Paul Ohia
22 July 2007
interview
Lagos — Emmanuel Gagniarre is the Press Attache to the French embassy in Nigeria. In this interview, he speaks to Paul Ohia about his passions and his decision to serve in Nigeria.
I was born in a small town in the centre of France, called Autun. A peaceful and old town, which celebrated its 2000 years of existence some 15 years ago. It actually was much bigger at the time of the Roman Empire. Its name then was Augustodunum. It had a university with 12,000 students. Today Autun has only 22,000 inhabitants. There's still a lot to discover from that time: a Roman theatre, a Roman temple, parts of the protection wall that surrounded the city, a section of the road that was used by Roman soldiers to go to Rome etc.
My mother still lives there. One of my brothers (I have 4 brothers) owns a plant there that produces metal pieces of machinery. I always go back to Autun for at least one or two days when I visit France.
And I studied there in a military college, before going to the regional capital, Dijon, where I studied public law for 4 years, and history. I also studied political science one year in Paris. My parents didn't have a lot of money which explains why the first 3 of their sons (they had 5 boys, and no girl to the great displeasure of my father!) were sent to military colleges, where teaching was excellent and free.
When did you start your career as diplomat?
I started in New York, at the Consulate general there. We used to say that the consulate in New York is a hotel-restaurant kind of mission because of the huge number of visitors that we had to take care of; ministers, officials and delegations of all kinds ... New York is a very appealing and attractive centre, whatever your field can be. The Big Apple was a wonderful experience for me, both professionally and personally. My two kids were born in New York and have the dual citizenship, French and American.
Can you tell me about your marriage?
I met my wife in San Fransisco. She's French. She was travelling with a female friend with the ambition to circle the world, and I was there to study English before starting a PhD in political science at Stanford, which I didn't do at the end of the day. I want to believe that the very special atmosphere of San Francisco was the reason why I gave up at the last minute. Anyway, we met there and we got married there at the City Hall. The ceremony lasted about 10 minutes. Every couple had a number waiting outside the judge's office where we were successively called for ... about 10 minutes. Then we had a great dinner with friends in a good French restaurant of San Francisco.
What do you do in your spare time, when you are not on duty?
When I was much younger, I started to play what some of my friends I would call a sport for elderly: golf. Today, I still love this crazy game with this stupid little white ball that you run after with obsession for 4 hours. And I start fitting the definition of the golf player according to my friends. I also go to the movies at times, now that we have a movie theatre in Abuja. I spend also a lot of time with friends, Nigerian as well as French.
Do you have a place you tour often in Nigeria?
During this first year in Nigeria, I had the great privilege to travel several times with the Ambassador during some of his trips around the country. I also try to go regularly to Lagos where a lot of the press are based. Kano, Katsina, Kaduna, Bauchi, Jos, Niger State, Owerri,
Port Harcourt ... I know it might seem a bit strange but I kind of like Lagos and its "craziness". I've always liked huge cities where you can feel~overwhelming energetic with its brutality. I like cities like Bangkok, New York, Los Angeles, Paris ...
How many countries have you served and what has been your experience?
After New York, I was sent to beautiful South Africa, one year after Nelson Mandela was released from jail. I stayed there during the transition period until the first multi-racial elections. The time was historic and tense. I have great souvenirs from South Africa despite the dangers linked to this turbulent time, and a skyrocketing crime rate. A lot of rugby in South Africa, my favourite sport (with golf). I had the opportunity to shake President Mandela's hand several times and this is, for me, worth a million.
Next was Cote d'Ivoire just before the regime collapsed and things turned sour. There too I met a lot of very interesting people. As a former colony of France, ties have always been strong and difficult at the same time between the two countries.
Following these two postings in Africa: Singapore, the "fine" city as Singaporeans themselves call their tiny island. Fine because everything is nice and works perfectly, is efficient and clean, positive and dynamic. Fine also because a lot of things are forbidden there and you can get a lot of fines if you're not cautious enough, for chewing gum for instance, or throwing a cigarette butt on the pavement etc. In 40 years, Singapore which was a swamp became number one in many sectors of business and banking. It's a truly amazing country. Then back to the US, in Washington this time. It was a rather difficult time especially for the communication department where I was. I arrived in Washington about 6 months before the war in Iraq started. Our position against the war was rejected at the time by a huge majority of Americans. At some point we were receiving more than a thousand e-mail messages a day! The least we can say is that things have changed since then! There was such a euphoria among the public opinion that the war would last only a few months and that Western civilization would soon spread all around this region of the world. The disappointment is today very strong. Springs and Falls in Washington are gorgeous. The nature is beautiful. I used to live in a residential area in Maryland, one day while stepping out of my house to pick up my newspaper there a deer was right there in front of me. Life was very comfortable. It's a vibrant intellectual centre with all the think tanks and institutes which really set the tone on all major issues ofthe day, and shape the political and social life in the US, and probably much beyond the US as well.
When you got the news of transfer to Nigeria, how did you feel? Did your family like it?
First of all, you cannot be surprised because you are rarely sent somewhere you haven't applied for. When you are on the verge of changing posts you're asked where you want to go according to availabilities of course. In my case, I was very eager to go. I knew I had to leave Washington after 4 years, I was ready to go. I do like challenging postings. Nigeria was the perfect destination for me, but not for my family. My wife and kids stayed in Washington for various reasons. One was that my wife, who works for the Ministry of foreign affairs as well, had the opportunity to stay one more year there. Another is that my son is in the American education system. He will finish high school there.
What is your impression about Nigeria before you were transfered to serve here?
Let's be honest. Nigeria's image is not good. When you're not in the country and able to see the whole picture, what you get from the news about Nigeria is dreadful: kidnappings, crimes
of all kinds, scams of all kinds etc. I also had in mind the image of a huge and populous country, a giant in Africa, which could count on a lot of wealth thanks to oil, which had extremely wealthy people and more than 2/3 of its population living under poverty line.
Now that you have been serving here, how can you describe the people of Nigeria across all geo-political zones?
Very often when you get to a new post you are a bit disappointed, because the image you had in mind was over positive. In the case of Nigeria, the image of the country is usually so negative that you can only be positively impressed by what you actually see. Nothing is ever only black or white. A society and particularly this one because of its size is always complex. There's always good things to get from a country or people. More likely so in such a big country.
I find the people of Nigeria very resilient and very creative. Those are two adjectives I would use. Resilience in spite of all the difficulties, which is a sign of fundamental optimism and hope for a better future. Creative because or thanks to those difficulties. But again, the country is so big and so different from one place to another, from one ethnic group and language to another, I am aware it's difficult to find words that can fit all. Nigeria has here an incredible asset through the richness of its diversity in people and talents.
What interests you most about Nigeria and her people?
I have always been an addict to politics, French politics of course but also South African politics when I'm there or Nigerian politics since I've been here. And I must say that in this field, there's more here than we can handle. I had been told that football was the national sport, but it actually is politics. It is a pity that politics have, like football, its hooligans.
As the press attache of the French Embassy, I'm very fortunate to have to deal with such a lively and diverse press. It's really a good source of information especially if you read more than just one newspaper, and a good barometer of the Nigerian public opinion.
Did you ever have any sad experience since you have been serving here?
No, I have personally never had to face bad experiences here yet, even though I know of people who had.
When you leave Nigeria, what will you tell people about the country?
I would say about Nigeria, as I would say about any other country, go there and make your own assessment. A country cannot be reduced to one or two cliches. I would also say that Nigeria has enormous potential and that one day its people will make the best of it, because, as I has said earlier, its people is creative and has shown that it wants peace, democracy. Overall it wants to improve its standard of living. If it can enjoy the benefit of economic growth, it can do great things and bring the world a lot.
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