The passage of Admiral Augustus Akhabue Aikhomu, the only full combatant Admiral south of the Sahara on August 17, 2011, is a significant watershed in the Nigerian Naval history and a poignant moment in the larger spectacle of the Nigerian nation.

For he was a man whose contributions to the development of the Nigerian Navy and the cultivation and deepening of national understanding are etched in historical permanence.

Admiral Aikhomu was a man of instinctive reconciliatory largeness. He was without rancor, without bitterness, somehow forever framed in effortless friendliness and a glowing energy of personal warmth and exuberant sincerity. He was my boss, my friend, my tutor, my unrelenting guide in the waters of maritime training and on the solid grounds of professional maturation and moral leadership.

Aunty, your husband- my ‘Oga’ and uncle – was a gentleman and a soldier whose vision swept far beyond the tawdry confines of tribe and religion, whose devotion transcended the pettiness of parochial truth and identity. He was a leader of far larger truth and far larger ideal. His fixities were duty, honour, country and brotherhood.

He will be remembered as a man of healing, as a man of quiet deliberate resolve who unabashedly boldly steered the rudder of leadership amid the calming waters of national stability and missionary fruitfulness.

In the passage of Admiral Aikhomu, in the departure of this Icon of the Seas, the Navy has lost a pioneering guide and the nation has lost a Statesman and the abiding anchor of national firmness. He will be remembered both in the low tides and in the swell and surging buoyancy of our national life as a resolute and enduring Captain who held his rudder true.

Like the Ancient Mariner of old, Admiral Aikhomu is now beyond the tumults of all the drifts, the gulfs and the gales of all the Oceans and the Seas. He now belongs to the eternal Welkins. Sail on avuncular Mariner!

Aunty, may the Good Lord strengthen you in this challenging moment.

By COMMODORE OLABODE GEORGE, RTD.