Anybody who has studied the trajectory of Nigeria, will not help but conclude that God indeed loves Nigeria. Many countries that have not undergone half of the man-made trouble and tribulations of Nigeria are today smoldering cauldrons of human calamity and sufferings.
In 2023, such opportunity of God’s magnanimity to Nigeria to the displeasure of naysayers will once again play out when Nigerians will march out to elect a new president and other office holders across the 36 states and the legislature.
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A major source for this writer’s optimism is that after the very commendable and visible work done by the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in infrastructure development in the last seven years, Nigeria could grab its fresh opportunity to add a new dimension of an industrial revolution through the choice of Dr Ogbonnaya Onu as the president in 2023.
Onu’s lifetime vision is a Nigeria where the abundant human and material resources of Nigeria would be exploited for the good of the citizens as the country enjoys its pride of place in Africa and the black race.
As Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, Onu moved Nigeria’s patent stock from six in 2015 to 55 in 2021 – this means that with the opening of the venture capitalist sector, Nigeria’s economy will boom with globally competitive products, thereby drawing our youths into critical research interests in the sciences, arts, and technology and away from internet fraud and crimes.
Crucial to Nigeria’s preparedness for the emerging Fourth Industrial Revolution, where knowledge, not oil, will drive the economy of nations, will become manifest after 2023 due to President Muhammadu Buhari’s solid foundation, fatherly and visionary guidance of the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation.
By extrapolation, Onu’s Nigeria will drive the country’s economy on industrial clusters across the 36 states, with exportable products and skilled youths as the fulcrum of the nation’s economy. This combined with his leadership style of collaboration, consultation, respect for rule of law, fairness, and justice to all men and women, Nigeria will be on a speedy trajectory to greatness.
As governor of old Abia State (1992 -1993), Onu founded the industrial clusters across the three senatorial zones with shoe factories, glass industry, ceramics industry, metallurgical complex, agro-allied research centres and processing, free medicare, quality education, and massive rural roads construction, all with the meagre resources available to the administration then.
When the military under late General Sani Abacha sacked the civilian administration led by late Ernest Shonekan on November 17, 1993, the young Onu returned to his regular home in Uburu, present Ebonyi State, where he had lived all his life while a first-class lecturer of the University of Port Harcourt. He moves around with no airs or the usual colourful bluster of the elite or public officials, who feel entitled to the dispensation of privileges and resources, as seen in Nigeria today.
As one of the most principled and consistent politicians in Nigeria today, the long-standing Buhari supporter made a strategic contribution to the emergence of the grand merger of the ruling All Progressives Congress, which defeated an incumbent president for the first time in Nigeria’s history. The ANPP, where he served as national chairman, was a major constitutive block of the CPC/AD/ANPP/APGA merger, now seeking its turn at the presidency. This is similar to his respect for party supremacy and acquiescence to the party arrangement of a joint ticket of the Alliance for Democracy and the All Peoples’ Party in favour of prominent banker, Chief Olu Falae, despite being the latter’s nominated presidential candidate – a move that paved a major path to national healing and unity.
For over 40 decades of national life, Onu has tirelessly built bridges, peace, and hope for Nigeria’s traumatized citizens from the north to the west, east, south, and centre, and across a broad spectrum of political, religious, academic, traditional, and professional groups.
If given the opportunity, the solid foundation Onu will lay in four years with the same scientific precision which had seen the transformation of Nigeria’s contemporary nations like Singapore, India, China, Malaysia, and others will endear him as the darling of the country. The chance beckons for Nigeria to be great indeed.
Uche Okoronkwo
Abuja
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