Bengahazi, Libya October 3rd 2011
The President of the Transitional National Council of Libya HE Mustafa Abdeljalil had graciously consented to receive me in audience at his makeshift palace in the coastal city of Benghazi. Tripoli had fallen to the rebel forces a few weeks earlier, and hundreds if not thousands of black Africans (most of them Nigerians and of Nigerian descent) who had served in the Ghaddafi military were being rounded up.
President Goodluck Jonathan desperately wanted to speak directly to the only symbol of authority in Libya. That authority was in Bengahazi; the coastal city under total air and naval blockade by the Northern Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and it’s allies. It was a dangerous place to be much less fly into. But someone had to and the President determined it was myself, Dr Nuruddeen Muhammad, Nigeria’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs 2. It didn’t matter to anyone that I was by then only two months on the job. Afterall, I had checked most of the boxes; young and still probably with a good heart and adventurous too. It was also Africa and he later was to be referring to me as simply his Minister in charge of Africa
The Nigerian Emabssy in Brussels Belgium had to write to the NATO Headquarters in the same city for air clearance, otherwise, the plane accompanying me and my team might be declared an enemy carrier and could be taken down. I wasn’t comfortable with the arrangement but one had to brave it all through
NATO responded a few hours to our mission. It had given clearance for the Nigeria’s Executive Presidential Aircraft, Falcon 7X with the registration number 5NFGO to and from Benghazi, Libya, on 3rd October, 2011. There was another caveat, the plane has to first fly into Europe to approach the Libyan airspace as Benghazi bound and then exit through the same corridor. That jerked the total travel time to about 18hrs and everything had to happen within the same 24hrs. No sleep over in Benghazi. And even if there were such opportunities, the Nigerian Airforce Crew in charge of the plane weren’t excited about it
Falcon 7X 5NFGO took off at 4am from the Presidential wing of the Nmandi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja, flew directly into Europe and then approached Bengahazi from the west over multitudes of Greek Islands. The inbound journey took 10hrs. It had fallen behind schedules. This could translate into real dangers both on the ground in Bengahazi and to our outbound flight into Europe…………..
I shall speak on this and many more expeditions tomorrow the 2nd of May, 2019 @ The MIAD Hall, Department of Political Science and International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences ABU Zaria
