Ex-U.N. Leader Joseph Garba Dies

By GILBERT Da COSTA
Associated Press Writer

June 3, 2002, 4:19 PM EDT

ABUJA, Nigeria -- Joseph Garba, a former Nigerian foreign minister and
anti-apartheid campaigner who later became president of the U.N. General
Assembly, has died. He was 59.

Garba chaired a U.N. committee dedicated to fighting South African
white-minority rule in the 1980s before leading the General Assembly
beginning in 1989. He died Saturday in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, after a
brief illness.

Born in Langtang, Garba spent nearly two decades in Nigeria's military
before serving as minister of foreign affairs under consecutive military
regimes led by Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo.

Garba then became Nigeria's permanent representative to the United Nations
and served as General Assembly president for a year.

In the 1990s, Garba became a political analyst and moved back to Nigeria.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Garba "a leading figure" in
Nigeria's campaign against apartheid. Obasanjo, a close friend of Garba who
became Nigeria's elected president in 1999, also expressed grief.

Garba is survived by his wife, a son and five daughters.

Copyright (c) 2002, The Associated Press

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