Tony Momoh is dead

Prince Tony Momoh is dead.

Prince Momoh was a veteran journalist, lawyer, politician and former Minister of Information and Culture (1986–1990) during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida. Momoh was born on April 27, 1939 in Auchi, Edo State, to the royal Momoh family.

He was also the Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council of the University of Jos. His last major public intervention was an interview with Vanguard, published in the Saturday Vanguard of January 30.

Known for his bluntness, Prince Momoh was one individual who was committed to any cause he believed in irrespective of whose ox was gored. In that interview with, he said money spent on elected officers was enough to develop Nigeria.

He told Vanguard: “You must decongest the political space. When you decongest the political space, economic deregulation will be automatic.

“The constitution shares powers among all the organs of government— the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary.

“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 lawmaking arm at the Centre because that is what we need now; and lawmakers will be part-time.

“Then perhaps, in the regions or so, we have a Parliamentary system because in the states, for now, only the governor is elected, the deputy governor is a spare tyre.

“The governor has all the money coming to the state; he pockets it and decides what to do with it.

“But if we have a Parliamentary system in the states, for instance, the majority would form a government and execute the programmes of the zones.”