How was Nigeria’s position in the diplomatic circles and world stage adversely affected during this period?
Terrible! It must have been the most disastrous period of Nigeria’s political history. Whether people are praising, speaking or not speaking about the dead, that administration was a problem for Nigeria; not just for the health of the man. It was a very embarrassing period, because we couldn’t do anything. In fact, I’ll consider it terrible in the sense that how do you participate at the international level? People visit you and you visit them. You attend international conferences; you attend the UN General Assembly. You go to African Union, ECOWAS, etc. Bilateral and multilateral diplomacy – that’s what I’m talking about. You have to be seen, presence is important. During that period, it was absence all the way. He didn’t address the UN; you can’t blame him, because he wasn’t well. So it was, in general, a bad period for Nigeria. Due to his untimely demise, President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was unable to accomplish a lot of what he set out to do, how do you think Nigerians and the world w
