General Owoye Andrew Azazi CFR FSS MSS DSS GSS psc(+) fwc[1] (retired) is the National Security Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and a former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) of Nigeria. The Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo made this appointment.
General Azazi also served as the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) between 2006 and 2007. He replaced General Martin Luther Agwai. Before his appointment as COAS, he was General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Kaduna.
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General Owoye Andrew Azazi was born at Peretorugbene in present Bayelsa State on 1 February 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 Attaché 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. He was appointed Director of Military Intelligence in 2003.
The senior officer is an external examiner at the National War College and a Guest Lecturer on Military Operations Other Than War and Revolution in Military Affairs. General Azazi was a member of Nigeria’s Defence Policy Review Committee 2000/2001. He was appointed Chairman of the Committee of Nigerian Army in the Next Decade in May 2004. He was appointed the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division, Nigerian Army in January 2005, and subsequently appointed Chief of Army Staff (COAS) in June 2006.
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.
On October 4, 2010 he was appointed the National Security Adviser by President Goodluck Jonathan for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Azazi emerged from retirement to assume the National Security Adviser (NSA) post as a civilian. He inherited a range of challenges from extremists, including the militant Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in his native region, and the rise of a new violent Islamist group called Boko Haram, which first emerged in 2009.
Shortly after taking office, Azazi presided over the interception and public exposure of a large illegal shipment of weapons from the Islamic Republic of Iran.[2] He did not speculate publicly on the origin of the weapons, and left it up to the Foreign Ministry to make the official allegation before the United Nations.[3] News accounts differ as to the destination of the arms, with Israeli reports saying they were headed for Gaza, and others, including Nigerian government sources, saying they were to be smuggled elsewhere in West Africa, including to rebels based in Senegal and Gambia. Nigerian officials arrested an Iranian national reported to be a senior officer with the Qods Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard and placed him on trial.[4] The Iranian government called the shipments a "misunderstanding."[5]
As National Security Adviser, Azazi worked with other countries, notably African neighbors, European countries and the United States, toward developing a new security and counterterrorism strategy. In the autumn of 2010, he met with then-CIA Director Leon Panetta at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. In August, 2011, Azazi held meetings with US AFRICOM Commander Gen. Carter F. Ham about American training and sharing intelligence to combat Boko Haram and Niger Delta extremists.[6] He attended a CIA event in California in November.[7] On Christmas Day, 2011, the White House confirmed that U.S. officials had been in communication with top Nigerian officials to combat terrorism.[8]
Azazi has taken a systematic approach to reform of Nigeria's security and intelligence apparatus, with a low-key demeanor that some critics have termed as indifference. He has been quoted as saying that real reform comes with human development of national security personnel and officials and greater citizen participation, and not with mere documents, statements, and bureaucratic or leadership rearrangements.[9]
The few public statements Azazi has made as NSA on terrorism matters tend to be cautious and nuanced. Azazi appears to prefer allowing the Foreign Ministry and judicial system to make definitive statements to the public, leading some critics to allege he has not been attentive to counterterrorism matters. In contrast to his public persona, Azazi is reported to be aggressive behind the scenes. Nigeria's State Security Service (SSS), which reports to Azazi, took what observers consider an unusual step in November 2011 by arresting a federal senator and charging him with aiding Boko Haram. That senator, Mohammed Ali Ndume, had switched political affiliations to become a member of President Jonathan's own party. After Senator Ndume's arrest, a federal court in December 2011 ordered the politician jailed in expectation of a trial in 2012.[10]
The National Security Adviser appears to be studying extremist threat doctrine in shaping a national response to Islamist extremism. Islam in Nigeria takes many forms, and Azazi seeks to differentiate among them. After the Christmas 2011 Boko Haram bombings of churches, Azazi strongly cautioned fellow Christians against talk of retaliation against Muslims or even wider religious warfare. He called on citizens to question the strategic intentions of the perpetrators, and said that counterterrorism policy must address those strategic intentions.
Discussing Boko Haram and its strategy to incite retaliatory sectarian violence, Azazi said, "Have we thought of what their ultimate intentions are? Why will somebody go on to bomb Christians on a Christmas Day? Look at the ultimate intentions. Do they want to really raise tempers elsewhere?"[11] Boko Haram terms Nigeria an "enemy of Islam" and seeks the disintegration of Nigeria as a country.[12]
Rather than pursue counterterrorism solutions that would require mass policing of the country, Azazi is stressing public participation in monitoring extremism and in assisting the security services.[13]
He is married with five children, three sons in-law, a grand daughter and two grandsons. His hobbies include reading biographies, Nigerian Music and playing squash.
General Azazi 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 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.
His recent seminar and conference highlights include:
He was recently a guest lecturer at the Department of Psychology of the Post-Graduate School, University of Ibadan and the Friedrich Ebert Siftung Institute Sensitization Training Workshop for Experts and Personnel in the Security Sector in West Africa. He is also a Guest Lecturer on the Span of Command and Leadership at the National Defense College, Abuja, Nigeria.
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by M L Agwai |
Chief of the Army Staff 2006 – 2007 |
Succeeded by Luka Yusuf |
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by M L Agwai |
Chief of the Defence Staff 2007 – 2008 |
Succeeded by Paul Dike |
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