Oseloka Henry Obaze
Mr.
Oseloka Henry Obaze (born 9 April
1955 in Ogidi,
Nigeria) is
the Secretary to the State Government (Anambra
State, Nigeria). He is a native of Ochuche Umuodu, in the
Ogbaru LGA of Anambra. H. E.
Governor Peter Obi
appointed him to his present position in January 2012. He left his United
Nations post to join the Anambra State
Government in response to Gov. Peter Obi’s appeal to the Anambra Diasporans
to return home and assist in nation-building and specifically, in rebuilding the
Anambra State. He assumed office on
Friday, 29 June 2012.
Obaze is a former
United Nations official (1991-2012) and also
a former member of the Nigerian Diplomatic
Service (1982-1991). A seasoned
international civil servant,
diplomat, strategic policy advisor,
administrator, and
literary critic, Mr. Obaze has a diverse and substantial background in
political processes and a wealth of diplomatic, political and administrative
experience, in national and international affairs, including direct experience
working on countries facing complex challenges in Europe and Africa.
Early life
Obaze was born to Anthony Chukwunweike “A.C.” Obaze,
(1920-1969), a Senior Local Government Administrator in the former Eastern
Region of Nigeria, and
Rosemary Omuluzua
Obaze (1928-2009),
an educationist. He is the second of six children.
His early childhood was spent in
Onitsha, Ogidi,
Aguata, Central Anang, Umuahia,
and Uzuakoli, where his father served as the Chief Executive Officer of the
various County Councils. For his high
school education, he attended the prestigious, elite Catholic legacy school,
Christ
the King College Onitsha (1967-1973 ) -- his education was interrupted by
the Nigerian civil war (1967-70) -- and the equally prestigious and renowned
Dennis Memorial Grammar School, Onitsha
(1973-1974).
Higher Education
American trained, Obaze
studied Political Science and International Relations and holds a Master of Arts
in Political Science (M.A.) from the University of
Nebraska, Lincoln, NE (1980); and a Bachelor of Science in Political Science
(B.S.) from Nebraska Wesleyan University,
Lincoln, NE (1979). He also holds a Certificate in Diplomacy from the Nigerian
Foreign Service Academy, Lagos, Nigeria (1983); Certificate in Peacekeeping and
Preventive Diplomacy, from the
UNITAR/International
Peace Academy Course, Burg Schlaining, Austria (1996); Certificate in Early
Warning and Preventive Measures, from the
UN System Staff College,
Turin, Italy (1999); and a
Certificate in Facilitation of Dialogue Processes and Mediation Efforts,
from the Folke Bennadotte Academy,
Sandon, Sweden (2007).
Federal Government of Nigeria
During his tenure in the
Nigerian Diplomatic Service (1982-1991), Obaze was a member of various Nigerian
delegations to bilateral and multilateral conferences. He served as First
Secretary, Bilateral Economic
Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja, 1991; Special Assistant and
Policy Adviser to the Permanent
Representative of Nigeria to the United Nations,
Major-General Joseph
N. Garba, and in his various capacities as Ambassador-at-Large of Nigeria,
New York, Oct.-Dec.1990;
President of the 44th United Nations General Assembly and Minister of State
in the Nigerian Presidency; 1989
to1990. He was Second Secretary and Special Assistant to the Permanent
Representative and Nigerian Ambassador to the U.N., 1987 to 1989;
Third Secretary (Political) Ministry of
External Affairs, Lagos, Nigeria, 1983 to 1986; and External Affairs Officer,
Grade VIII, Ministry of External Affairs, Lagos, Nigeria, 1982-83.
Obaze led the Nigerian
team that worked closely with
Thabo Mbeki, then Foreign Secretary of the African National Congress (ANC)
and Gora Ebrahim, Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) Secretary for Foreign
Affairs in
negotiating the
UN Declaration
on Apartheid, and its Destructive Consequences in Southern Africa,
during in the 16th
Special Session of the United Nations General Assembly, in December1989. He was
also a member of the Nigerian delegation that negotiated the outcome documents
of the 17th and 18th UN Special Sessions in February 1990 and April 1990.
United Nations
Obaze was appointed to
the United Nations Secretariat by
Secretary-General
Javier Perez de Cuellar Javier on 1 March 1991, as a Political Affairs
Officer in the Department of Political and Security Council Affairs (PSCA) at
the United Nations Headquarters in New York. As an International Civil Servant,
he served in the U.N. with distinction for twenty-one years, and under four
different U.N.
Secretaries-General, before separating
from the Organization.
Prior to his present
appointment, Obaze was a Senior Political Affairs Officer and Policy Advisor
with the United Nations Headquarters in New York and a senior member of the
managerial team in the Security Council Secretariat Branch, which services and
administers the U.N. Security Council. In that capacity, for five years, he
served as the
Secretary of the Security Council Ad Hoc Working Group on Conflict Prevention
and Resolution in Africa and Trip Coordinator for Security Council Missions.
From September 2005 to
February 2007, he served as policy adviser to Prof.
Ibrahim Gambari, U.N.
Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, and deputized for the Special
Assistant to Under Secretary-General in providing strategic support on policy
and management of political and strategic risks and personnel. In that capacity
he was also the focal point and adviser on policy matters to pertaining to
Africa, U.N.-Africa Union cooperation, Security Council (thematic and sanctions
panels); DPA Field Presences, Security, Documentation and Electoral Assistance
matters pertaining to Africa.
Additionally, he represented the Under Secretary-General and DPA at in-house,
inter-departmental and inter-agency meetings and consultations where formulation
of policy issues and options were discussed before being presented to the
Secretary-General’s Policy Committee, the highest decision-making body within
the U.N. Secretariat or the
Senior Management Group. He served as liaison for the Under
Secretary-General with other departments, as well as the Offices of the ASG’s,
Directors and Executive Office of DPA and provided the Under Secretary-General
policy options and guidance in support of the work of U.N. political offices, in
Somalia,
Guinea Bissau, Central Africa
Republic and West Africa (UNOWA) on
Peacebuilding, democracy, good governance and the rule of law.
Over the course of his
distinguished diplomatic career spanning three decades, he was involved in
various aspects of, preventive diplomacy and post-conflict peace building work,
which required extensive assessment and writing of strategic policy, political,
early warning and related papers.
He has also been involved in the conceptualization, drafting and finalizing
various strategic policy papers and reports of the Secretary-General to the
U.N. General Assembly and the
U.N. Security Council. He has worked on
the African and Europeans dossiers and most notably, on Angola, Zimbabwe, South
Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Georgia.
Obaze was a member of the
United Nations Interdepartmental and Inter-Agency Task Force that drafted and
negotiated the
UN-AU Declaration, which was signed in November 2006. He was a member of the
U.N. mission that reviewed the streamlining of the mandate of UNOGBIS (Guinea
Bissau) in May 2006 and the
UN Technical Assessment Teams that reviewed the mandate of UNFICYP (Cyprus)
in September 2004 and May 2005. He was a member of the multidisciplinary and
first ever Joint UN/UNDP/Commonwealth Mission to South Africa, January 1994.
On the management side,
Obaze served on the U.N. National Competitive Examination Political Board and
the G to P Examination Board; the UN Joint
Appeals Board (JAB) and the Central Review Committee (CRC), as a member
appointed by the U.N. Secretary General. He participated in UN/DPA Management
Retreats, Security Council Workshops and worked on with the UN Office of
Internal Oversight (OIOS) in its evaluation of various U.N. Special Political
Missions.
Obaze was a member of the
United Nation’s Secretary-General’s delegation during his various official
visits to Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2005. He
has accompanied the U.N. Security Council on it missions to Kosovo and Belgrade
(2001), and coordinated missions to Africa (2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012).
He was one of the organizers and participants in the first
Kofi Annan Legacy For Africa
Conference co-hosted by the U.N. and Georgetown University in October 2006.
At various times he served in a backstopping capacity for the U.N.
Secretary-General’s Special
Envoys and good offices missions on Cyprus, Zimbabwe and Northern Uganda. He
was the leader of a U.N. Electoral Observation Team in Angola (Namibe) in 1992
and in South Africa (Natal/Kwazulu Province) in 1994.
Publications and Writings
Obaze is writer,
political commentator and literary
critic. He is the co-author of
Joe Garba’s Legacy, (Xlibris, 2012) His collection of poems,
“Regarscent
Past:
A Collection of Poems”
(Ben Bosah Books), which was second among the top three finalists in the poetry
category in the
African Writers Endowment Publishing Grant Program for 2004,will be
published in the fall of 2012. He is presently working on a novel titled “Happy
Eulogy.” He has published numerous articles on governance, political, and
social, and development issues, on journals, websites and newspapers, including
“Ogbaru - The Development
and Governance Challenge” (2006). He has collaborated or made acknowledged
research contributions to several published works including
The Honour to Serve (1993),
Fractured History (1995) and
contributed a chapter titled, “Rethinking
Nigeria’s Foreign Policy on The Eve of the 21st Century” in Nigeria: Visions of
the Future, (Ed.) Ngozi A. Nwaneri, (1998).
He is a co-founder of the Kwenu.com
Book Review Forum, which is dedicated to the promotion of books with Igbo
and Afrocentric themes. He has published Literary Book Reviews on
Kwenu.com since 2002.
Extracurricular,
Social and Community Activities
Obaze is also a
supporting Member of the
African Writers
Endowment (AWE). From 1999 to 2005, he served on the editorial board of
INYEAKA, the journal of
Songhai Charities, Inc., a New Jersey community-based charity founded and
run by Nigerians based in New York Tri-state area in the United States, first as
its founding Publisher and later as the Editor-At-Large. He has been
on the editorial board of
The Amaka
Gazette, the journal of the
Christ the King College, Onitsha Alumni Association in America since 1998.
He is the founder and pioneer editor of
Amaka’s Voice, the quarterly newsletter of the Christ the King College,
Onitsha Alumni Association in America. Along with his fellow C.K.C. Onitsha
alumni, he was instrumental to the long campaign for the
return of C.K.C.
Onitsha and other mission schools in Anambra State to their owners and
raising over N25 million towards revitalization projects at C.K.C. Onitsha.
Obaze is member of the
Nigerian Institute of International Affairs,
Food Pantry Volunteer, St.
James Catholic Church, Woodbridge, NJ (1995-date); Member
and eventually, Chairman
of the Board of Trustees, Songhai Charities, Inc. of New Jersey (1997-2005);
and National Secretary, Christ the King
College Onitsha, Alumni Association In America, Inc. (1998 to 2012). He is
on the Board of Trustees of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Ochuche Umuodu.
National Service
Obaze did his
National Youth Service (NYSC) in Lagos
State from August 1981-August 1982, briefly at the Defence Headquarters, Lagos,
before being re-deployed to the Nigerian Institute Army Education, Ilupeju,
Lagos where he served as a Research and Publication Officer under the direct
supervision of Col. Adedotun Gbadebo, (now, HRM Oba Adedotun Gbadebo, the Alake
of Egbaland). Due to his superb NYSC performance, he was recommended to the
Military Secretary (Army) for a Direct Short Service Commission (DSSC) into the
Nigerian Army. He was selected by the DSSC Board chaired by then
Brigadier-General Solomon Omojokun, in Kaduna in February 1982, as one of the
top candidates for DSSC Course 10, but opted to pursue diplomacy, his first
career choice.
Honours
Obaze was one of the
seventy-five recipients of the
Anambra@20 Recognition
Award (2011); Christ the King College Onitsha
75th Anniversary Meritorious Service Award (2008) and
Christ the King College Onitsha Alumni
Association in America (CKC-AAA)
Exceptional Service Award
(2001).
Personal life
Obaze is married to
Dr. Ofunne
Omo Obaze and they are blessed with children. A widely travelled man, he has
visited sixty-three (63) countries.
He is an avid sportsman and soccer enthusiast; he reviews books and arts as a
hobby.