News - July 3, 2024

Lagos APC chieftain pays condolence visit to Onu’s family

Stanley Ihedigbo July 3, 2024

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Stanley Ihedigbo

Lagos All Progressive Congress (APC) Chieftain, High Chief Dr. Nicholas Chidiebere Ajayi Adekunle, visited and condoled with the Onu family over the loss of their father, His Excellency Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu.

He described the loss as “shocking, enormous and irreparable”, adding however that “no one can question the Almighty God.”

According to the Former Secretary of All Peoples Party (APP), Largos State, the late HE Onu was a “good, fearless and courageous man who love his county very much.

He further said that the former minister love, vision and dream for a better Nigeria made him to gave up his position to Olu Falae after the defunct APP merged with another party, Alliance for Democracy (AD) as the presidential candidate in 1999.

The Former Oshodi/Isolo Federal House of Representative Candidate noted that, HE Onu was one of the founding fathers of APC and his mentor.

“I paid a condolence visit to my mentor and leader family. I was received by the matriarch of the family Dr. Mrs Chinyere Onu. I was taken round a library put up in his honor by his private secretary and then I realized that my leader has documented a lot in knowledge for Nigerian and humanity.

“We continue to celebrate him and await his burial dates. May his soul rest in peace”, he stated.

Onu CON was born on 1st December 1951 and died 11th April 2024. He was a Nigerian politician, author and engineer.

He was the first civilian governor of Abia State and was the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation of Nigeria from November 2015 until his resignation in 2022. He was the longest serving minister of the ministry.

He hailed from Ụbụrụ in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, South-east Nigeria.

Ogbonnaya Onu at a glance Mr Onu graduated with a First Class Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos State in 1976 before obtaining his doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley four years later.

He would later serve as a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he rose to become the pioneer Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering of the institution and later, acting dean of the engineering faculty.

The 72-year-old began his political career when he unsuccessfully sought a senatorial ticket of the now-defunct National Party of Nigeria in the old Imo State.

He later contested and was elected the first civilian governor of the then-newly created Abia State in 1991 under the platform of the National Republic Convention. He was sworn in January 1992.

In 2015, Mr Onu was appointed as minister of science and technology by the Nigerian president at the time, Mr Buhari. By 2019, he became the longest-serving minister in the ministry with his reappointment in 2019 by Mr Buhari.