DIPLOMAT-ORACLE AS FOREIGN MINISTER – THISDAYLIVE

 TUNDE OLUSUNLE pays fitting tribute to Audu-Rafiu Enikanolaiye, minister of state for foreign affairs

He was a 40 – year-old, Assistant Director in the foreign service at the outset of the administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. Nigeria’s foreign relations space was dominated by a robust mix of career veterans and the political class, which underscored the primacy the new democratic dispensation was going to accord diplomacy. Obasanjo himself was the country’s diplomat-in-chief having built tremendous capacity beginning from his years in office as Nigeria’s military Head of State between February 1976 and September 1979. Whereas the two Foreign Affairs Ministers, Sule Lamido and Dubem Onyia (of blessed memory) were of the political class, Obasanjo intentionally fortified himself with experienced foreign affairs experts to guide the policy slant of his government. 

These included the Cambridge-trained Patrick Dele-Cole, PhD, a first class degree honours holder who had previously served as Nigeria’s Ambassador to Argentina and Brazil, and Ambassador Ralph Uwechue, PhD, who opened Nigeria’s embassy in Paris, France, in 1966, as its pioneering envoy. Obasanjo’s State Chief of Protocol, (SCOP), Ambassador Jonathan Oluwole Coker, had been previously decorated with the twin honours of Commander of the National Order of Cote d’Ivoire, and Commander of the Legion of Honour of France, in 1999 to underscore his foreign service exertions. His Deputy, Ambassador Wisdom Baiye, was a renowned linguistic diplomat, translator and interpreter. Besides their primary responsibilities in the State House, Obasanjo productively engaged them as Special Envoys on Ivorien and Burundi peace processes, respectively. Such was the extent to which Obasanjo tapped from the experience of core diplomats in repositioning Nigeria in the global foreign affairs orbit.

Unknown to many, Audu-Rafiu Olusola Enikanolaiye was a critical, unobtrusive component of the diplomatic ascendancy of the Obasanjo government. He was specifically headhunted in August 1999, just months into the life of the new regime, by the very cerebral Ambassador Patrick Dele-Cole, who was Special Adviser to the President on International Relations, from his parent ministry. Cole engaged Enikanolaiye to serve as his Special Assistant, and add breadth to the foreign policy thrust of the administration. He was just on time for the historic visit to Nigeria, of former United States President, Bill Clinton and his wife, Hilary, which began August 26, 2000, the first such look-in into Nigeria by an American President, since President Jimmy Carter visited Obasanjo as military Head of State between March and April, 1978.

As Special Assistant on Special Duties to President Obasanjo all through his two terms in office myself, I speak with authorial confidence about the evolution of that government. Enikanolaiye was a regular at various audiences granted by the President, and meetings chaired or attended by him at home or abroad, which bordered on diplomacy. The Obasanjo government was defined by a “shuttle diplomacy” approach to foreign relations, targeted at rebuilding Nigeria’s pariah profile in the global eye, securing debt relief and positioning Africa as a genuine leader in African affairs. This entailed extensive travels by Obasanjo. Enikanolaiye was famous for taking copious notes of proceedings at such engagements, ostensibly to enrich briefs and advisories to be laid subsequently on the desk of the President, as the scholar-diplomat he is. Civil servants, notably, are to be seen, and not to be heard. Their inputs, irrespective of originality or profundity, never bear their imprimatur as they remain constrained to the shadows of anonymity.

In June 2001, Enikanolaiye returned to the “African Department” of the Foreign Affairs Ministry, at a time Africa remained the centrepiece of Nigeria’s diplomatic focus. It was the period when the Obasanjo government decisively resolved the civil wars in the neighbouring countries of Liberia, (which included granting asylum in Nigeria to former Liberian warlord and controversial President, Charles Ghankey Taylor) and Sierra Leone. The Obasanjo administration equally reinstated the momentarily displaced administration of former President Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Principe, within a week of his ouster by dissidents, in July 2003. The erstwhile Organisation of African Unity, (OAU), was equally reconceived as the “African Union,” (AU), styled after the “European Union,” (EU). That milieu equally birthed the “New Partnership for African Development,” (NEPAD), to promote socioeconomic development between African countries. Such was the frenzy of diplomatic activity, even activism in the immediate aftermath of the return of democracy.

Enikanolaiye subsequently served as Minister in Nigeria’s High Commissions in Ottawa, Canada and London, United Kingdom, before functioning as High Commissioner of Nigeria to New Delhi, India. In between these postings, he had stints as Deputy Director and Director respectively, in the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, through the tenures of several Ministers. These included Chief Ojo Maduekwe and Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, (both of blessed memory), as well as Professor Viola Onwuliri and Ambassador Aminu Bashir Wali. It is a measure of the quality he exuded and the insights he brought to bear on his work that Enikanolaiye who was promoted substantive Director, January 1, 2010, was appointed *Ambassador in-situ,* three years later in February 2013, and retained at the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry, to continue to illuminate the paths of successive chief executives of the ministry.

While it was fulfilling enough to make it to the very peak of his foreign service career as Ambassador, Enikanolaiye was on August 5, 2016 appointed Permanent Secretary, which enthroned him at the very pinnacle of the public service. Whereas the President at the time, Muhammadu Buhari, was at liberty to assign him to any federal ministry, Enikanolaiye was sustained in the Foreign Ministry, thus consummating his place as a virtual oracle in that ecosystem. He retired in August 2017, after an unblemished, most eventful, most meritorious 35-year career, during which he received training at home and abroad, including exposures in Berlin, Germany; New York, USA; Beijing, China; Oxford, UK and Alexandria, Egypt. In addition to postings to UK, Canada and India, he equally served in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Belgrade, Serbia.

Enikanolaiye has represented Nigeria on several key foreign assignments as member and leader of delegations to meetings, conferences and summits. These include the Economic Community of West African States, (ECOWAS); the African Union, (AU); the European Union, (EU) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, (OIC). He has also represented Nigeria in NEPAD; the Commonwealth; the United Nations, (UN) and several binational and multilateral engagements. These have taken him through Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Paris, France; Brussels, Belgium; Windhoek, Namibia; Yokohama, Japan; Kuwait City, Kuwait; Islamabad, Pakistan; Vienna, Austria; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; Lome, Togo; Bamako, Mali; Yamoussukro, Cote d’Ivoire; Algiers, Algeria and Pretoria, South Africa, among others.

Six years after retirement, Enikanolaiye was in October 2023, tapped by the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to serve as Senior Special Assistant, (SSA), on Foreign Relations, to add fibre to the foreign policy arm of the government. The high points of his tenure included providing strategic advice on foreign relations; the advancement of Nigeria’s diplomatic interests and the promotion of regional stability. His extensive background as a lifelong diplomat, helped strengthen the foreign policy framework of the Tinubu administration. His nomination as Minister of State for Foreign Affairs April 29, 2026, was largely informed by his quiet effectiveness in the gradual reengineering of Nigeria’s foreign policy vibrancy, which plummeted over the years.

When he appeared before the Nigerian Senate for screening, Wednesday May 6, 2026, Enikanolaiye left the parliament in no doubt about the urgent imperative for a “more robust foreign policy, which will be anchored on firmness, reciprocity and measurable outcomes.” He observed that diplomacy must transcend rhetoric, and proceed decisively to strategic and visible action. He alluded to recurring xenophobic violence and eliminations of Nigerians in select African countries and noted that Nigeria must henceforth be more assertive in protecting its citizens and interests. He seemed to echo the July 2003 lockdown of the Nigerian-Benin Republic borders by Obasanjo at the height of recurring car robberies in Nigeria which were ferried across to the country’s French-speaking neighbour. 

With its economy feeling the bite of strangulation within days of the border closure, the Beninese President at the time, Mathieu Kerekou, hurried to Nigeria to pledge cooperation with the Nigerian government to mitigate the criminality. Nigeria, Enikanolaiye said must not only speak but act, including tabling reports of such inhumane treatment of its people before the AU for necessary action. He also spoke about the inevitability of adequate funding for Nigeria’s diplomatic corps and its operations across the globe, while advocating a more economically beneficial management of Nigerian government-owned real estate across the world, away from the wasting assets many of them are. Enikanolaiye believes that many of Nigeria’s over 500 properties across continents can be managed via public-private partnership to generate revenue for government.

Enikanolaiye showed early signs of being notably prodigious very early in life. He posted one of the best results in his graduating class in secondary school, at the Victory College of Commerce, Edidi, Isin local government area of Kwara State in 1977, winning the awards for Best Student in English Language, Economics and Biology. He studied Political Science for his first degree at the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria, between 1977 and 1981, under a scholarship offered by the Kwara State Government, posting a First Class Honours. He was awarded Distinctions for his Postgraduate Programme in Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford in 1991, and his Masters in International Law and Diplomacy, (MILD), at the University of Lagos in 1992, respectively. He was also the “Best Officer Trainee” in his class, at the Nigerian Foreign Service Academy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lagos, in 1984. He joined the foreign service August 4, 1982. Enikanolaiye was born September 14, 1959, in Igbagun, Yagba East council area, Kogi State and is happily married with children.

 Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja