Guardian

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do foryour country”—John F Kennedy

Azazi asked what he could do for his country.

HE served and carried himself so well as an Officer and a Gentleman that General Owoye Andrew Azazi (rtd) was our own Colin Powell. Having risen to the highest military rank attained yet by any officer in Nigeria and served across the top spectrum of the military-strategic complex, he could have insisted on a well-deserved rest. But he remained in such high demand and he was so accustomed to service that he had little choice than to keep serving his various communities in diverse ways.

On Thursday, December 6, 2012, the Bayelsa State Post-Flood Management Committee was inaugurated by Governor Seriake Dickson, with General Azazi as Chairman. Fourteen other eminent persons and myself were appointed members, with me serving as Secretary at the onset. That and his genial way gained me the passport to address him, with admiration, as “General” over the nine-day period till his final departure from our earthly terrain.  Probably unknown to him, he taught me and the great men and women in our Committee several simple but profound lessons within that brief period. I will give only a few instances.

What resonated most with me from his brief response at the inauguration was his effortless hint about giving. He reminded us that besides what Government and the big donors may offer, there is so much the general populace can give to help those affected by the rampaging floods of 2012. He referred to similar humanitarian situations in other climes where people did skip-a-meal-a-day for a given period, and how that collective pool of widows’ mites made much impact. He repeated it privately the following day after our Committee’s second meeting, and after we had just received a batch of relief supplies from one big corporate donor. Our dear General, your Committee will take the hint.

Also instructive was that minutes after the inauguration, he asked that we meet immediately, and then we met again the following morning. He remained in town to see we charted an initial direction. He promptly made this new service a top priority. But it was after that second and last meeting he had with the Committee that it became more evident to me the priority level he accorded his new role as, in practical terms, the Post-Flood Ambassador of Bayelsa State.

We had scheduled our third meeting to hold on the next Thursday, December 13, but he called a few days later to ask for a rescheduling on account of another commitment. As if to make up for ‘causing’ that rescheduling, he sent me an SMS text afterwards with this assurance: “I might spend whole of January in Yenagoa to get this off properly.”

Such was the humbling humility of this highly accomplished man. Four days later, I met him in Okoroba and joined in seeing him off to his flight. In the time we waited before he and Governor Yakowa boarded, I joked to him that had Okoroba been affected by the flood, that trip would have doubled for us as an impact assessment visit. His reply was no joke. To paraphrase him, he went thus: “I’ve been thinking what will be my own contribution to this thing. Whatever I’m going to use during our work, I want to pay for it myself. I’m arranging for a boat that I will station in Bayelsa for about a month; a comfortable boat that we can use to go from community to community for assessment. If necessary, we can sleep in it overnight and move on to the next community instead of coming back to Yenagoa before going to other communities. The only constraint is tha t it’s not big enough to contain all members of the Committee ...”

It was a confirmation, if any was needed, that he was committed to his January-in-Bayelsa plan and was making logistics arrangements at personal cost towards it. From that moment, even before he finally went aboard the Navy Augusta, the definition of Azazi as an exemplar of modesty and service etched itself firmly in my mind. In banter with the rest of the waiting entourage, he enthusiastically recalled how he facilitated the rebuilding of Ayakoromo Community in Delta State by the military, a point he had broached earlier in one of our Committee meetings while indicating ways in which the military could be useful to our work. It underlined how he might want to be remembered by people and communities.

Our Committee is still reeling from the tragic loss of our great Chairman. But these virtuous memories of the gentle, genial and genteel General will inspire us throughout our work. His memory will be a lasting, priceless resource for us. To emulate those virtues would be the worthy way to honour his legacy. We ask only for the enabling grace of God to help us in imbibing and applying more this spirit of availability and labour of love that our Chairman represented.

Finally, the Bayelsa State Post-Flood Management Committee is thankful to the Lord for granting us the blessing of General Owoye Andrew Azazi’s company and leadership for the time that he was with us. May the Almighty grant him eternal repose.

Wills sent this piece on behalf of the Bayelsa State Post-Flood Management Committee.