2ND REPUBLIC MINISTER OF STEEL, PAUL UNONGO IS DEAD.(PHOTO).

2ND REPUBLIC MINISTER OF STEEL, PAUL UNONGO IS DEAD

A family source who didn’t want to be named confirmed the death saying the family will soon issue an official statement.

Yes Wantaregh Paul Unongo died yesterday Tuesday but I cannot say more than that because I am not authorised to do so. But our family will issue a formal statement on the development,”the source said.

Wantaregh Paul Iyorpuu Unongo, was born on September 26th, 1935 and belongs to the Kwaghngise-Anure-Abera ancestry, in Turan, Kwande Local Government Area of Benue State.

In November 1958, young Unongo was employed as an Entries Clerk, by the prestigious Barclays Bank, DCO. Owing to his diligence, hard work and the positive encouragement of his British expatriate Manager, Mr. Naylor, Wantaregh Paul Unongo made rapid progress and attained the enviable rank of Acting sub-Accountant, usually reserved only for Whites, in 1959.

His banking job, although very attractive and rewarding at that time, for a young man, his innate desire to pursue Higher Education made him resign his very lucrative and enviable job with Barclays Bank, DCO, to further his education.

He proceeded to the Nigerian College of Arts, Science, and Technology Zaria, now Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in October 1959 for Two years Pre-Degree Programme; then referred to as Pre-Medicine, which was in fact Advanced Level GCE in Zoology, Physics and Chemistry and completed his course successfully in 1960.

With the encouragement and partial assistance of the expatriate Chief Social Welfare Officer of Northern Nigeria, Douglas Green (a Canadian) Wantaregh got admission to Canada to study Experimental Psychology at the University of Calgary in Canada. He stayed for two years, and later transferred to the University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada, where he completed both his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Experimental Psychology, specializing in Human Experimental Psychopathology. He was subsequently offered a six (6) Year Scholarship by the North Regional Government to study at the University of London, “leading to a Ph.D in Psychology” in that UK University.

In 1968, 1969 and even 1970, whilst actively pursuing the psychological war aims of the country, Unongo still routinely lectured with the University of Lagos, and helped establish and consolidate the Department of Psychology and her degree awarding programme. At the end of the war in 1970, Unongo released his must read book: “Say It Loud We Are Black and Strong”, – a postmortem of the crisis, a real master piece on the Nigeria of his dream. When General Murtala Muhammed was programming a transition to Civilian Rule in 1975, he selected fifty distinguished Nigerians to draft a befitting Constitution for Modern Nigeria. This task required dedicated, educated, experienced and versatile cream of Nigerians. The Military Government honoured Wantaregh as one of the “Fifty Wise Men”.

In recognition of his efforts, General Olusegun Obasanjo, the then Head of State found him worthy of National Honour as Officer of the Federal Republic, OFR.

Since then, Wantaregh has remained the delight of successive Administrations, acting freely, as Policy Adviser to different regimes. Unongo, once again found himself a member of the 1994 Constitutional Conference where he served as Chairman of the States Creation Committee.

Untill his death, Unongo was Chairman of the Governing Council of Nigerian Educational Research Development Council, NERDC.

From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi