Nigeria’s President, leaders and science community are mourning the death of Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, a former minister of Science and Technology.
He served as minister under President Muhammadu Bihari from 2015 to 2022 when he voluntarily resigned to contest the primaries for the presidential election in his APC political party.
He however, lost to Bola Tinubu who finally won the general election as President in 2023.
Dr Onu was the first civilian governor of Abia State, southeast Nigeria, from January, 1992 to November, 1993, when General Sani Abacha took over power in a coup.
He made a mark as a politician, and was the presidential candidate of the All Progressives down Party. He stepped down as his party merged with Olu Falae of the Alliance for Democracy in the 1999 election which was won by Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP.
Dr Onu held a first class degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos, Nigeria (1976) and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley, USA.
He was born on 1 December, 1951, and died 11 April, 2024, in Abuja.
