By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
One of the most consequential United States ambassadors to Nigeria, Walter Carrington, is dead.
His Nigerian-born wife, Arese, announced the death on Wednesday in a press statement titled, “Ambassador Walter C. Carrington, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and Senegal.”
She wrote: “It is with a heavy and broken heart but with gratitude to God for his life of selfless humanity that I announce the passing of my beloved husband Walter Carrington, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria and Senegal.
“He passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones at the age of 90 years old on Tuesday, August 11th, 2020.
“Further announcements will be made shortly.
“Walter was a loving husband, father, grandfather, cousin, uncle, friend and in-law.
“Ralph Waldo Emerson said…It is not the length of life but the depth of life.
“Walter was fortunate, his life had both length and depth.
“God Bless,
Arese Carrington.”
Carrington who served as the U.S. Ambassador to Senegal from 1980 to 1981, was appointed by U.S. President Bill Clinton in 1993 as the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, where he remained until 1997.
His ties to Nigeria were deep; he had married into a Nigerian family and had lived in three Nigerian cities since the late 1960s.
Carrington, who graduated from the Harvard Law School, enlisted in the US Army, where one of his assignments was as an enlisted man with the Judge Advocate General Corps.
Upon separation from the military, he entered a private law practice in Boston, Massachusetts. During that time, he also served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, the youngest person to serve until that date.
He held various positions in the Peace Corp from 1961 to 1971, serving as Country Director in Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Tunisia and then as Regional Director for Africa (1969–71).
From 1971 to 1980, he was Executive Vice President of the African-American Institute.