- By Kamil Opeyemi
A former Governor of Abia state, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, has died.
Onu, who also served as the Minister of Science and Technology under the Muhammadu Buhari administration died on Thursday after a brief illness. He was said to have died in a Nigerian hospital.
Onu, NPO Reports recalls, contested for the presidential ticket of the All Progressive Congress ahead of the 2023 general election.
He failed in his presidential bid. After his graduation from the University of Lagos, Ogbonnaya Onu became a teacher at St. Augustine’s Seminary, Ezzamgbo, Ebonyi State. After the completion of his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Onu became a lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt, and later became the pioneer head of the department.
He also served as the acting dean of the Faculty of Engineering and was also elected as a member of the Governing Council of the university.
Sworn in as the first executive governor of Abia state in January 1992, he was the first chairman, Conference of Nigerian elected governors. In 1999, he was the presidential flag bearer for the All People’s Party but relinquished the position to Olu Falae after a merger of his party with the Alliance for Democracy who lost to Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP.
He became the national party chairman of the All Nigerian People’s Party in 2010. In 2013, he and his party (ANPP) successfully merged with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Democratic People’s Party (DPP) and some members of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to form the All Progressives Congress (APC).