Former Senator, Shehu Sani has described late Ogbonnaya Onu as a ‘rare breed politician’.
It was earlier reported that Onu, an All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant in the 2023 election, died on Thursday.
The former lawmaker further said that the late Ogbonaya Onu was “stopped” from being the President of Nigeria in 1999 as he “could have been Nigeria’s President in 1999 after he won the APP primaries in Kaduna, attended by the likes of the late Ikemba of Nnewi Chief Ojukwu.
Paying tribute to the first Civilian Governor of Abia State, he said: “He was deliberately displaced after a midnight merger with the then AD. The military wanted Obasanjo and Falae.
“The late Chief Onu is one of Nigeria’s most distinguished,decent and disciplined political figures in history.
“He has been an influential figure in Nigeria’s politics for over four decades.A Senator in the second republic,a Governor in the third republic and a presidential candidate, party chairman and minister in the fourth republic.
“He is a rare breed politician who lived as unstained, untainted and unblemished like his white apparel. He was a man who lived and served his country with decorum and impactful anonymity.
“He was a true patriot whose nationalist credentials can’t be faulted by any section of the country. Onu was an unnoticed and unappreciated gentleman and national leader.In words and in deeds, he lived above politics of rancour and controversy.
He further described Onu as a simple man who didn’t challenge the Military’s desire to shift power to the South West in 1999.
“His known residence in Asokoro remains the one rented for him by his party, the ANPP, when he was elected its chairman. He remained there throughout his tenure as minister.
May his soul rest in peace,” he concluded.
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