PRESS RELEASE                JULY 22, 2015

SIR SHRIDATH (SONNY) RAMPHAL, FORMER COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY-GENERAL, TO ARRIVE IN NIGERIA ON SUNDAY FOR ABUJA EPA PARLEY.

FORMER COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY-GENERAL Sir Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal, is visiting Nigeria next week at the invitation of Africa Today, the leading pan-African newsmagazine.

Sir Ramphal will be the special guest of honour at the international conference on the EU-ECOWAS Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) organised by Africa Today in partnership with the Bank of Industry, which will take place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel from Tuesday, July 28, to Wednesday, July 29. As part of his visit to Nigeria, his historic memoirs, Glimpses of a Global Life, will also be formally presented and launched for the first time in Africa before a distinguished gathering of Commonwealth, African and European Union ambassadors in Nigeria.

The publisher of Africa Today and chief host of the conference, Mr Kayode Soyinka, told journalists in Abuja that “Sir Ramphal is a great friend of Nigeria and he has many old friends here in Nigeria, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Emeka Anyaoku who took over from him as Secretary-General. I am pleased that he has accepted our invitation to come. His choice as special guest of honour could not be better as the participants would benefit from his deep knowledge of the EPA especially as it affects the developing world and Africa in particular”.

Soyinka noted that as a great friend of Nigeria and Africa Sir Ramphal, while he was secretary-general of the Commonwealth championed many laudable causes including the anti-apartheid cause especially with his Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group (EPG) which Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Australia’s former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser co-chaired. "His coming to Nigeria, and also the arrival of Sir Ronald Sanders who is contesting to be the next Secretary-General for the EPA conference, is a reflection of the international community's acceptance of Nigeria as a thriving democracy, especially with the transparent way in which our president Muhammadu Buhari was recently elected," Soyinka added. 

This is Sir Ramphal's first visit to Nigeria since leaving Marlborough House, the Commonwealth Secretariat, in London, as its Secretary-General in 1990. In 1975, he became the second Secretary-General of the Commonwealth serving for 15 years before handing over to Nigeria’s Chief Emeka Anyaoku in 1990.

During his tenure, the Commonwealth undertook work on global issues such as the reduction of trade protectionism, addressing the vulnerability of small states and climate change. His work at the Secretariat greatly helped the Commonwealth evolve from an association of countries with a common British heritage into one with a global outlook and a forward-looking agenda.

His presence at the Abuja conference will be instructive. It was during his tenure as Secretary-General that the first Lome Convention was held. It was the Lome Convention that later became the Lome-Cotonue agreement which has now transformed to the EPA. As Secretary-General he was involved with issues of international trade at the highest level. Following his stint at the Commonwealth Secretariat he was appointed by the heads of government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) as their Chief Negotiator for international economic negotiations, with Europe, the Americas and globally.

Sir Ramphal has also provided intellectual leadership in trade and development, and the strengthening of multilateralism. Even in retirement, Sir Ramphal is still active having established an institute, The Ramphal Institute, which has done extensive work on the EPA including adopting the techniques of using expert groups to make recommendations to governments often with a heavy emphasis on development and economic issues. His reminisce on trade diplomacy will be insightful at the Abuja EPA conference.

An international diplomat of note - he is widely considered the Caribbean's leading international statesman - Ramphal, before becoming the Commonwealth’s Secretary General, was previously Guyana’s foreign minister, from 1972 to 1975. In the 1980s he served on five independent international commissions - the Brandt Commission on International Development, the Palme Commission on Disarmament and Security Issues, the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development, the Commission on Humanitarian Issues, and the South Commission. He was also co-chair with Sweden's Prime Minister, Ingvar Carlsson, of the Independent Commission on Global Governance, which reported on issues of international development, international security, globalization and global governance.

During his visit, the Africa launch of his memoirs, Glimpses of a Global Life, first published in 2014, will also be held.

END.

Kayode Soyinka
Publisher, THE AFRICA TODAY GROUP
12 Cumberland Avenue
London NW10 7QL.