By Omua Victoria Amu

For the past many years, I have had the honor, assuring comfort, and rare privilege of Ozolua Olabode Giwa Amu’s friendship, brotherly love, and immeasurable support. In all of my endeavors — whether business, academics, or politics — he was always there; his words lighting my path. It was a privilege I did not wish to end, but one that the cold, ruthless hands of death pried away from me, leaving a gaping hole and a sadness that will not go away.

Oz, as he is fondly called by all who knew him, always prodded me to do more, to set my gaze higher, and never be lulled into complacency or settle for what is ‘permitted’. He didn’t believe in limits, especially those set by what he suspected was a lack of belief – in one’s self, in God’s unending mercies and unmerited favors, and good fortune. Fortune favors the brave was a maxim he oft-repeated in his many wise counsels.

He made me better. Just as he did everyone else that encountered him. It was almost as if that was his divine mandate, the reason he was blessed with an uncommon foresight that reveals to him that which many were unable to see and an infectious conviction that steeled the confidence of the nervous and replaced anxiety with a soulful calm.

Oz counted his achievements in people, not for want of them in other areas. He was a true innovator and visionary, his brilliance and wisdom evident in the many successful enterprises he built and the renown he enjoyed in the circles of the country’s finest minds and institutions. But that, for him, didn’t measure up to the accomplishment of lessening people’s concerns, helping them attain their dreams and fulfill their God-given potentials.

The outpouring of affection, gratitude, and testimonies of the numerous life-changing interventions he made in the lives of many bear witness to his sacrificial living, generosity, and largeness of heart. His ideas and ideals – built on God’s charge to be your brother’s keeper – inspired many and will live on in many hearts to immortalize this great man who truly lived.

Oz’s demise was a painful blow and every reminder of his absence – the crushing permanence of it – pierces the heart. But I am comforted by the words of Isaiah that the Lord God will swallow up death forever and wipe tears from every face. Until we meet again, rest in peace, beloved.