Timor-Leste Medal Awarded to Professor Babafemi A. Badejo for Peace Efforts

At the award ceremony for the Medal of the Order of Timor-Leste, Professor Babafemi A. Badejo received the honor from J. Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Laureate and President of Timor-Leste. The event took place at the Permanent Mission of Timor-Leste to the United Nations in New York on Monday, 22 September.

I accept this honour this morning not for myself alone, but for every quiet peace support operation official, every mediator, every civil society worker, every ordinary citizen who does the unglamorous work of holding a country together while nobody is watching or applauding. I accept the Order of Timor-Leste with my wife, Adejumoke, beside me. She has, over decades, survived my travel schedule, and never once complained that a plane once shook so hard over the Atlantic that her husband nearly did not return home.

Your Excellency, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen
I will be straightforward before I get emotional: I accept the Order of Timor-Leste with deep humility. Being recognized by a nation that changed from occupation to independence, and grief to government, is something an Ijebu boy will always remember.

I first learned about Timor-Leste not in school, but from a friend from Irian Jaya. This was when I was a broke PhD student at UCLA and doing research in Pakistan. Think about that for a moment, a Nigerian in Pakistan learning about Timor-Leste from an Indonesian. If that does not show that the world is a small, gossiping village, I do not know what does. But something about your fight for freedom stuck with me that year, and now, forty-five years later, I am the one receiving a medal for it.

Guinea-Bissau, and the Flight that Almost Ended Both Our Careers
Your Excellency has chosen the International Day of Peace to honour me, and I find it fitting. Our friendship grew during the challenging task of making peace. When I was your Chief of Staff in Guinea-Bissau, your vision was larger, but we ended up focusing on getting soldiers back to their barracks and politicians into office through voting.

Let me tell you about the flight from Banjul to Dakar. It was a short flight of about twenty minutes. Halfway through, the little plane started shaking so badly that I accepted it was the end. As a devoted Catholic, I suspect you made peace with your Maker, though you were too presidential to show it. We landed only to be told, cheerfully, that a part of the plane had fallen off mid-flight. Not a cushion. Not a tray table. A part of the plane. Your Excellency, if that is not team building, I do not know what is. You nearly put us down over the Atlantic, with me and a few others.

Our friendship grew into what I call a Big Brother Bossman relationship. You visited Nigeria to see President Goodluck Jonathan, and my wife and I had the joy of hosting you at a small party in Abuja. In March 2022, in the thick of a presidential campaign, you still found time to chair the public presentation of my book at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, which says something about either your generosity or your ability to say ‘yes’ to things while tired; I suspect both.

But it was not all turbulence. I remember when we went to Abuja and President Goodluck Jonathan was so impressed by you that he asked us to send away the UN flight, enjoy Abuja, and join his flight to Abidjan. While enjoying Abuja, you asked me if I wanted to stay with you in Bissau or move on to Sierra Leone as suggested by your predecessor. I am glad I chose to stay in Bissau.

In Abidjan, you showed your skills in speech delivery. ECOWAS Heads of State stood and applauded you, no small feat, given how tense the relations between ECOWAS and your mission had been before you arrived. You turned suspicion into applause, which in West African politics is like turning water into wine.

A Very Dignified Contest of Generosity
Now, Your Excellency, I must gently put something on the record, in front of witnesses. When Guinea-Bissau needed support for its 2014 elections, tiny Timor-Leste, your Timor-Leste, came forward with $8 million. Nigeria, a big country, responded with $7 million. I have thought about this for twelve years. I still do not have an explanation. Maybe it was your persuasive powers; maybe Timor-Leste just refuses to be outdone by anyone. Either way, big brother Nigeria came second, and ECOWAS as an institution came third. I have decided that the most diplomatic thing to do today is not to reveal what the major powers, who had been loudest at the UN, contributed.

You never let anyone think that elections alone were peace. You kept reminding the world that Guinea-Bissau’s issues were for its politicians and its military, never its people. From that belief came the Governance Efficacy Amelioration Programme, your quiet insistence that a nation cannot be rebuilt with votes alone; it needs the slow, less photogenic work of fixing what is broken underneath.

I thank the people of Timor-Leste, especially the technical team they sent to Guinea-Bissau to support the elections of 2014 in Guinea-Bissau. I very much acknowledge and pay tribute to Nigeria’s role in stabilising Guinea-Bissau under then-President Goodluck Jonathan, ECOWAS lead President on Guinea-Bissau, working through HE Godwin Agama, the Nigerian Ambassador.

Beyond the Office
Our friendship grew into what I call a Big Brother Bossman relationship. You visited Nigeria to see President Goodluck Jonathan, and my wife and I had the joy of hosting you at a small party in Abuja. In March 2022, in the thick of a presidential campaign, you still found time to chair the public presentation of my book at Chrisland University, Abeokuta, which says something about either your generosity or your ability to say ‘yes’ to things while tired; I suspect both. And in May 2022, my wife and I stood in Dili to watch you sworn in as president again, and to celebrate twenty years of your flag flying free. Even as President, you found time to attend a symposium for my 70th birthday, where you met and had a relaxed chat with my British secondary school teacher, who later told me he did not realize he was chatting with the President of a nation.

I accept this honour this morning not for myself alone, but for every quiet peace support operation official, every mediator, every civil society worker, every ordinary citizen who does the unglamorous work of holding a country together while nobody is watching or applauding. I accept the Order of Timor-Leste with my wife, Adejumoke, beside me. She has, over decades, survived my travel schedule, and never once complained that a plane once shook so hard over the Atlantic that her husband nearly did not return home. I accept it, too, with our children, grandchildren, and the whole Badejo family, who have watched this cross-continent friendship from the sidelines.

I thank the people of Timor-Leste, especially the technical team they sent to Guinea-Bissau to support the elections of 2014. I very much acknowledge and pay tribute to Nigeria’s role in stabilising Guinea-Bissau under then-President Goodluck Jonathan, ECOWAS lead President on Guinea-Bissau, working through HE Godwin Agama, the Nigerian Ambassador. I also acknowledge President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire, then chairman of ECOWAS, who acted through his Special Adviser, the late HE Mamadi Diagne; the African Union Special Envoy, HE Ovídio Manuel Barbosa Pequeno; and the ECOWAS Special Envoy, Ambassador Ansumana Ceesay.

President Ramos-Horta, I thank you for this great honour you gave me on behalf of Timor-Leste and everyone who has worked quietly and without medals for peace in the world. I am deeply, and rather cheerfully, grateful.