The Foreign Service Journal, June 2012

came with a small entourage, further widening my circle of ANC contacts. The fact that I’d spent most of my career in Africa enhanced my credibil- ity, as did my maiden speech at a major Johannesburg gala evening of CEOs, in which I laid out in stark terms the dis- astrous course on which the apartheid leadership was taking the country and the need for dramatic change. Although my relations with the apartheid government of Pres. De Klerk were correct, U.K. Ambassador Robin Renwick tended to take the lead in dealing with it, while we concen- trated on cultivating ties to the black South African leadership. But to show sensitivity to Afrikaner culture, I took lessons in Afrikaans (helped by my flu- ency in German) and used it when I could, including at church — though I usually attended a different black African church each Sunday. FSJ: Reflecting on your year as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria (1992-1993), you’ve been quoted as expressing regret that you were unable to dissuade Pres- ident Gen. Ibrahim Babangida from canceling national elections, leading to a long delay in the country’s return to democracy. Two decades later, how do you assess Nigeria’s progress? WLS: Actually, the elections had al- ready been held; it was the vote count- ing that Babangida did not like, because his opponent, M.K.O. Abiola, was well ahead. Street protests over the government’s decision to annul the process caused many deaths in the streets of Lagos and other large cities, and led to the imprisonment of leading political figures like former President Olesegun Obasanjo. That unrest is why I recommended toWashington that we evacuate the embassy. Over the past two decades, Nigeria has returned to elected leadership and an alternation of power. But the gov- ernment now faces another kind of challenge: reconciling the various eth- nic and religious communities within Africa’s largest population, while striv- ing to attract investment, boost the economy and create jobs to reduce the economic imbalances within Nigerian society. Having led two United Nations peacekeeping missions, I want to ap- plaud Nigeria’s contributions to peace- keeping, both within the Economic Community of West African States re- gional framework and in missions on behalf of the U.N. FSJ: You then spent five years as ambassador to Port-au-Prince, from 1993 to 1998. During that period, a U.S.-led multinational force returned exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to office three years after a mil- itary coup had ousted him. Looking back, do you feel Aristide’s return ad- vanced democracy in Haiti? J U N E 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 21