BREAKING: Governor Alex Otti Renames Abia Poly To Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic—–The governor of Abia State has renamed Abia State Polytechnic to Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic.
The Genius Media Nigeria reports that The change was disclosed by the spokesman of the governor, Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma in a post on his official Facebook page.
He said governor Alex Otti took the decision as a way of honouring Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, the first civilian governor of Abia State.
“Abia State Polytechnic, now Ogbonnaya Onu Polytechnic, in honour of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, first Civilian Governor of Abia State”, Ekeoma said in the post.
Mr Onu graduated with a First Class Degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Lagos State in 1976 before obtaining his doctorate in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley four years later.
He would later serve as a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he rose to become the pioneer Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering of the institution and later, acting dean of the engineering faculty.
The 72-year-old began his political career when he unsuccessfully sought a senatorial ticket of the now-defunct National Party of Nigeria in the old Imo State.
He later contested and was elected the first civilian governor of the then-newly created Abia State in 1991 under the platform of the National Republic Convention. He was sworn in January 1992.
The former governor became the presidential candidate of the All Peoples Party (APP) in 1999, but gave up his position to Olu Falae after the defunct APP merged with another party, Alliance for Democracy.
In 2015, Mr Onu was appointed as minister of science and technology by the Nigerian president at the time, Mr Buhari. By 2019, he became the longest-serving minister in the ministry with his reappointment in 2019 by Mr Buhari.
The former minister only resigned from the position in 2022 to contest the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress which was won by Bola Tinubu, who eventually emerged as Nigerian president in the 2023 general elections.
