Buhari, Atiku pay tributes to veteran journalist, Tony Momoh 

Nigeria’s former Ministers of Information and Culture, Tony Momoh, has died.

Sources said Momoh, 81, died on Monday in his residence in Abuja.

Describing the deceased as a good man and an avowed apostle of politics without bitterness, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar said, “A good man, Prince Tony Momoh, has gone home. The veteran journalist, politician, and former minister was an avowed apostle of politics without bitterness. And like the prince he was, carried himself with dignity and respect. He will be sorely missed.

“My family and I, condole with his family; the Otaru of Auchi Kingdom, Alhaji Aliru Momoh (Ikelebe III) and his council; the government and people of Edo State, his friends, and associates. May his soul rest in peace.”

Momoh was an elder statesman who believed in the restructuring of Nigeria’s political and economic system.

In one of his interviews with Vanguard, Momoh had said, “You must decongest the political space. When you decongest the political space, economic deregulation will be automatic.

“We are running a centralised government in the name of a federation in Nigeria, where you have regional governments as we had in the First Republic which had powers and part-time legislature.

“Now everything is full time — it cannot work. We must look back, have one law-making arm at the centre because that is what we need now; and lawmakers will be part-time.”

Expressing disquiet over Momoh’s death, President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement by his media aide, Femi Adesina, said the veteran journalist stood with him through thick and thin.

“His brand of loyalty is very rare in the politics of today. I will greatly miss him,” Buhari said.

The president recalled that, as the chairman, Media and Publicity of the All Nigeria People’s Party Campaign Organisation in the 2003 and 2007 elections and chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change, the Auchi prince contributed to the growth and strengthening of the organisations, which eventually led to the formation of the All Progressives Congress.

Momoh served as a minister between 1986 and 1990, and was the chairman of the African Conference of Information Ministers from 1988 to 1990.

He was a media personality who steadily rose through the ranks to become editor and deputy general manager of Daily Times between the 1970s and 1980s.