After a serious session of The Nation Editorial Board on January 17, it was time for serious fun. Ambassador Dapo Fafowora, a trained historian and a respected retired diplomat, was leaving the Board after 11 years of dedicated service and deserved to be celebrated. He will be 77 in March.
The newspaper’s boardroom at its head office in Lagos became a stage for tributes to Fafowora. A front-page headline on a well-made cake designed like an edition of the newspaper conveyed the occasion’s valedictory significance.
Editorial Board Chairman Sam Omatseye captured the mixed feelings, saying it was a happy event and also a sad one. Omatseye said to Fafowora: “We have enjoyed your presence here over the years. You have enlightened us with your wisdom and taught us that age is not just a number. We cannot thank you enough. You have equipped us with your experience, we are going to miss you and please don’t forget us soon.”
In his response to the positive comments about him by Board members, Fafowora said emotionally: “I was not expecting this elaborate reception, but I say a big thank you.” He added: “I enjoyed the years working with The Nation from inception. They have a formidable editorial board with bright, young and good writers. They have professors and they are all highly experienced. I consider them to have the best editorial board in the country.”
Fafowora was also retiring from column writing. He said, for him, writing was a labour of love. He wrote in his autobiography launched in 2013: “As a newspaper columnist for over 30 years, in three major national newspapers, I have written and published over 400 articles…The first volume of these articles, titled Selected Essays on Nigerian Diplomacy, Politics, and Economics, was published by me when I turned 60 in 2001. Surprisingly, it sold out completely within a few years.”
Fafowora had joined the Nigerian Diplomatic Service in 1964 after graduating from the then University College, Ibadan. He obtained his Master’s Degree from the University of London in 1966 and the Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the Trinity College, Oxford University, in 1972. Between 1966 and 1968, he served as Second Secretary, Nigeria High Commission, London; and between 1981 and 1984 he was the Ambassador and Deputy Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations. He is a former Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria; and a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. He is an author, and his books include: Lord Lugard’s Political Memoranda and the Development of Indirect Rule in Nigeria; A History of the CMS Grammar School, Lagos (1859 – 2009); A Venture of Faith (An Official History of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos (1867 – 2007); Lest I Forget: Memoirs of a Nigerian Career Diplomat.
It was on the editorial board that our paths crossed. I got to know Fafowora better when he agreed to deliver the inaugural Herbert Macaulay Gold Lecture 2017. I coordinated the event. He helped to turn an idea into an event. He chose the topic: Herbert Macaulay and his relevance to the excellence of Lagos. While we prepared for the event, which took place at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja, Lagos, on May 25, 2017, we shared life beyond the boardroom. It was an unforgettable time. I benefitted immensely from his immense experience. A man of striking decency, Fafowora enriched my understanding of decency.
This is how Fafowora began the lecture: “I am honoured by the invitation to me to deliver this inaugural Gold Lecture in memory of Herbert Heelas Macaulay, who died in Lagos on May 7, 1946, at the age of 81. The lecture on the continuing relevance of Herbert Macaulay to the excellence of Lagos is intended to mark the 71st anniversary of the death of Herbert Macaulay as well as the 50th anniversary of the creation of Lagos State. I extend my warmest felicitations to Governor Ambode on this auspicious occasion.”
He continued: “As a professional historian, one of my unfulfilled literary ambitions was to write a full-length biography of Herbert Macaulay. There is, regrettably, none at the moment. This is because I find his public life, career, and politics in Lagos very fascinating. Therefore, I welcome and relish this opportunity and privilege of delivering this inaugural lecture on the life and times of Herbert Macaulay, who is widely regarded and acknowledged as the ‘Father of Nigerian Nationalism’.”
It is noteworthy that Fafowora is a distinguished old boy of the CMS Grammar School, Lagos, “the oldest secondary grammar school in Nigeria,” founded in 1859 by Herbert Macaulay’s father, Revd. Thomas Babington Macaulay.
Some years before the maiden Herbert Macaulay Gold Lecture, I had participated in a celebration of cerebration as Fafowora became a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters. A man of brilliant wit, Fafowora, then 73, had spoken on behalf of the new Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Letters (NAL) after their decoration. He told the audience about a phone conversation he had with his grandchild who lived in England. “I am being honoured today,” he had said to the grandchild. In reply, he got a question: “For what?” Answer: “My investiture as a Fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Letters will take place today.” Response: “So, you’ve been writing letters. And you’ve not written any to us.”
The tickled members of the audience greeted Fafowora’s brief account with laughter, and he went on to thank the NAL for the honour bestowed on him and five others at the body’s 16th Convocation and the Investiture of New Fellows, which took place at the Main Auditorium, University of Lagos, on August 14, 2014. Fafowora described the academy as a “prestigious club,” adding, “I felt immensely proud that I had been considered.”
It is not over yet, and there may well be more honours ahead for Fafowora. The atmosphere in the boardroom during the send-off prompted reflections. It was a celebration of the power of knowledge as well as a celebration of the power of writing.
