General(rtd)Owoye Andrew Azazi(bespectacled), Nigeria’s immediate past National Security Adviser
VANGUARD
December 15, 2012
A military helicopter has reportedly
crashed near Yenagoa in Bayelsa State, Saturday evening. Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State and former National Security Adviser, NSA, General Owoye Azazi were said to be in the naval aircraft at the time of the crash.
Others in the ill-fated crash include a
top politician from Kaduna state Dudas Tsoho, Azazi’s orderly, the pilot and his co-pilot.
Vanguard gathered that the victims
were returning to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, from the funeral of the father of Douglas Oronto, Special Adviser to the President on Research and Documentation at Nembe area of Bayelsa, when the helicopter crashed into the creeks. The helicopter was said to have burst into flames immediately.
The victims of the ill-fated chopper
according to a former youth president
of Okoroba community, Hitler Adumion who spoke to Vanguard from the scene of the crash, were burnt beyond recognition. The former youth president said, “we became suspicious when we noticed thick smoke coming from the forest and we organized a search party to trace the source and stumbled on the
crash scene. Though we don’t know the identities of the victims but the helicopter is still burning, with bodies
burnt beyond recognition.”
Efforts to get reactions from naval
authorities, the Joint Task Force, JTF and the Air Force on the tragedy proved abortive as they all refused to disclose the identities of the victims.
However, one of the officials, specifically told Vanguard that there are normal channels to follow when such tragic incident occur – notifying the families of the deceased first before going public.
Beegeagle's Blog 
Yo me this is a classic arrangee…now JNI can have a muslim as gov of Kaduna!
A national tragedy. Yakowa was a true statesman and bridge builder who worked tirelessly for for northern reconciliation and national unity.
May their souls rest in perfect peace, amen.
BACKGROUNDER: GOVERNOR PATRICK IBRAHIM YAKOWA, A TRUE PIONEER
Ever since the excision of the area now known as Katsina state from the Old Kaduna state in 1987 and with it the coming into existence of Kaduna state as we know it today, a burning issue which has remained at the centrestage of political discourse has been the high octane matter of a power shift from the muslim Hausa-Fulani dominated northern half of the state to the multiethnic and majority Christian southern half.
Situated in a zone of transition between the majority Christian region of Central Nigeria and the overwhelmingly muslim Far North, Kaduna state has been strategic to national calculations for as long as anyone can remember and for a myriad of reasons.
The city of Kaduna, capital of Kaduna state, came into existence in 1907 as the first planned city in Nigeria and regional capital of the defunct region of Northern Nigeria. It played host to the Headquarters Garrison of the Royal West African Frontier Force and was a major railway junction town on the 1,200 kilometre Lagos-Kano railroad.
In Zaria, the state boasts what is easily the intellectual capital of Northern Nigeria with an assortment of military training institutions, research institutes, a polytechnic, a degree-awarding College of Education and the octopoidal Ahmadu Bello University.
In the realm of military training institutions and facilities, Kaduna state occupies a very strategic position in the nation’s calculations. The four major garrison towns of Kaduna, Zaria, Jaji and Kachia variously play host to the following military formations
KADUNA
HQ Garrison 1 Mechanised Division, Nigerian Army
HQ Training Command, Nigerian Air Force
Nigerian Defence Academy
Defence Industries Corporation
JAJI
Armed Forces Command and Staff College
Nigerian Army Peace Keeping Centre
Nigerian Army School of Infantry
Infantry Corps Centre
ZARIA
Recruit Training Depot, Nigerian Army
Nigerian Military School
Nigerian Army School of Military Police
11 Field Engineers Regiment
KACHIA
Nigerian Army School of Artillery
The murky side to life in Kaduna state lies in her chequered history of ethnoreligious violence, the most severe outbreaks of which were the Maitatsine uprising of the early 1980s, the Kafanchan religious riots of 1987 which triggered off riots elsewhere across Northwestern Nigeria, the Zangon Kataf crisis of 1992 and the cataclysmic February 2000 Sharia-related crisis.
Depending on who you ask, analysts are wont to suggest that the much narrowed gap between the christain and muslim populations of the Kaduna state which emerged in the wake of the excision of the overwhelmingly muslim Katsina state from the Old Kaduna state (now Katsina and Kaduna states). The muslim-christian religious mix of today’s Kaduna state has been variously put at the ratio 60:40, 55:45 and 50:50.
In the wake of the 2000 religious riots in the state, the then incumbent governor of the state Ahmed Makarfi, himself a muslim, was accused by many a muslim hardliner of constituting himself into an obstacle to the enthronement of the Sharia legal code in the state. So much so that he was derisively nicknamed “Pastor John” on account of his secular outlook on politics.
For the state’s Christian population, Makarfi was a modern and God-sent leader and he probably owed his re-election in 2003 to bloc votes from the Christian-dominated south of the state where the people saw him as a bulwark against the spread of religious fundamentalism.
Indeed, during the 2003 gubernatorial polls, Makarfi faced a stiff challenge by Suleiman Hunkuyi, candidate of the opposition All Nigeria Peoples Party under whose banner the overwhelming majority of muslim Hausa-Fulani in the northern part of the state rallied in the hope that once elected, he would carry through their hopes for an implementation of the Sharia legal system.
As a compromise solution, Governor Makarfi ultimately introduced Sharia Courts of Appeal and Customary Courts of Appeal to cater to the interests of muslim and non-muslim residents of Kaduna state alike.
Not surprisingly, the prevailing atmosphere of inter-faith mistrust which arose in the aftermath of the 2000 Sharia riots, allegations of sociopolitical and economic marginalization and the quest to control the apparatus of the state as a mean of securing group interests and for purposes of self-preservation have all contributed to making the politics of the state more volatile in the post-2000 era.
The ascension to the Vice Presidency of the Federation of the immediate past governor of Kaduna state, Namadi Sambo on 19 May 2010 implies that his erstwhile deputy, Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa, a Christian from the southern part of the state is set to emerge as the next governor of Kaduna state.
In a state whose politics has long been dominated by the muslim Hausa-Fulani elite of the northern part of Kaduna state, this has raised political temperatures to new heights as radical muslim clerics and political conservatives are said nto to be too enthralled at this uncommon prospect. Indeed, Yakowa will go down in history as the first Christian and first citizen from the southern part of the state to emerge as governor.
What the foregoing entrenched positions entail in the traditionally volatile state remain to be seen. In the meantime, the security has been beefed up statewide with a view to checkmating the possibility of an outbreak of violence.
During the Makarfi regime, Yakowa served as Secretary to the State Government between July 2003 and July 2005, rising to become the deputy governor of the state in the wake of the death of his predecessor, Mr Stephen Shekari during the closing months of the Makarfi regime in July 2005.
Born at Fadan Kagoma in Jema’a Local Government Area in 1948, Yakowa in 2007 again emerged as deputy governor following his nomination as running mate to the immediate past governor of Kaduna state, Namadi Sambo.
Damn this is bad, bad bad!!!!! Two powerful Christian politicians just lost like that. May their souls rest in peace. Azazi who spoke just about two days ago. I’m highly saddened by the passing of yakowa, he was impartial both to muslims and Christians, despite the fact he was Christian. Too loose such a man is too difficult to bear.
Owoye azazi, nigeria’s most decorated general, a real 4 star general, a shining light, a beam, his records are there for anyone to see. For us to have lost these great men at the same time is in consolable. May the souls of these two great men rest in peace.
BACKGROUNDER
GENERAL ANDREW AZAZI, former NSA, Chief of Defence Staff, Chief of Army Staff and GOC 1 Mechanised Infantry Division
Pres. Jonathan Appoints New National Security Adviser
CHANNELS TELEVISION, LAGOS.
October 4, 2010 0:00 am
Commissioned into the army as a military intelligence officer, he rose to the position of Director Military Intelligence, [DMI]. He was thereafter appointed General Officer Commanding 1 Infantry Division from where he was appointed as Chief of Army Staff. General Azazi rose to become Chief of Defence Staff and retired meritoriously on August, 28, 2008.
General Azazi’s Background
General Owoye Andrew Azazi was born at Peretorugbene in present Bayelsa State on February 1, 1952.
He had his early education in old Bendel State of Nigeria where he attended Government College Bomadi and graduated in the class of 1968, after which he joined the Nigerian Defence Academy Regular Combatant Cadet- Course 12 0n 3 July 1972.
Azazi was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 14 December 1974. At the end of the combined training he won the bronze medal for being first in Art subjects.
He has served as a Brigade Intelligence Officer, Divisional Intelligence Officer and Colonel Coordination, Headquarters Directorate of Military Intelligence. He was assistant Defence Attache at the Embassy of Nigeria, Washington DC, United States for three years.
He served as a member of the Directing Staff of the Command and Staff College from where he was posted to Lagos Garrison Command as the Intelligence Officer and subsequently to the Directorate of Military Intelligence as Colonel Coordination.
He was later posted to the Training and Doctrine Command as Colonel Research and Development and then Director of Training. On graduation from War College, he was appointed Colonel General Staff, 81 Division of the Nigerian Army and later Deputy Chief of Defence Intelligence, Defence Intelligence Agency.
General Azazi also served as a member of Directing Staff of the National War College Abuja, rising later to become its Principal Staff Officer Coordination before his appointment as Director of Military Intelligence in 2003.
On August 20, 2008, Umaru Yar’adua replaced Azazi with Paul Dike as CDS and announced Azazi’s retirement from military service.
Azazi, has had one of the fastest growing military careers in present day democracy in Nigeria, between May, 2006 and June, 2007 the General wore the ranks of Major General, Lieutenant General and General.
General Azazi is married with five children and holds a MSc in Strategic Studies from the University of Ibadan, and has completed the Staff Intelligence and Security Course, School of Service Intelligence, Ashford, Kent, UK and Combined Strategic Intelligence Training Programme, Defence Intelligence College, Washington DC, United States.
He is also a graduate of the Command and Staff College Nigeria, and the National War College, Nigeria where he won the President and Commander-in-Chief’s Merit Award for best all round performance.
May his soul rest in perfect peace
I am truely sadden by this ugly development,it’s just one death too many where the roads aren’t safe nd the skies are proving nt to be safer either.Losing yakowa nd Azazi at the same tym to the crash gave me a bad night when the news broke,meaning two great men lost nd the Nigerian navy inadequate military assets further reduced.I pray for the repose of their souls. Adieu our GEN,Rest in peace our GOV.GUDNITE’.
This is just bab! bad!!, bad!!. I short of words for now. Pls what happened? what went wrong?
Bad ..bad…gadmn bad news. So much asset wiped off in one crash …mehn! that is not good news. May the souls of the departed rest in perfect peace.