[BREAKING] Mallam Isa Funtua is dead

He died in Abuja while undergoing a routine medical check-up. He was 78 years old.

He reportedly suffered a massive heart attack during the medical check-up.

Profile

SINCE Alhaji Ismaila Isa Funtua commenced his working career at the Katsina Native Authority many decades ago, he remained as constant as the northern star in the polity.

In his public and private endeavours, the Manchester University-trained administrator was indisputably remarkable.

His feats as a businessman, media patron and administrator distinguished him as an exceptional statesman, whose image was profitable to Nigeria’s developmental trajectory.

Funtua was one of the few who could truly be called statesmen given the admiration he commanded.

His reputation for making good judgements in the polity was reminiscent of Mikhail Gorbachev’s statement: “A statesman does what he believes is best for his country, a politician does best what gets him re-elected.”

Clearly, Funtua, who was the Minister of Water Resources in the defunct Second Republic, had, in public and private stewardships, done what he believed was good for Nigeria.

It was such disposition that saw him establishing the Democrat Newspapers during military dictatorship.

At that time when decrees restrained freedom of speech, the newspaper thundered against the ills of that age