As Major
General Sam Momah (Rtd) celebrates his 77th birthday, and gets set, to
launch yet another topical book on Nigeria, we wish the gentleman a happy
birthday.
This amiable
General has been a personal friend for over two decades and I have enjoyed
good, fatherly support from him over the years. He has been the General that
makes Abuja a playground for me.
Everybody
knows that whenever I am bored in Lagos, I carry my bag and off to Abuja for a
relaxing weekend, or for a whole week or two! But today is not my story day,
as my friend Gbenga Dan Asabe has already done a beautiful story for us.
Have a
pleasant time reading this piece which I personally title: The Making of a
General!
Paul
 |
| *The General with wife |
The Making of a General
By Gbenga Dan Asabe
July 6th is a rare day, a special day and a tribute
paying day for one of earth’s golden hearts, Major General (Dr.) Sam
Ifeanyichukwu Momah (CFR, Mni, fwc, Ph-D, FNSE).
Major General Sam Momah, a two time Nigerian Minister
of Science and Technology and first Commandant of the National War College,
Abuja, is a man every young man should try to meet and emulate his leadership
qualities in a life time.
General Momah is Seven Decades and Seven Years old
today and it calls for celebration.
The last time we all gathered in Nigeria’s Federal
Capital city of Abuja to honor him was two years ago, 2018, at the memorial
Shehu Musa Yar’ Adua Center to celebrate his 75th birthday, and the event as
usual, witnessed the presence of a cream of intellect savvy Nigerians from top
military brass to civil servants down to politicians and presidential aides.
And in his character, the General ignited the
celebration with the launching of two new books authored by him PULLING
NIGERIA OFF THE BRINK (The Rescue Imperatives) and RESTRUCTURING NIGERIA
BEYOND OIL.
The event held on a Saturday, 7th of July (Not Friday
6th which was his real birth date as he used the day to fraternize with kids
and grand kids)
The Amiable and indefatigable Presidential Spokesman,
Mr. Femi Adesina who is equally an intellectual power house joined other
presidential aides including ministers and members of the business and
diplomatic community to grace event of General Sam Momah’s 75th birthday.
Former Minister of Information and National
Orientation, Frank Nweke Jnr previewed one of the books while a former aviation
minister, Osita Chidoka and many others graced the event in different colors.
But the most memorable one was 7 Years ago when General
Momah clocked 70. It is one event one can hardly forget. For seven days, I and
a journalist colleague, Gbenga Olajobi quarantined ourselves inside a 5 star
hotel in Abuja, planning the media strategy of the General’s 70th birthday
bash. From news stories to interviews and photo-news, I and Gbenga Olajobi
pulled head together and made things happen.
However, I need to highlight one of the quality
character traits of General Sam Momah. The General, apart from raising 5 well
behaved and well mannered children (3 men and two women) among which we have 5
medical doctors and one computer engineer, General Momah is one of the world’s
most trustworthy individual.
Let me share a testimony.
Since I met and fell in love with General Sam Momah on
Monday, January 3rd, 2005, I automatically appointed myself as a private
researcher cum journalist on his person and his family and I think I did that
more than any young journalist that may have come across the General.
On every occasion I storm Abuja for official
assignments, I made sure I search for him and force him to talk to me. On each
occasion, either by fault or default, this Gentleman General is always writing
a book on either economy, international politics or national development.
Another name we can conveniently call General Sam Momah is ‘National Policy
Manufacturer’.
Every day, every week, every month, every year, this
retired General is always burning his brain to churn out new policies that will
redefine the nation at large. The sad irony is that Nigeria is blessed with a
political class that lacks the intellectual ear to listen and take in new ideas
that will turn the country around.
To start with, I don’t joke with the privileges and
honor bestowed upon me as a young friend and member of the Momah's family. I
think there are lots of things Nigerians need to learn from this great family.
General Sam Momah as a father is an epitome of great
fatherhood. All his kids have spoken to me at one time or the other and all of
them have one story or two to tell about a father who raised them with the
toughest yet honest philosophies in life.
His darling wife, Madam Christiana Ifeoma Momah once
told me the story of how she met and fell in love with the most honest husband
in the world. All his days in the Army, as Adjutant General of the Army,
Commandant, Nigeria Army Training and Doctrine Command, Member of Provisional
Ruling Council, Minister of Science and Technology etc, ladies winked at him,
tempted him but he remained focused and dutiful to his Christy, mother of his 5
lovely and beautiful children and grand mother of his ten grand-kids.
General Sam Momah will make any young man want to
become a responsible father in life, only if you are lucky to know him and get
close to his family. I am that lucky and I will continue to sing the song of
Great Fatherhood by General Sam Momah.
The second aspect is his wonderful but dramatic 36
years service in the Military. His career is stuff for producers of thriller
movies. However, for those turbulent 36 years in service, General Momah served
with ease of mind without losing his head to a gun shot.
Please, let’s go into the full details of my testimony.
During his 70th birthday celebration in year 2013, the
General, having observed my dexterity at getting him interviewed and published
in various media, he appointed me his media strategist.
To be honest, the job was a bit challenging. So, I had
to call unto a very senior colleague, a gentle man, a trustworthy man, a man of
God who is now at the Presidency. At the time, he was the MD of a thriving
Nigerian newspaper. I pleaded with him to give me a tested hand in Abuja who
can help connect me with some Abuja based senior journalists.
If you know what it takes to organize a press event in
Abuja the most powerful city in Nigeria, you will know how big my fear is.
So, I pleaded with this good man colleague to help me
with someone who can help me navigate. One thing about leadership is the fact
that you lead the good, the bad and the ugly.
My senior colleague connected me to one of his
lieutenants; an Igbo editor who takes charge of the newspaper in Abuja. He
might have taught that the man will be a good blessing.
Of course, he did his best but not without showing the
other side which I called the Black Man Syndrome.
On getting to Abuja, I had printed some letters and
pinned them to the Invitation cards of the General’s birthday. So, I hit the
office of this Igbo editor at a popular area in Abuja.
On getting to his office, after the introduction and
other salutations, I informed him of my predicament and why I am in Abuja. I
noticed a cold look on his face. He later asked me to sit at a cubicle near the
news room.
I noticed he threw some pale glances at me from his
office intermittently, a look that suggest ‘Oh, this small boy?’ or ‘This
novice?’.
He kept me for a while and later assured me he would
get me acquainted with some senior journalists that will cover the event. I
felt relieved. Of course, he equally informed me that he knew the General as
well and even gave me full detail of his address. But I never knew he had
another intention.
I went my way and continued planning. I also reached
out to TV stations, Radio Stations and more.
However, I noticed a cold reaction from this our Igbo
brother editor the next day I called him for confirmation. He kept toasting me
from the third day up to the seventh day. That was the D-Day.
He quickly told me how he could not make it again bla
bla bla bla. I begged him to kindly give me phone number of one person I can
call among the 5 newspapers we penciled down for the event. He reluctantly gave
me one, and it was that one I called that connected me to others. It was
already an ‘Emergency hour’. In three hours time the event was to start at the
‘The International Civic Center’ Abuja.
I pleaded with one to help me get three others
(newspaper houses). I told myself, ‘I will deal with my elderly friend at the
Lagos office directly, since this ‘ewu’ man has disappointed me). In actual
fact, I didn’t know something transpired which made him go cold with me.
To cut the long story short: God performed a miracle; I
got all the four editors. And I decided to forward both stories and pictures to
the Oga at Lagos (That is the Oga to the Abuja based ‘Ewu’ man), and without
collecting a dime, without even asking for a drink, the Oga (whose is now in
the presidency) used the full story of the event and even made the picture ‘a
lead picture’.
It was one of my happiest moments. The General was
overjoyed. His family was electrified with uncommon joy, just because a
national daily had Dad’s birthday picture with eminent Nigerians on the front
cover.
A day before i exit Abuja, I gave the General all the
details of my strategy and how we nearly failed. It was there and then he told
me how the same ‘Ewu’ Editor rushed to his office the very day I went to meet
him for help, trying to play igbo politics with the General. He told the
General to neglect me and give him the job so that he can handle the coverage
perfectly. But General Momah told him “I am okay with Gbenga, he has been with
me for a long time and he delivers well. Let him handle it”. And that was how
‘Mr. Obstruction’ left the General’s office dejected.
I was shocked that such a man of trust can descend so
low to outplay me? How can I meet you just in a day, asking you for help and
the next thing you did was to rush down to my principal trying to convince him
to abandon me and give you my duty?. That was an eye opener!
Well, I wasn’t too surprised. Such things keep happening
till date, even among our colleagues. Someone will send someone to give you
cash, he will either butcher the cash or out rightly take everything without
delivering to you. It still happened to me recently.
For that singular act of glory to me, a young
struggling Nigerian,in year 2013, I hold General Sam Momah in very high esteem.
It is not every day you meet a man with a clear and
sound conscience like General Sam Momah. He is truthful to a fault, sincere to
a fault above all; he is industrious to a fault. Since his retirement in 1999,
he has kept himself busy with writing of books and has written over 15 books on
various policy models.
On that auspicious 70th birthday of his, he wrote
“Nigeria: Beyond Divorce” one of the best intellectual works on the glorious
benefits of a united and unbroken Nigeria. He has written more, even on the
much touted “RESTRUCTURING” but who is listening to General Sam Momah? Who
is listening to Prophet Sam Momah? Who? Who? Who?
Let me stop here for I could continue to dish out more
and more on the General and his lifestyle, family, business and philosophies.
Sam Momah is a Government away from Government; a mobile government, an
encyclopedia of policies that can liberate a serious thinking nation from
poverty.
One of his books that personally transformed my way of
thinking is “TECHNOLOGY IS POWER” which he wrote while serving as minister of
Science and Technology. If you have not read that book, you have actually read
nothing! I have a privileged copy, I have read and read and read, and today,
you see me here!
General Samuel Ifeanyichukwu Momah was born on 6th of
July, 1943 in Zungeru Niger State (Northern Nigeria) and of Igbo parenthood
from Anambra State (Eastern Nigeria).
Sam Momah is a renowned writer who have authored
several high profile books among which is “Global Strategy”, “Global Disorder
and the New World Order”, “Technology is Power”, “Nigeria: Beyond Divorce” and
more.
Momah trained in some of the best institutions both
home and abroad. He is therefore among others, a graduate of India’s National
Defense Academy, Poona, India’s Military Academy, Dehra Dun, Command and Staff
College, Jaji, School of Infantry, Jaji, US Military School of Engineering,
Fort-Belvoir, Pakistan’s Military College of Engineering, Risalpur, UK Defense
Intelligence School, Royal College of Defense Studies, London and the Higher
Command Staff College, Camberly.
He is an alumnus of Nigeria’s Institute of policy and
strategic studies and holds a Doctorate Degree in Strategic Studies from St.
Clements University, Austria.
Being a renowned strategist, he was the Director of
Strategy at Nigeria’s War College and later became Adjutant General of the
Nigerian Army from which post he rose to command the Training and Doctrine
Command which is regarded as the ‘Think-Thank’ of the Nigeria Army.
As a young officer, Momah topped his class with a First
Class Honors Degree in Civil Engineering and later in spite of his busy
schedule as a two star General, he still made a Ph-D in Strategic Studies.
He was sworn in as a member of the Provisional Ruling
Council in September 1994 and later in March 1995 became the Honorable Minister
of Science and Technology at a time when the ministry was very much in the
doldrums, having had a chequered history of being merged with ministry of
education in 1984, de-merged in 1985, disbanded in 1992, and then
re-established in 1993 with all its former assets disappearing, as it were,
into thin air. Till date, some of the ministries’ parastatals are still not
released by their hostage ministries and agencies.
General Momah therefore had the herculean task of
re-building the ministry from scratch to its present formidable strength.
Sam Momah has a Ph-D in Strategic Studies, a fellow of
War College, (fwc) First Class Honors Degree in Civil Engineering, a fellow of
Nigerian Society of Engineers (FNSE); Member of the National Institute (Mni)
and he was conferred with the National Honor of Commander of the Federal
Republic CFR in 1998.
The General is a council member of University of Jos
and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; He was the Vice President, Third World
Academy of Science with Headquarters in Italy, and later became the pioneer
Director of the National War College and a graduate of the Royal College of
Defense Studies (RCDS), London.
General Momah is a strategic thinker, a voracious
reader and prolific writer. He is equally a patriot who strongly believes in
One Nigeria that should be capable of using its endowment in salvaging the
image of the country. He constantly laments at the ugly turn of events, but
even then, he still believes that all hope is not lost.
He is happily married with five children, four of whom
are medical doctors.
Happy Seven Decades and Seven Years to an impeccable elder
statesman.
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