Ogbonnaya Onu Is Secretary To Government

President Mohammadu Buhari may have settled for first civilian Governor ofAbia State and chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu as Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF. The appointment of Onu may have sealed the hopes of Babagana Kingibe and former Governor Rotimi Amaechi and Dr. Chris Ngige who are both eyeing the position.

Sources told Pointblanknews.com that President Buhari settled for Onu despite mounting pressure from different interested parties to have either Amaechi or Kingibe as SGF. ingibe, a new entrant into the lobby for the SGF position, sources said,have argued that he is most qualified and have better understanding of theBuhari’s agenda for Nigeria.

However, some APC stalwarts argued that Kingibe has little or no impact inthe election that brought the APC into power.“We rarely saw him. He was never with us while we suffered and fought asan opposition party. How can he come today to take the SGF’s position”? AnAPC chieftain told Pointblanknews.com on condition of anonymity.

Another source said the decision to appoint Onu who is considered asBuhari’s most trusted amongst other Igbos lobbying for the job, is tobring the South-East geopolitical zone into the Government of Buhari ledGovernmen since the zone neither would produce the Senate President or theSpeaker of the House of Representatives.

Born on December 1, 1951, in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyistate, Dr. Onu became the first civilian governor of the old Abia state(1991), then made up of what is today Abia and Ebonyi states and waschosen by his colleague governors as Chairman, Conference of Nigerianelected Governors.

A team player, he was selected at his party’s primaries in 1999 as thefirst presidential candidate of the now defunct All Peoples Party, APP.He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees, BOT, of the APC and oneof the key figures that engineered the mega merger of political partiesthat brought about the APC and led to the crushing defeat of the rulingparty, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the April 11 generalelections.

Soft-spoken and rarely controversial, Dr. Onu had Grade One withDistinction in the West African School Certificate examination at IzziHigh School, Abakiliki, Ebonyi state; recorded Distinctions in Physics and
Chemistry at the Higher School Certificate examination at College ofImmaculate Conception, CIC, Enugu, graduating as best overall student.

He went on to the University of Lagos, UNILAG, where in 1976 he graduatedwith first class honours in Chemical Engineering. He also has Doctor ofPhilosophy, Ph.D, degree in Chemical Engineering from the University ofCalifornia, UC Berkely California, USA, 1980.While in the US he was, among others, President of the African StudentsUnion and President of the Nigerian Association of Northern California,Inc

Source; pointblanknews.com