get these nets
Veteran
July 24, 1930 - August 11, 2020
=================================
Buhari mourns ex-U.S. Ambassador, Walter Carrington
August 12, 2020Press Release
President Muhammadu Buhari mourns the demise of former United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, describing him as a “long time friend of Nigeria and an astute and courageous diplomat.”
In a tribute this evening, President Buhari praised the late ambassador whom he said “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.”
President Buhari said the story of the Nigerian democracy under the Fourth Republic will not complete without a mention of the heroic roles of the likes of Ambassador Carrington.
“On behalf of my family, the government and people of Nigeria, I commiserate with the family of the deceased, his friends and admirers as well as the government and people of the United States,” concluded the President.
============================================
Obasanjo: Carrington offered me asylum before Abacha arrested me
August 18
Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo says Walter Carrington, a former United States ambassador to Nigeria, offered him asylum in the US before he was arrested by the regime of Sani Abacha, the late military dictator.
In 1993, President Bill Clinton appointed Carrington, who died last week, as US ambassador to Nigeria.
Although Carrington’s tenure ended in 1997, the diplomat did not stop showing interest in Nigeria till he died.
In a statement on Tuesday, Kehinde Akinyemi, Obasanjo’s spokesman, said the ex-president sent a condolence letter to the family of the late ambassador through Arese, wife of the deceased.
Advertisement
According to Akinyemi, Obasanjo said Carrington helped in easing the move to democratic rule in the country, having met Nigeria under the military rule, which had run consecutively for over a decade.
He said Carrington was one of the responsible, mature and respected voices to take Nigeria out of the “unwholesome situation” it found itself.
“Indeed, I recall, sometime in 1995, that on one of my trips to Copenhagen to attend World Social Summit as Human Development Ambassador of the United Nations Development Programme, I received the most touching of the warnings, pieces of advice and offers from Amb. Carrington,” Obasanjo wrote.
“He called me in Copenhagen and told me categorically that I was going to be arrested on returning home and, therefore, advised me not to return home. But he did not stop it there, he offered me political asylum by his government in the US. That was both touching and assuring, but I decided that, tempting and assuring as the offer was, I would not take it. I came back and was arrested and imprisoned by Abacha. No doubt, his generous assistance to my family while I was a political prisoner makes me forever indebted to him.
“When I was in prison, he was one of the few foreign Ambassadors who regularly visited my wife to encourage her and to find out how I was doing in prison. I can proudly say he was a true friend and brother.”
The ex-president added that Carrington devoted his life to humanity “through the fairness, kindness, optimism and intelligence he brought to bear on all his undertakings, and through the righteousness, humanness and harmony he promoted in the US as a human rights activist and indeed across the world”.
He said ex-US ambassador was not just a pride to America and Americans, but also to the people of African descent.
“He came to Nigeria with love, ate and drank Nigerian delicacies and drinks, showed a significant demonstration of oneness by walking the aisle to tie the nuptial knot outside nationality bounds with one of our illustrious daughters and that is you, and he was loved and appreciated by the people through giving him a Yoruba name “Omowale” and naming a street after him in Victoria Island, Lagos,” Obasanjo wrote.
“We celebrate his life well spent in the service of humanity and we will continue to project his principles and values in contributing to governance, security and sustainable development of the African continent. His legacies will live on and continue to touch many lives and generations to come. Indeed, it gladdens my heart to know not only Nigeria and Africa, but many nations around the world had a friend in him.
“Life is not about how long you spend but how well you live to serve humanity, Amb. Carrington lived well and successfully by making unique contributions to make the world a better place than he met it.”
================================
CARRINGTON: THE DEFAULT NIGERIAN
September 4, 2020 12:03 am
0
Share
Walter Carrington
Walter Carrington, former American Ambassador to Nigeria, died 11 August, aged 90
The recent death of the former American Ambassador to Nigeria, Dr Walter Carrington, has robbed our country of a friend who stood by us during the darkest days of military rule. Ordinarily, the work of an ambassador is to represent their country and its national interest but Carrington saw himself not only as an American but also an African-American who could not sit idly by while the rights of Nigerians were being trampled upon by a few people. In using the American might to nudge the late General Sani Abacha regime to do the right things, he became a marked man. At the end he was hounded out of Nigeria. But his link with our country, cemented with the marriage to a Nigerian, remained unbroken till the end.
Posted to Nigeria in 1993 by the then United States President Bill Clinton, Carrington spent four momentous years during which time he embedded himself in pro-democracy groups in the country and served as thorn in the flesh of the Abacha military junta. An uncommon diplomat, Carrington openly identified with Nigerians who clamoured for the end to military rule with all its arbitrariness, despite threats to his life. After his tour of duty in Nigeria ended and he returned to the United States, Carrington continued to remain involved, doing his best to enable the country to return to democratic rule.
Carrington had a pedigree that prepared him well for the diplomatic job especially his tour of duty in Nigeria. Upon graduation from Harvard Law school in 1955, he enlisted in the U.S. Army, where one of his assignments was as an enlisted man with the Judge Advocate General Corps (Germany, 1955–57). Thereafter, he entered a private law practice in Boston, Massachusetts during which time, he also served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the youngest person to serve until that date. He held various positions in the Peace Corps from 1961 to 1971, serving as Country Director in Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Tunisia and then as Regional Director for Africa (1969–71). From 1971 to 1980, he was Executive Vice President of the African-American Institute.
Carrington served as the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Senegal from 1980 to 1981. In 1981, he was named Director of the Department of International Affairs of Howard University. He published several articles on Africa. On 1 September 2004, Carrington was named the Warburg Professor of International Relations at Simmons College in Boston. He was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. In 1997, he received an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Humane Letters) from Livingstone College, North Carolina.
In a fitting tribute, President Muhammadu Buhari described Carrington as a “longtime friend of Nigeria and an astute and courageous diplomat.” The president praised the late ambassador whom he said “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.” He added that the story of Nigerian democracy under the Fourth Republic will not complete without a mention of his heroic roles.
We agree with the president. The tenure of Walter Carrington in Nigeria went beyond the call of normal diplomatic duty. He reached back to his black ancestry to identify with our country at a very difficult moment in our national history. We condole with his Nigerian wife, Arese, and other members of his family. May he rest in peace.
===============================================
(TRIBUTE): Walter Carrington, citizen of one country, son of two, by Bola Tinubu
Latest NewsTop News
By On Aug 15, 2020
I am deeply saddened by the passing of former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Walter Carrington. We thank God for giving Ambassador Carrington a long life of 90 years full of exemplary deeds and the best of human achievement He openly and unconditionally championed the advent of democratic freedom and constitutional governance in the country.
We thank God for giving Nigeria Walter Carrington when He did. Ambassador Carrington came to Nigeria on a diplomatic assignment but his true mission was even more sublime. Walter was both an African and an American.
This identity he knew full well for it shaped who he was and guided what he did. The best of both worlds was evident in him. This man may have been the citizen of one country but he was surely the brave and passionate son of two nations
===========================================
Adieu, Walter Carrington
A FORTNIGHT after celebrating his 90th birthday, former US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Walter Carrrington, peacefully exited this world on August 11, 2020. His Nigerian wife, Arese, said in a family statement
The pro-democracy community put together a book of tributes titled A Friend In Need which I had the pleasure to co-edit with Bunmi Bakare to appreciate his life of service to Nigeria in the years he was Ambassador here in the mad years of Sani Abacha.
Carrington served as the US Ambassador to Senegal from 1980 to 1981. He was appointed by US President Bill Clinton in 1993 as the US Ambassador to Nigeria, where he remained until 1997. His ties to Nigeria were deep; he had married into a Nigerian family and had lived in three Nigerian cities since the late 1960s. He was a diplomat in Nigeria at one of its most difficult moments in history.
Nigeria organised a presidential election on June 12, 1993 which went peacefully in fairness against expectations. Bashorun MKO Abiola, the candidate of the SDP, was coasting home to clear victory when the General Ibrahim Babangida junta moved to annul the result. A serious political crisis was occasioned by the political rascality. A low intensity war of five years followed during which a murderous Abacha junta took over, using all means as state craft.
It was this period Nigeria was blessed with Carrington who did not consider keeping silent as the duty of an ambassador in such a moment of crisis. He spoke out loudly and clearly on the side of democracy and his activist posture pushed America in the right direction and subsequently in other challenged African and developing countries later.