The apex Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has condoled its northern counterpart, Northern Elders Forum, NEC on the death of a known political leader, Dr Paul Unongo.
In a message authored and signed by the National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze, Dr Chiedozie Alex Ogbonnia, the group expressed their sadness for the said politician.
The message read fully thus “Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide received with sadness the news of the death of a foremost Nigerian patriot, astute administrator, bridge builder, courageous and sagacious politician, a moral edifice, elder-statesman, former minister of Power and Steel in the second Republic and former and the former Leader of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) Chief Paul Iorpuu Unongo.
Unongo was an embodiment of restructuring Nigeria for effective and efficient service delivery. On the other hand, while Unongo remained culturally and emotionally attached to his native Tiv ethnicity, he never lost his Northern orientation and the need for a sustainable relationship with the other parts of the country based on equity, justice and fairness.
Unongo was an apostle of excellence, a social crusader and a political activist. Unongo had recounted how as a small boy, he donated six shillings in support of the Zikist movement in 1946; based on his broad mind and convictions that Nigeria needed a cerebral pragmatic intellectual, he was to campaign for Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe to be elected a President of Nigeria in 1979”
“The dispositions, mutual toleration, and elderly moderations of the Unongo quintessence in the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) have no doubt added profound values to the Nigerian democratic dispensation. One is left to guess the feelings of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo that Unongo has departed at a critical point his wise counsel is most needed.
The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Ambassador Professor George Obiozor recalls with intense nostalgia, his relationship with Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Paul Unongo, Chief Aper Aku, Sen. J S Tarka, Chief Solomon Lar, among others during the Second Republic under President Shehu Shagari. Obiozor lamented that a foremost Nigerian patriot is gone.
While the Ohanaeze Ndigbo and indeed the entire Ndigbo send our condolences to the immediate Unongo family; the Governor, Samuel Ortom and the good people of Benue State; the Paramount Ruler of the Tiv Nation, Tor Tiv, Prof. James Ayatse; Professor Ango Abdullahi and the Northern Elders Forum; and indeed the community of Nigerian patriots, it is our prayers that the Almighty will grant his soul eternal rest in his bosom.”
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
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