Major General Joseph Nanven Garba (July 17, 1943– June 1, 2002) was a Nigerian general, diplomat, and politician who served as president of the United Nations General Assembly from 1989 to 1990.
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Born in Langtang, Nigeria, Garba was educated at Sacred Heart School, Shendam from 1952 to 1957. His early military career began at the Nigerian Military School in Zaria in 1957, where he studied until 1961. In 1961 he enlisted in the Nigerian Army and was sent to the Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, England, before being commissioned as an infantry officer in 1962. Garba rose through the ranks quickly: amongst his many military command posts[1] were platoon commander of 44th Battalion in 1963, company commander from 1963 to 64, and mortal platoon commander in 1964. He participated in the United Nations Military Observer Mission in India/Pakistan (UNIPOM) from 1965 to 1966[2] before being made commander of the Brigade of Guards in 1968. He studied at Staff College, Camberley, England, in 1973.
Garba first came to national attention in Nigeria when, on July 29, 1975, he announced the coup d'état against the leader of the country, General Yakubu Gowon[1]. Garba's speech, broadcast from Radio Nigeria, began with the following statement:
| “ | Fellow countrymen and women, I, Colonel Joseph Nanven Garba, in consultation with my colleagues, do hereby declare that in view of what has been happening in our country in the past few months, the Nigerian Armed Forces decided to effect a change of the leadership of the Federal Military Government.
As from now, General Yakubu Gowon ceases to be head of the Federal Military Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. The general public is advised to be calm and to go about their lawful duties.[3] |
” |
Garba was a close ally of Gowon. The coup was led by junior military officers unhappy at the lack of progress General Gowon had made in moving the country towards democratic rule, and Garba's role as an insider is credited with ensuring that the coup was bloodless.[3] Garba and Gowon later reconciled to the extent that Gowon attended Garba's funeral in Langtang in 2002.[4]
Following the coup, Garba made a shift from the military to politics and diplomacy. In 1975 he was appointed Nigeria's foreign minister (Federal Commissioner for External Affairs) by Murtala Mohammed, and continued in this role under Olusẹgun Ọbasanjọ after the former was assassinated in 1976. Garba was the head of the Nigerian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly from 1975, culminating in his appointment as President of the United Nations Security Council in January 1978.[5]
In 1978, as Ọbasanjọ was preparing to hand rule of Nigeria over to civilians, Garba was reassigned to the role of Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy. He held this position until 1980, when he left to study at the National Defence College in New Delhi, India. Following this, Garba studied as a fellow at the Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University, where he obtained a Master's degree in Public Administration.[5]
Returning to diplomatic life, Garba was appointed a Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 1984, a role he continued in until 1989. In 1989, he was elected President of the United Nations General Assembly for its forty-fourth session. During his tenure, the Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted into international law. In the post of president, Garba was also an outspoken opponent of apartheid in South Africa.[6] Garba remained president for the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth special sessions of the assembly, on Apartheid, drug abuse, and international economic co-operation respectively.
In 1979, Garba was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, and made a Grand Officer of the Ordre National Du Bénin ("National Order of Benin"). He wrote a number of books, including Revolution in Nigeria: Another View (1982), Diplomatic Soldiering (1987), and Fractured History: Elite Shifts and Policy Changes in Nigeria (1995), and was awarded an honorary doctoral degree from the State University of New York in 1991.[1]
In his later years Garba was reported as holding a desire to lead Nigeria, and said so publicly in 1995.[4] He joined the All Nigeria People's Party, although he was never elected to public office. From 1999 he was Director General of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Nigeria, and while carrying out the duties of this office in Abuja he died on June 1, 2002. Garba was survived by his wife and six children. Following his death the president of the Nigerian Senate, Anyim Pius, described Garba as "one of [Nigeria's] finest diplomats, patriots and staunch advocates of an indivisible and indissolable African continent",[7] referring to Garba's strong belief in and advocacy of Pan-Africanism.
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Dante Maria Caputo |
President of the United Nations General Assembly 1989–1990 |
Succeeded by Guido de Marco |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Arikpo Okoi |
Foreign Minister of Nigeria 1975–1978 |
Succeeded by Henry Adefope |
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