“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” – Pericles

The curtain has  fallen too soon on Suleman Omone-Ogie Momoh as the advertising industry continues to mourn him.

The sun set too early on May 13, 2025, and with it, the light of a soul so rare, so radiant, so deeply human, Suleman Omone-Ogie Momoh, was put off.

At just 52, he departed without warning, leaving behind a silence that words can barely reach.

There are people whose presence warms a room, who carry with them a gentle gravity that draws others in, not for applause, not for recognition, but simply because they care. Suleman was that kind of man.

In an industry built on impressions, he made his mark not in fleeting ads but in enduring hearts.

He went beyond just work in advertising. He lived it with grace, humour, loyalty, and fierce commitment.

He turned offices into homes, colleagues into family, and pressure into poetry. And even as he climbed the ladders of success, he never forgot to hold others by the hand, lifting them with each step.
He made excellence feel effortless.

He listened with intent. He mentored without pride. And he believed in people, sometimes before they believed in themselves.

You did not need to know him for years to feel his kindness. A single meeting was enough.

His smile, disarming, his wisdom, gently spoken but unforgettable while his presence was a calming force in a world that rarely slows down.

Suleman’s journey through advertising wasn’t defined by job titles or accolades, though he had many.

From his early days at Prima Garnet to his leadership at 141 Worldwide (now Nitro 121), where he spent nearly two decades shaping not just campaigns but careers his legacy was never just what he built, but who he built.

He was a storm of ideas with the humility of a servant. His door was open and his heart even more so.

In rooms where egos often clashed, Suleman brought calm. In teams fraying at the edges, he wove unity.

Now, in his absence, we are undone.
Because what happens when the one who held the light goes dark?

What do we do with the silence where laughter once lived? Who fills the space where wisdom once sat, steady as a lighthouse?

The bitterest tears we shed are for the words we never said, the thank yous we thought we had time for, the hugs we postponed.

But Suleman gave so freely, so completely, that even in our grief, we know that, truly, we were lucky to have worked beside him, to have learned from him and to have laughed with him.
And yet, there is pain, deep and cold and wide.

He was too young. He had more to give. There were lessons left unwritten. Dreams left unfinished. But still, he gave us so much.

Suleman Momoh was not a man of noise. He was a man of depth. And now, the depth of our sorrow matches the depth of his gift.

His passing is not just a personal loss. It is a wound in the heart of the advertising industry. This is because, when someone like Suleman leaves, the whole room dims.

But the greatest legacies are not statues or speeches, they are the soft echoes that stay long after someone is gone.

A phrase he used. A way he calmed the storm. A belief he planted. The lives he touched

The Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN) honoured him as “a true advertising man.” But those who knew him will remember him as something more: a friend, a brother, a mentor, a quiet builder of dreams.
And so, we say goodbye, but not really, because, Suleman Momoh is not gone.

He lives in every campaign shaped by someone he mentored, in every room where kindness leads.

In every laugh that echoes because he once made the world feel lighter. Truly, death leaves a heartache no one can heal.

Rest well, Suleman. You are deeply loved. Forever missed and you are always remembered, not as a name on a programme, but as a chapter in our hearts.