Adieu President Hage Geingob

I met President Hage Geingob of Namibia, whose death today, 3 February 2024, has just been announced by the Acting President of Namibia up close on July 7, 2018, at the Memorial Symposium organized by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), my former employer, to honor its former Executive Secretary, Prof Adebayo Adedeji, who had died earlier in the year.

Also present at the event, held at the Radisson Blue Hotel, Ikeja GRA were Nigeria’s former Head of State Dr. Yakubu Gowon, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, Buhari’s Chief of Staff, and my late friend, Ambassador Ejeviome Eloho Otobo.

President Geingob was supremely simple. Unless one was told, it was impossible to know that a serving African president was at the hotel and at the event. He had traveled from far away Windhoek, Namibia to Lagos, Nigeria to honour and eulogize the late Prof. Adedeji who he said was a great friend of Namibia and his mentor.

President Geingob was neither officious nor self-important. His delegation was very small. I do not recall much of his speech at the event. But this I recall: he interacted freely without any affectation with all of us at the event as human beings; ?his voice was rich, his speech direct, and his laughter impossible not to notice. He left a very strong impression on me. I wished that my own country’s leaders were as simple and as unassuming yet focused on their job as President Geingob.

I am in no position to comment on how well he ran his country - competently or incompetently. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. The impression I left Radisson Blue, Ikeja GRA on 7 July 2018 was that the late President Geingob was a very decent human being, a true son of our continent. Namibia has lost a great leader, and Africa has lost a great son. May his family and the people of Namibia as they mourn, derive strength from his selfless, patriotic service to their nation. May President Hage Geingob’s soul rest in peace.

?(c) kasirim nwuke

4 February 2024