Book Review by Prof Ibrahim A. Gambari, CFR, OCORT
Book Title:Mediating For Peace In Africa – A
Festschrift In Honour Of Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, GCFR
PROTOCOLS
INTRODUCTION
1. It is with some trepidations that I stand before this exalted audience to review this festschrift in honour of H.E. General Abdulsalami Abubakar, GCFR, because it is like writing a confidential report on a former Head of State of Nigeria and who was also twice my direct boss – first, as his Ambassador to the United Nations and second, as a member of the Nigerian Peace Committee of which he is Chairman. However, I feel encouraged and honoured to do so for the same reasons and more, the title of the book, Mediating for Peace in Africa, is also a subject on which I have also been engaged for a huge portion of my adult life. Moreover, by a remarkable coincidence General Abubakar, was my exact contemporary secondary school from 1957 to 1962; he at famous Bida Government Secondary School and this reviewer at the Ilorin Provincial (now Government) Secondary School. Moreover, the three editors of the book, Professors Isaac Olawale Albert, Babafemi A. Badejo and Mohammed Kuta Yahaya, are my personal friends and academic colleagues.
II. THE MAN AT THE CENTRE OF THE BOOK
2. Here’s what you need to understand about Gen. Abubakar. In June 1998, Nigeria’s military ruler, Sani Abacha, died suddenly. The country was a powder keg. International sanctions, ethnic tensions running high, and the military entrenched in power for fifteen years left civil society screaming for democracy. Abubakar became head of state, and everyone expected more of the same.
3. Instead, he did something almost unheard of in African politics; he kept his word. Eleven months. That’s all he took. He organised elections, handed power to a civilian president, and walked away. No lifetime presidency, no manufactured crisis to stay in power, no emergency decree. Just a clean transition. I’ve seen many promises broken in my time. Abubakar’s promise in 1999 stands out like a lighthouse.
4. But here’s the thing; that transition wasn’t just good politics. It became his credential for everything that followed. When you’ve voluntarily given up power in a country like Nigeria, people listen when you talk about peace. They trust you. That’s the foundation on which this whole book rests.
5. And understand this too: Nigeria in 1998 wasn’t some small country you could manage with a few phone calls. We’re talking about over 100 million people, 250 ethnic groups, and religious divisions that could tear the place apart if mishandled. He had to navigate the military establishment, which didn’t want to lose power; the international community, which was fed up with Nigeria’s pariah status; and ordinary Nigerians who’d been promised democracy before and disappointed. He pulled it off. That tells you something about his character and capabilities.
III. THE BOOK: MEDIATING FOR PEACE IN AFRICA
6. A Festschrift, for those who do not speak academic German, is essentially a collection of essays honouring someone’s work.
7. Part One looks at the big picture: peace processes, how mediation actually works, the role of regional organisations such as ECOWAS and the African Union, what makes Track Two diplomacy tick, and how you get women into peace talks where men have monopolised the table for centuries. These chapters tackle the frameworks and theories, but they’re grounded in real cases. You’re reading about Liberia, Sierra Leone, Niger, and the Gambia; places where Abubakar actually did the work.
8. Part Two delves into the specifics. Chapter after chapter on individual countries, conflicts, and peace processes. The contributors include former presidents, current mediators, academics who’ve been studying this for decades, and civil society activists who’ve been in the trenches. That mix is crucial. You get both the view from the presidential suite and the view from the refugee camp.
9. What I appreciate about the structure is that it doesn’t pretend mediation is a linear process. The chapters circle back, sometimes contradict each other, and show how complicated this work really is. That’s honest. Peace processes aren’t neat. They don’t follow flowcharts. The book reflects that reality.
10. Let me now highlight six (6) major themes in the book which address the challenges of making peace in Africa:
a) African Solutions To African Problems
11. There’s this insistence on African ownership of peace processes. I’ve heard that phrase thrown around for forty years, usually by people who don’t mean it. But this book makes a serious argument. Look at what happened in the Gambia in 2017. Yahya Jammeh lost an election and refused to leave. ECOWAS, led by African leaders, got him out. No Western intervention, no UN Security Council paralysis. Regional powers handled it.
12. Same with Liberia. Multiple civil wars, hundreds of thousands dead, the state completely collapsed. The peace process that finally worked involved African mediators, African troops, and African regional organisations. Sure, the international community helped, but the leadership was African. That shift – from waiting for Washington, Paris, or London to tell us what to do to Africa taking the lead – is real. This book documents it.
13. Now, let me be clear. This isn’t about romanticising Africa or pretending that external actors don’t matter. They do. The UN matters. Bilateral donors matter. International NGOs matter. But the point is who’s in the driver’s seat. And increasingly, it’s Africans. That matters for legitimacy, sustainability, and dignity. The book makes that case convincingly.
b) Credibility is Everything
14. Mediator credibility. Several chapters hammer this point home, and they’re right. You can have all the peace agreements in the world, but if the parties don’t trust the mediator, you’re dead in the water. Abubakar’s credibility came from the 1999 transition, but also from how he operates. The chapters describe a man who doesn’t grandstand, doesn’t play favourites, and doesn’t leak to the press. He shows up, listens, and works the problem.
15. There’s a wonderful section on his mediation in Niger after the 2009 coup. He spent months shuttling between factions, building trust and finding common ground. Not glamorous work, but it led to a constitutional referendum and new elections. That’s the kind of patient, unglamorous persistence that actually works. The book captures it well.
16. I have seen mediators destroy their credibility in an afternoon by playing games, trying to look important for the cameras, and favouring one side because it suits their country’s interests. Abubakar seems to have avoided those traps. The chapters written by people who worked with him consistently emphasise his integrity, discretion, and patience. Those aren’t soft skills. In this work, they’re the difference between success and failure.
c) Women At The Table
17. Women’s participation in peace processes. I grew up in a generation when peace talks were all men, all the time. Women made the coffee. That was it. This book documents a real shift. Multiple chapters discuss the Mano River Women’s Peace Network, efforts to bring women into the Liberian peace talks, and UN Resolution 1325 and what it actually means on the ground.
18. And here’s what matters; they’re not talking about women as victims. They’re talking about women as mediators, negotiators, and power brokers. There’s a chapter describing how Liberian women literally blockaded the peace talks until the men stopped walking out every five minutes and actually negotiated. That’s agency. That’s power. And Abubakar, to his credit, made women’s participation a priority in his foundation’s work. The book gives him due recognition for that.
19. What struck me in these chapters is the practical wisdom. It’s not just about being fair or progressive, though those matter. It’s about recognising that women often have different stakes, networks, and leverage points. They can reach communities that male elites can’t. They can build coalitions that cross ethnic or religious lines. Excluding them from peace processes isn’t just wrong. It’s stupid. It weakens the process. The book makes this clear.
d) The Unofficial Channels That Actually Work
20. Track Two diplomacy. This is the behind-the-scenes work, the unofficial channels, and the conversations that take place away from the cameras. Several chapters explain how this works in Africa, and it’s fascinating. You’ve got elders’ councils, religious leaders, traditional rulers, and civil society groups; all these parallel tracks running alongside the official negotiations.
21. The genius is that when the official talks stall (and they always do), you’ve got these other channels keeping the conversation going. Someone can float a trial balloon without committing their government. Someone can apologise without losing face. It’s messy and informal, but that’s precisely why it works. The book does a good job of explaining this, using real examples from Gen. Abubakar’s work.
22. I remember one case; I think it was Liberia, though it could have been Sierra Leone. They blur together after a while. The official talks were completely stuck. The warlords weren’t budging. But behind the scenes, traditional chiefs were talking to each other, religious leaders were praying together, and women’s groups were organising. And slowly, slowly, the pressure built until the official negotiations could move again. That’s how it actually works. The book gets that.
e) Democracy Is Hard And Almost Always Untidy
23. The relationship between peace and democracy. Here’s where the book gets complicated, which is good, because reality is complicated. Several chapters point out that you can’t simply impose elections and call it peace. Look at what happened across Africa in the 1990s and 2000s. Elections without institutional foundations, the rule of law, or civic culture often made things worse, not better.
24. But the book also argues (and I agree) that sustainable peace requires legitimate governance. People need to feel their voices count and that the system isn’t rigged against them. The trick is sequencing, patience, and institution-building. Nigeria’s 1999 transition worked partly because Abubakar took the time to set up proper electoral systems, bring in international observers, and consult widely. Quick fixes don’t work. This book understands that.
25. There’s a chapter (I think by a Nigerian academic) that examines the tension between stability and democracy. Sometimes you need a strong hand to stop the killing before you can build democratic institutions. But sometimes strongmen use ‘stability’ as an excuse to entrench themselves forever. Walking that line, knowing when to push for democratic reforms and when to accept interim arrangements, requires judgement. The book explores those tensions honestly.
f) Ecowas And The Au: Growing Up Or Are They?
26. The evolution of regional organisations. I remember when ECOWAS was a joke, and the OAU was a dictators’ club that never met a sovereignty principle it wouldn’t hide behind. This book documents a real transformation. ECOWAS now has conflict-resolution mechanisms that actually work. The AU has a Peace and Security Council that sometimes acts. The progress is uneven, sure, but it’s real.
27. Abubakar’s work with these organisations (as a mediator and as a trusted elder statesman) helped build their credibility. Several chapters analyse specific interventions, showing what worked and what didn’t. That kind of honest assessment is valuable. We need more of it.