11th April, 2024
By Paul Dada
The news of the death of former Minister of Science & Technology, Chief Ogbonnaya Onu, broke on Thursday.
Here are 10 things to know about the late politician.
1. Ogbonnaya Onu was born on December 1, 1951, to the family of Eze David Aba Onu in Amata, Uburu, in Ebonyi State.
2. He graduated from the University of Lagos and graduated with a first class degree in chemical engineering in 1976.
3. He went for his doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley, from where he obtained a Doctor of Philosophy degree in chemical engineering in 1980.
4. Onu waw once a teacher at St. Augustine’s Seminary in the Ezzamgbo area of Ebonyi State.
5.After completing his doctoral studies at the University of California, he became a lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt, where he rose to become the pioneer head of the department.
6. Onu in 1991 contested for the position of Governor of Abia State on the platform of the National Republican Convention and won. He was sworn in as the first executive governor of the state in January 1992.
7. In 1999, he was the presidential flag bearer for the All People’s Party but gave up his position to Olu Falae after a merger of his party with the Alliance for Democracy who lost to Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP.
8. He became the national party chairman of the All Nigerian People’s Party in 2010.
9. He was appointed Minister of Science and Technology by President Muhammadu Buhari. And on August 21, 2019, he was sworn in again as Minister of Science and Technology by President Muhammadu Buhari.
10: He resigned from Buhari’s cabinet in 2022 to contest in the presidential primary election of the All Progressive Congress (APC). But he lost to President Bola Tinubu.