Buhari’s SGF? Try Ogbonnaya Onu

The Office of the SGF is so sensitive that, as the hub of governance, it should be occupied by a veteran loyalist, a technocrat and an experienced politician who can assist the President to weather through the political Armageddon about to play itself out in this dispensation. This is in view of the fact that […]

The Office of the SGF is so sensitive that, as the hub of governance, it should be occupied by a veteran loyalist, a technocrat and an experienced politician who can assist the President to weather through the political Armageddon about to play itself out in this dispensation. This is in view of the fact that the alter ego of the APC, President Buhari who came to power in a blaze of glory now finds himself confronting several self assertive and bizarre characters on divergent missions with hidden agenda. The 9th of June episode in the National Assembly with real star casting from the APC opened the Pandora’s Box so early enough by divine providence to warn Buhari that a stitch in time saves nine. It is a caveat to be hided in all other appointments including the ministerial.
One man among the veterans who has been tasted and trusted and who already has been hinted as the SSG is Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the immediate past Chairman of our former party the ANPP. Dr. Onu who comes from Ebonyi State in the South Eastern Nigeria is of the Igbo extraction and was a onetime Governor of Abia State.
While he served as governor of Abia State, his name was never for once associated with embezzlement of public funds, nor was he known to have amassed wealth. He had shown a lot of concern when this country was drifting under the PDP government which informed him to lead the ANPP into the fusion known today as APC.
One thing that stands him out as a veritable SSG is his enthusiasm for ‘Change’ which is aglow and blazing the trail of the change mantra that he helped to propel. Long before the era of the APC, Dr Onu was ablaze as a lone ranger opposition veteran on the South East political divide from where he made a deep impression with the change mantra with other known proponents of change in the North and West Nigeria. A fine politician of our generation who is endowed with the rare combinations of nature’s virtues of fearlessness and humility, Onu appeared to have seen tomorrow and so consolidated his political career with measured doggedness, sincerity and decorum. It is such that his appointment as SSG will gladden the heart of many in Igbo land and beyond.
To appoint Dr Onu as the SSG is like a merit award which will not only eschew lope sided appointments but win the entire heart of the Igbo race for Buhari. On a passionate note, I dare say that it is not true that Igbo did not vote for Buhari; many risked their lives, including myself, to stay put in the war-torn Yobe, Borno, Adamawa states, etc, to ensure that their votes were counted for Buhari. Again, given the impunity of the Lords of the Manor in the South East at the time of voting, 95% of vote cast for Buhari went to the marines; whose fault? Blame the system, not the Igbo.
Theo Chutek, Abuja