for us to reflect on our own mortality, check and adjust our ways and do our best to make the world a better place than we met it, so that it shall be said of us, that we did our best for humanity in our own time.

Ambassador Rasheed Akinkuolie, former Director of Trade and Investment in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs<[email protected]>;