Abubakar Momoh was one of Otaru Oshiogbele Momoh Idaoh’s most prolific descendants and the second in the Momoh Royal Family to rise to the enviable rank of university Professor.

Abubakar Momoh was born on the 28^th of August 1964 to Prince AbdulKarim Kings and Mairo Momoh, He attended Holy Trinity Primary School in Kano from 1969 to 1971; EDC 1 Primary School in Agbede from 1971 to 1973 and Army Children School, Zaria from 1973 to 1975 where he obtained his First School Leaving Certificate. Abubakar Momoh proceeded to the Government Secondary School in Saminaka, Kaduna State from 1975 to 1980 where he obtained his West African Senior School Certificate; and the famous Edo College in Benin from 1980 to 1982 where he obtained his advanced levels.

Abubakar Momoh proceeded to the University of Lagos where he obtained his BSc (1985), MSc (1987) and PhD (1990) in Political Science. His award-winning doctoral thesis was on “Nkrumah and African Liberation: the Limits of Praxis”.

Abubakar Momoh began his career at the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University in 1988 as an assistant lecturer. He rose through the academic ladder and was appointed full Professor in 2006. His research focus hinged on political theory, specifically on political ideation, social movements, the state, the problems of democracy and the global system.

In the academic community in LASU and beyond, Professor Momoh held various positions, for example, as the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Centre for Human Rights Education and Development (2007 to 2011), acting Head of the Department of Political Science at Lagos State University and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Lagos State University. He served in various national and international academic committees and convened several conferences concerning human rights, negotiations and politics.

Professor Momoh served as a visiting researcher and lecturer at many universities worldwide, including Institute for Development Studies, University of Helsinki in Finland; Department of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala University in Sweden; Centre for African Studies, University of Cape Town in South Africa; Catholic University in Brussels, Belgium; University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) as a Senior Fulbright Scholar; King’s College University of London, just to mention a few of the many academic laurels he wore.

He also served as an external examiner in several universities including the University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Kwazulu-Natal, National War College and Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies.

Professor Abubakar Momoh was not only a political theorist, he was even well known as an activist. He was actively involved in the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) where he served as national treasurer of the association between 1991 and 1995 and as chairman of LASU branch of the association between 1996 and 1998.

He served as election observer to several Nigerian States, African Countries, ECOWAS and the African Union. In one of such outings, he had a raw deal with marauding political thugs when he went for election observation at Ifaki in Ekiti State in 2009. He was accused of being an agent of Bola Tinubu and the thugs claimed he had recorded election results he was going to declare. Professor Momoh, humble yet uncompromising, challenged the thugs who wielded cutlasses to back up all their claims. For daring to challenge them, one of them smashed a bottle on his head and blood gushed out. Despite this, Professor Abubakar Momoh was kept in detention, over a false and spurious allegation.

Professor Abubakar Momoh was appointed Director-General of the National Electoral Institute of the Independent National Electoral Commission in 2013, a position he held until his earthly departure. He was active in designing the African Governance Architecture and modalities of elections benchmarking for the African Union.

He published several books, position papers, chapters and made technical contributions to State Governments and Government Agencies.

Professor Abubakar Momoh is recognized for his outstanding contributions to education, scholarship and mentorship; excellent and national and international development.