*A rare presentation of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onuh by “Okezie, Esq”
A gentleman par excellence. Dr Christopher Ogbonnaya Onu was one of the very few Nigerians who have the idea of how Nigeria can be made better, with marched knowledge and integrity for a better society. But he was completely disallowed a better platform to put his vision to reality.
At the last APC presidential primary, Dr Onu, figuratively speaking, wept loudly about how Nigerian denies herself excellence and progress thru their phobia over a particular ethnic group. Most of us were surprised. Because, that was unlike him (he’s always advised “focus and patience”). By that act he made us realize that the Igbo situation in Nigeria has reached an unacceptable point. The pain of that reality weighed him down, perhaps, to an untimely death.
Dr. Onu was the best in all the classes he was. His primary education was hastened by the colonial teachers who found the pupil as exceptionally brilliant. At Mary Knor College, Okuku, in present day Cross River State, he came first in Form 1, 2, 3 and 4 before the civil war ensued. After the war, he moved to Enugu where he emerged the second best in the WAEC exam in the whole of West Africa; (the first, who also was a Nigerian, was not a science student).
Thereafter, he went to Unilag where he made first class in chemical engineering. He proceeded to America and became the best graduating Masters of his school at the time. MPhil. was compulsory in his University, but the school waved it for his PhD, which made him complete his PhD shorter than the normal duration. He returned to Nigeria and moved to Uniport to teach. By the 6th year, he’s satisfied the requirement for the bestowment of Professorship thru research and publication. But he was asked to wait for another 4 years, because, and unfortunately, Uniport then had the policy of “10 years of continuous teaching” that trumped other qualifications for professorship, and this was irrespective of one’s brilliance. 9 years and 4 months into teaching, Dr Onu became the Governor of Abia State, and never again asked anything about Professorship.
Dr Onu was in the league a few puritans (Ezeife, Chukwumereije and Iyom Josephine Aneni, etc.) who appear in White, 2-4-7, as signature mark of virtue of incorruptibility and decency in private and public life (these days I laugh when I see ndi amakaekpu who chanced upon govt houses in Igbo land thru outright “purchase” or levying of violence, wear White, to make a mockery of the virtue associated with Dr Onu and co).
Dr Onu followed, to the letter, the Nigerian prescription to the Igbo – build bridges, love Nigeria more n ‘behave yourself’ – as a means of obtaining validation for “complete acceptance of the Igbo” and ‘qualification’ for the leadership of the Nigerian state. But in the end, he wept loudly, when he realized that that prescription was mere debauchery that serves to queue Igbos for the arrival Goddot.
Without any doubt, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu was a gentleman of the first order, whose continued living would have contributed a lot to the appreciation of virtue over matter by youths in this decadent clime. We shall hugely miss him, especially, the life essence – good name, simplicity, endurance, group leverage over personal acquisition and materialism – which he lived and demonstrated.
Adieu Dr Christopher Ogbonnaya Onu!
