Nigerian diplomat Lilian Ono publishes foreign service memoir
Former Nigerian career diplomat Lilian Ono has published a memoir, Diplomatic Bedlam: Interactions with Humans, Mutants, Variants & Quadruple Variants in the Diplomatic Service. The 495-page book is dedicated to her nearly 30 years of work in Nigeria’s diplomatic service.
As Premium Times Nigeria writes in a review by lawyer Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, the memoir was published in 2026 by Spines in Florida. The author describes her experience working in the foreign service system, including service in Jamaica and Namibia.
Diplomatic career
According to the review, Ono joined Nigeria’s diplomatic service in 1993, during the rule of Ibrahim Babangida. After her first week of training, she went to England, but at her father’s request agreed to try a diplomatic career for one more year and ultimately worked an additional 29 years.
Ono ended her service under the presidency of Muhammadu Buhari as a career ambassador. She was Nigeria’s high commissioner to Namibia and had previously headed Nigeria’s mission in Jamaica. In the memoir, according to the review, she recalls that some Nigerian diplomats considered an assignment to Jamaica undesirable because of concerns over their children’s access to cannabis.
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Claims in the memoir
Odinkalu writes that Ono alleges in her recollections that there was bribery in the diplomatic service: in her account, money could secure grades during training, desirable appointments, and the opportunity to remain in certain positions longer. She also describes some diplomats turning to traditional healers.
Separately, the author recalls that her appointment to Vienna was canceled after a conversation with an ambassador. According to her account, he demanded that a woman be sent to the mission to entertain his political associates.
Another episode in the memoir concerns a visit by former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo to Jamaica. According to Ono’s recollections, she learned of his arrival less than a day before the event while she was in Cuba. A dispute arose at the airport over who would accompany the former president, after which the diplomat insisted that he get into the Nigerian mission’s vehicle.
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