Osaze Osifo - Sitio Web Conmemorativo En Línea

I feel like someone just snatched my breathe away, hearing about your death seems so unreal but it's true, your calm , jovial yet wise demure will be missed! Sleep well in the bossom of the Lord! RIP Ozzy! 

Osaze, Its taken me ages to write anything because a part of me has been in denial that once again , at the start of the year I'm having to say goodbye to yet another familliar face from our heady London days. Sitting in your house after your funeral and surrounded by all the familiar old faces - Dayo , Shonny, Tunde, Sonnie, Chibs - your LNRC/City hybrid crew - has finally brought it home.
The little guy in the very big BMW screeching out of London Business School after lectures, the quiet, serious looking guy in the middle of his boisterous friends, who always seemed to have his missus with him at parties, , the guy who when i gave some waffling answer about my job on an obscure Goldman deriviatives desk, looked me straight in the eye and asked "Yes,but what exactly do you guys do??", the relaxed exec who with his feet on his desk, while giving me his career pep talk implored that i "Look at the magnificent view and appreciate the nicer elements of Lagos" from his 10th floor Octagon building office ......the memories keep coming.
Our paths diverged on moving to Lagos, as i left the financial markets for more sedate pursuits, but we still managed to catch up over drinks at one LBS Alumni dinner, mutual friends function or the other always with plans to talk again soon.
If your untimely goodbye has taught me anything its to mean it when I say "lets catch up soon" , "lets meet up", "I'll give you a call", "we'll talk later" and all those casual phrases we throw about at the end of Lagos interactions. 
Osaze, rest well. You put your money where your mouth was and you made your mark. We'll be drinking to you at our next Alumni gathering.

Tayo Emden

I can’t count how many times I’ve turned around a quick email or powerpoint presentation for Osaze within the 10 months I knew and worked with him but it’s been near impossible to get to this point where I could actually put something down as a tribute. The service of songs, and the funeral yesterday, helped a bit. It has been a rollercoaster 2-week ride: my wife passed her horrible compliance exams, then we welcomed a baby into the family on Friday and then come Wednesday I heard Osaze passed away.

I’m sure all my colleagues at FBN Capital will say one of the things they’ll remember about Osaze was how hard he worked. How this man squeezed all he did into 24 hours is beyond me. The scale of some of the off-the-wall tasks he set us in the team was sometimes so big it took the entire research department to execute them.

Osaze had big ideas and was very driven. My colleagues in the research team joined FBN Capital in May/June 2011. Osaze told us we had to organise an investor conference in less than 6 months – somehow! In November 2011, FBN Capital showed Nigeria what an investor conference should look like. We went through 45 versions of the conference worksheet by the time the conference was over.

One of the many memories that’ll stay with me is the first day we sent out our first research report. Osaze dropped everything he was doing specifically to ensure nothing derailed that email/report being sent out. We didn’t leave the office till 11:15pm that night. The funny thing is that Osaze was so focused on making this perfect that he forgot to attach the actual report. When he realised his mistake, you saw another side of him – the jovial character. He’d happily make fun of himself and everyone around him. Osaze always had an inside track that gave him the legitimacy to tease you, regardless of which tribe you’re from or race.

Osaze made one more patriotic about Nigeria. He helped one understand that there are many people in public service in Nigeria who could do with a little bit of help from those of us in the private sector. Osaze was always buzzing with ideas. He’ll happy use the Okada guy on the road to drive home his point or the alakara outside the office to argue for/against policy makers’ decisions.

The one scary thing about Osaze though was that he knew EVERYONE. Upon joining FBN Capital, because of the First Bank network, the research distribution list was at least double what I thought it was going to be…but then there was also Osaze’s list. It was hard to keep up with him because he reeled those names out on a first name basis. Everyone was his “cousin”, “egbon”, “my brother”, “my sister”… Osaze had even hooked up with my juniors at university somehow!!! despite the fact the he graduated at least 10 years before me!!! Osaze was also fair and wasn’t afraid to delegate responsibilities, even to extremely young people.

Some of us in FBN Capital will gain some weight because I’m not sure we’ll go up and down the stairs as much as we used to. I recall one my colleagues telling me that he scaled those stairs 65 times in one day after he joined, to and from Osaze’s office.

In the 10 months I worked with Osaze he called me a zillion times; sometimes it was a 1 minute call, sometimes a 2 hour call. He was the only person that I thought long and hard about whether I should pick up the call right there or whether it was better to call him back because you knew these calls were going to be purposeful and required 100% concentration. Topic of discussion? Well, anything – work, complaints about “these people” that don’t get it. “They just don’t get it, you know – the vision; that we’re building something. The honest truth is they just don’t get it…but we’ll get it done.” Osaze called me so much that my family accepted it as normal; even my 3.5 year old son would hand the phone over to me with Osaze on the line. On the Friday before he passed away, shortly after our baby boy was born, right there in the labour room, once Osaze got the message the baby had arrived, he called to congratulate me…and then we talked for another 15 minutes. Not one member of my family felt it odd that I was on the phone for that long. My mum spoke to Osaze twice in the last two weeks for the first time and burst into tears upon hearing of his death because he had somehow managed to make her feel like she'd known him for so long. My wife was visibly shaken. I thought I was supposed to be the one they were consoling, not the other way round.

Now, I feel like I’m on a “break” – but that my blackberries will ultimately show caller ID +234 802 or 803 777 4….. or that the office phone will show Osaze’s name… but the break seems to be going on forever…and Yvonne hasn’t called me yet to say Osaze wants to see you. Ifeoluwa’s comments sum up the mood in the office in Lagos perfectly. The silence is deafening.

What really saddens me is that Osaze actually appeared to be less stressed this year than he was in 2011 and I felt that would do him some good. When someone outside FBN Capital told me they heard rumours that Osaze had left FBN Capital on February 29, I couldn’t say that this was total nonsense because with Osaze you can’t put him in a box…but it turned out that everyone was just scared to be the bearer of the actual true story as I later found out.

Osaze, the comfort that I have though is that these last few days have shown that there was more to your life than work. I remember when you invited me to dinner – very impromptu – with Ibukun at your home. Felt so natural one wouldn’t have thought you were my boss. There was no agenda; just dinner. That many people talked about you making peace with God was even more encouraging to hear.

Thanks for these last 10 months. It was a privilege having known and worked with you. I pray that God will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Ibukun, the kids and your whole family and that He will reveal that where they are weak He is strong. Thanks Osaze that through your life we have been reminded to number our days so we can apply our hearts to wisdom.

One of the nicest and kindest people I ever worked with. RIP Osaze. God knows best!

'Sazz,
As your mortal remains were laid to rest earlier today, I gather the ceremony that honored your life was "beautiful and dignified'.
It is indeed well in Heaven.
Since our first meeting in 1977, probably because of our similar pint-sizedness, you fostered a relationship in which we always encouraged each other to bring out better than the best in ourselves. Reading through your accolades, it appears you magnified that strain as time went by. Kudos. We were always on academic commendation honors lists at midterm and you were one of my biggest rabble rousers as I performed feats of athleticism. Thank you bro...From us in form One to Ituah in Upper Six, we are left with great memories of your non stop energy and unassuming humility.
With siimilar interests and hobbies, your generosity and support were so appreciated that by Christmas time, I was left with such a feeling of endearment towards you that I gifted you with one of my most prized possessions at the time - the triangular collecters item postage stamp from the Cape - an act that had receeded into distant memory until you brought it up last year as a means of me identifying myself as the real aj (after being out of touch for over twenty one years) to our 'group of old friends"...classic Oz.
So much so for a brother who -like Kola- I always thought was born on February 29th 1968. Over the decades, no matter where we were on the planet, we always celebrated Jeromes birthday on the 26th, never once congratulating you as well. I pray your soul forgives me and others who were oblivious to this fact.
Enigma that you are, you would ironically have God elect the leap year date to have you depart, leaving us with a memorial every four years...Fantastic!!!
Throughout out pre and post pubescent years, you remained a man of and with Honor. Again as I read comments, wiith your Napoleonic tenacity and drive you sought to accomplish that which others may not have thought possible (though it took your ankle-high-white-socks-wearing behind five years to appear at the "Christmas Dinner and Dance" and my goading to get SS to join you in your first two-step...oh the memories...my eyes are tearing up with laughter and sadness).
I still dont know how you mustered up enough swagg to ask for her hand and be blessed with a wife...talk less of two beautiful children...but I reckon success is in of itself a courage booster...No wahala...your 'Asiri' shall remain intact forever.
My recollection of the Unilag years has you fully invested in the academic pursuits of your tertiary education and like quiet Yoyi, you were a Jedi...
Apart from one off comments from Osagie and Ama, I didnt hear much about you after I left the Lagos - London axis. Reading about the Bar Bourse days and subsequent accomplishments leaves me glowing with pride and admiration, and a feeling of wanting to be even a smidgen as much of a contribution as you have been to the financial development of the sub Saharan region. Again...Fantastic!
You have left a great void for us individually, as a community and a nation but may rest assured that you will remain ever in our thoughts. Just as importantly, as God who started the good work through you will see it finished, elements shall soon manifest in tangible reality that will lead to the full actualization of your desires for the financial and socioeconomic independence of the region.
Your passing has some of us feel the need to again "pause for station identification' and reconfirm that our values and demeanour are not only acceptable but are also commendable in the eyes of our Creator. With nothing promised us other than our birth and death, and all things in between being the realized manifestation of our mortal consciousness, for our souls salvation, we are enjoined to seek first the Eternal kingdom and its righteousness as all other things shall be added unto us as ordained from Above.
For Ibukun...of whom I have heard good things not only from the lads but also from my cousin Mrs G on whose board she sits, know that she will never walk alone...and your daughters have an inexhaustible number of brothers from other mothers as 'Uncles'. Your parents, siblings and their families will remain in my prayers and may take succour in knowing that your life was directed from Above to whence you have returned according to God's will.
Until they pen their own messages, on behalf of Jiggs, Rex, Pinda, Jerome, Stone and Robbie, Ama, Dr Blow, Banky, Layi T, Oye, myself and others who were or were not at your final sendoff, may your soul be uplifted into rapture in an eternity of paradise in the heavenly realm of our Lord God Almighty.
Farewell my good brother, until we meet again.
Love,
Ade