Former finance minister, Adamu Ciroma, dies at 84

Adamu Ciroma,

Former Minister of Finance, Mallam Adamu Ciroma, has died at the age of 84.

A journalist, diplomat and elder statesman, Ciroma passed on at a hospital in Abuja on Thursday.

He was a founding member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) finance minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo administration from 1999 to 2003.

The University of Ibadan graduate played a leading role in Group of 34 eminent Nigerians, otherwise called the G34, that formed the PDP.

He was also minister of agriculture and first editor of New Nigerian newspaper, for which he later became managing director.

Born in Potiskum, Yobe State, Ciroma was also governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).