THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
Professor Tam David-West, a Nigerian academic, former government minister and critic, died at 83 on Monday.
David-West was petroleum minister under General Muhammadu Buhari in the 1980s and became an ardent supporter of his former boss when Buhari embraced democracy.
The retired professor of virology, who died after being admitted to the University College Hospital Ibadan, was an elder statesman who was courted by the media for his views on issues of national significance.
Between 1975 and 1979, David-West served in government as commissioner of education and a member of the Executive Council of Rivers State.
He was also a member of the 50-person Constitution Drafting Committee for the Federal Military Government of General Murtala Muhammed.
Under the military government of Muhammadu Buhari, he served as federal minister of petroleum and energy and as minister of mines, power, and steel under General Ibrahim Babangida.
He was eventually removed as minister and arrested by the Babangida regime for allegedly contributing to the economic adversity of the country, but he was discharged and acquitted by a Special Appeal Court on 8 August 1991.
After he was acquitted, David-West decided to, largely, stay out of partisan politics and morphed into an outspoken and controversial critic of successive governments.
However, he was a vocal supporter of Buhari, his former boss, with whom he had developed a cordial relationship.
Kola Tella
