Balarabe Oshiafi
On April 27, 1939, he came into this World. On February 1 2021, he left. Had he remained in this troubled World till the 27th of April 2021, he would have spent eighty two years. He had to leave lest he get contaminated by a Society that has demonstrated an enduring incapacity to be indoctrinated aright as much as Tony Momoh and his likes spent much of their lives trying to do.
Anthony Suleiman Macnonoh Momoh was the one hundred and sixty fifth Son of Momoh the first of Auchi Sacred Kingdom, Etsako-West Local Government Area of Edo State. If his father did exploits on account of the large family he nurtured and the moral rectitude he used Islam to bring upon Auchi and environs, Prince Tony Momoh’s dominant thoughts and actions achieved national and global impact.
Tony Momoh was a princely Prince. He was sure footed and his carriage exuded confidence. His writings and vocalisations were rather prophetic. Check out when he wooed his Wife ,Jane Momoh for Love and marriage and she was initially hesitant as it is typical of Women. On one occasion, just before he walked away, he said to the then pretty damsel, “I’m going to marry you and you will bear four Children for me”.
It didn’t happen otherwise Prince Tony Momoh married Mrs Jane Momoh and they spent nearly sixty years together before he left and the union produced four Children, Rashid, Suleman, Efua and Ibrahim.
Another case in point about his prophetic inclination was Muhammadu Buhari’s quest to be Nigeria’s Civilian President. The first opposition to Tony Momoh’s avowal to support Buhari was non other than his younger brother, Professor Campbell Shittu Momoh who elected to follow Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Several other of his Kinsmen, Associates and contemporaries found Buhari a hard sell. But Tony Momoh was undeterred. He came away with the conviction that Buhari had a program of emancipation for Nigeria and continued to market today’s President of Nigeria.
As the National Chairman of Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) Tony Momoh and his team garnered eleven million votes for Buhari in 2011 and just an addition of four million gave President Muhammadu Buhari his longed-for aspiration of achieving the status he is enjoying as Nigeria’s President today.
Tony Momoh’s contributions as an Auchi Prince, Lawyer, Journalist, Nationalist are as wide as they are pervasive. as ubiquitous as they are enduring.
He was as available at the national level as he was responsive to prevailing circumstances in his home state-Edo. For instance when matters came to a head between Governor Godwin Obaseki and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, they came to our office and Momoh brokered truce. They fell apart again because of greed and self aggrandizement.
Our last project: A publication entitled: To save Nigeria, Let’s Talk espouses among other contents the panacea for solving the maladies plaguing the Nigerian State.
I do not know how not to state that Aso Rock is disappointing Tony Momoh to the extent that the contents of that publication have not been activated and Nigeria is continuing to wobble.
So unforgettable are his “lLetters to my My Countrymen” while he served the Nation as Minister of Information and Culture that some compatriots still see him as the minister of information who brought government closest to the people. I differ here though. If you ask me, I’d say Oga loved writing. Of all the Caps he wore, writing was his first love and he would tell you to make the pen your handy implement just like the farmer and the hoe.
On the fourth of April, 2018, I went to his Utako, Abuja Office to beseech him to get me a job. Pronto, he told me to consider myself hires as his Chief Press Secretary. I could not say no to fatherly Tony Momoh.
I miss you Sir. When will Auchi, Edo, Nigeria, the World encounter you again!
We are consoled by these words of yours: “There is no group Journey to Paradise”
Adieu
• Balarabe Oshiafi was the Chief Press Secretary to Prince Tony Momoh
