The immediate past minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Engr Ogbonnaya Onu has been declared dead in the early hours of today, Thursday. According to a family source, he battled an unserious ailment, but couldn’t survive it. He later gave up to ghost at a hospital in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The official source assured that Onu’s burial tentative programmes would be announced soon by the family.
Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, a professional engineer, was a lecturer at the University of Portharcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria before joining politics. The first class engineering graduate, Onu was elected governor of the old Abia state in 1992. His tenure was cut short by the military in 1994. He’s from Uburu community, Ohaozara local government area, in today’s Ebonyi state.
Dr Ogbonnaya Onu in his political trajectory became national chairman of the defunct All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) which later collapsed into APC, party birthed in 2013 by merger of the then major opposition political parties. He was appointed minister of Science and Technology in 2015 by the immediate past president of Nigeria, Muhammad Buhari, a position he had held for eight uninterrupted years. In 2023, he aspired to fly the presidential flag of the APC, but lost to the current president, Bola Tinubu.
Onu died at the age of 71. He’s survived by children and other family members.
Dr Ogbonnaya Onu.