In 1962, I was asked by my President, Justin Dart, to travel to Nigeria, where I was to meet John Bowles, President of the Rexall Drug Division, coming from Los Angeles, in order to study the viability of manufacturing proprietary drugs locally, a project proposed by the Rockefeller Institute. At that time, I was running the Dart Group’s European business out of Brussels.
John and I duly met up in Lagos, and started to make our contacts in the business and government worlds. It became rapidly apparent that the real power in the country was in the Moslem North, where the Sultan of Sokoto had his palace in Kano. It should be explained that Nigeria had only recently gained its independence, but the power base that the British used, the Great Hausa and Fulani tribal lands, continued to control the country. In fact, the Sultan, with his tribal chiefs, virtually ran Nigeria .The British had always counted on the tough and reliable Northerners as colonial partners as well for soldiering in their wars in Europe. The coastal tribes were considered to be to be too soft and corrupt. (They were right; look at Nigeria today).
Our agent was a very clever Egyptian Jew, a refugee from Nasser. It was through him, and aided by goodness knows what “influence money", we duly met the Sultan, a very impressive figure in a huge desert palace guarded by mounted Touregs carrying scimitars. Business was discussed in the Sultan’s perfect English in a dining room dominated by a large picture of the coronation of King George V, which his grandfather had attended. The business discussions went well, and we were told afterwards that there would be follow-up sessions with certain Government civil servants in Lagos, the capitol.
That evening, I was offered not only one of the Sultan’s bedrooms, but one of his wives, as well. (I did not take advantage of the latter courtesy).
But this story is not about my adventures in Nigeria, so I will proceed back to Brussels where I filed my report. (The project was eventually abandoned).
While I was in Lagos, I had run across an old friend and college classmate, and we swapped stories of our respective careers. At the time, he was a Foreign Service officer, attached to the U. S. Embassy. Back to him later.
After several months, I received a call from our Embassy asking if I could receive the Naval Attaché, no reason given. Of course, I agreed, but was very surprised when the smartly-uniformed officer appeared in our offices in less than a half hour. Rather officiously, he asked me to shut my office door, and stated that his visit was of the highest importance. I was intrigued, especially since the first sentence that the man uttered was;
“Mr. Eckelberry, you should know that over the past weeks, a careful investigation into your life and background has been conducted, and I am pleased to say that you now enjoy TOP SECRET status".
This took me aback and I started to be a little concerned. I asked him why such an investigation had taken place without my knowledge, and he replied ; “An agency of the U. S. Government has determined that you will be a key player in an important intelligence operation , and it is hoped that you will accept to help, as A LOYAL AMERICAN CITIZEN" ( my caps, but the emphasis was his).
He explained that there was a great need for intelligence in the higher circles of the Lagos elite, as there were rumors of a separatist movement brewing among the the Igbos of the Southeast in the Province of Biafra,where all the oil fields are found .There were reports that the French , (de Gaulle’s government) were helping to foment this movement .
My friend at the Embassy in Lagos remembered our conversation in which I described one of our European businesses, Tupperware, and the system of home parties. From this, he developed the idea of gleaning secret political information from the gossip of wives of Government officials, as they attended Tupperware tea parties! He would act as our unofficial agent in Nigeria and organize the parties. Having sold the idea to Washington, he had requested that I be the first to be informed, and to eventually persuade my superiors in Los Angeles to cooperate in the scheme.
My first reactions to this rather bizarre scheme were negative. I pointed out that Tupperware was designed for use in the preservation of food in Western fridges, and that the humid African markets had never even been considered commercially. Furthermore, I had my doubts that Justin Dart would be part of a spy operation, and a strange one at that.
My naval friend understood my reluctance, but simply asked me to meet, very informally, certain gentlemen from Washington the next time I was in the U.S. It was hard for me to say “no “to such a non-committal request, and I admit that my curiosity had been aroused.
As it happened, I was due to go to L. A. just one week later (did he know this?), so it was arranged that I would meet two gentlemen in the Grammercy Park hotel in New York. In those pre-jet days, I usually broke my trip with a one day stop over on the East Coast.
(To be continued)
Labels: Tener Eckelberry
