Dr. George Obiozor gave me the opportunity to serve as a youth corps member at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Lagos, when he was the Director General of the institute. He was, however, enraged and displeased with me when I did a not so complimentary story of the NIIA under his stewardship.
I had raised questions about his going to a Chinese institute to get his professorship after the NIIA process where he was the seating DG had turned him down several times for not meeting the minimum standards in publications. I told him I was doing my job as a reporter and just following where the facts led. I, however, interviewed him for the story and presented his own side. He felt I was not loyal to him as a good friend of my uncle.
Indeed, he was a good friend of my late uncle Dr. Odogu Egbune and probably accepted me as a youth corps staff because of that relationship, although he told me my second-class upper degree qualified me for a stint at Nigeria’s foremost research institute. Obiozor was a jovial, friendly, and gregarious fellow who subscribed to the realist school of thought in International Relations and Politics.
He was a junior colleague of Dr. Egbune and late Dr. Chuba Okadigbo in the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), where he served as a Foreign Policy advisor to President Shehu Shagari. Dr Egbune was Secretary General of NPN, Bendel State and Dr. Okadigbo, the NPN, National Secretary General. They all sought political power and leadership role to advance a Pax Nigeriana – a powerful country with strong military and economic might in Africa and beyond. In several of his speeches and in different public functions, he was a beauty to behold. He had this uncanny ability to hold his audience spell bound with his jokes and burly nature. His famous line that has stuck with me all these years was: “If the rest of Africa is going anywhere, Nigeria would get there first.”
It was not the line itself but the way he said it with his Igbo accent and facial gesture that would make his audience start applauding. I applaud him for his magnanimity of spirit when after many years I had gone to Washington DC for a U.S Army function and decided to stop by at the Nigerian Embassy where he was the substantive Nigerian Ambassador to the United States. He welcomed me to his office and toasted my sharp look in my ceremonial U.S. Army uniform. He never mentioned my investigative piece on his professorship that almost cost him his career and reputation but concentrated on the fond memories of his association with my uncle who had passed and what I was then doing as an Intel Analyst in the Army. I was so uncomfortable, but he tried his best to make that encounter as cordial as it could be. Obiozor’s exuberance, magnanimity, and broadminded nature stood him out as a leader. He was truly a citizen of the world serving at the highest levels of Nigeria’s foreign policy establishment.
Dr. Obiozor was born 15 August 1942. He studied at the Institute of African Studies and Albert Schweitzer College. He graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 1969 and from Columbia University with a Ph.D. in International Affairs. Obiozor was Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA). He later became Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Cyprus before becoming Ambassador to Israel, from 1999 to 2003, then Ambassador to the United States, from 2004 to 2008. Obiozor was elected as the President General of Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo, the highest Igbo socio-cultural advocating for Igbo interest in Nigeria in January 2022. May his gentle soul rest in peace and his memories remain a blessing.
Credit: Vanguard News Nigeria