# JohnBosco Onunkwo

JohnBosco Obinna Onunkwo (born October 31, 1975) is an oil and gas expert, presently a Global Maintenance Engineer at the Nigeria Agip Oil Company. He is reported to be a billionaire businessman. He is the Anambra Coordinator of Good Governance Ambassadors of Nigeria (GOGAN), a Non-Governmental Organization. He is also the founder of the Coalition of Support Groups for Asiwaju/Shettima (COSGAS), an 800,000-member group which was popular among youths and women in Nigeria and which was a coalition of many smaller support groups. Onunkwo contested twice (2017 and 2021) under Nigeria's ruling political party, All Progressives Congress for the post of Governor of Anambra State, Nigeria. He is also noted for his Johnbosco Onunkwo Foundation which provided thousands of hand sanitizers and pieces of nose masks as protective kits to Nigerians during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The Foundation also built a Lawn Tennis Court for sportspeople in Anambra State and also contributes in many other interventions. He is a registered member of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN).

## Early life and education

Onunkwo was born on October 31, 1975. He hails from Umuchu town in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State. He attended Union Primary School, Adazi-Nnukwu, where he obtained the First School Leaving Certificate in 1985. He proceeded to St. Teresa's College, Nsukka and graduated in 1991. Onunkwo gained admission into the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, and earned a bachelor's degree in Electrical/Electronics and Computer Engineering, Second Class Honours (Upper Division) in 1997.

## Career

He became employed in the Nigeria Agip Oil Company as Assistant Global Maintenance Engineer from 2004 to 2007; Production Officer (from 2007 to 2008); Maintenance and Rotating Equipment Engineer (2008); Maintenance Engineer (from 2011 to 2019) and finally as Senior Maintenance Engineer in Production Operations Department from 2020 to the present. Onunkwo vied into politics at a relatively young age as founding member of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). He was All Progressives Congress (APC) Gubernatorial Aspirant, Anambra State Governorship Election, 2017; House of Representatives Aspirant for Aguata Federal Constituency, 2019; APC Guber Aspirant, Anambra Governorship Election, 2021; and, APC House of Representatives Candidate for Aguata Federal Constituency, 2023. He founded Coalition of Support Groups for Asiwaju/Shettima (COSGAS). This group went down to the grassroots across Nigeria and produced considerable support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, Chief Bola Tinubu during the 2023 elections in Nigeria. This support from COSGAS, along with others, reportedly led to the emergence of Chief Bola Tinubu as the President of Nigeria and Alhaji Kashim Shettima as the Vice President.

## Humanitarian services

Through the Johnbosco Onunkwo Foundation, a group he founded in 2016, Onunkwo handled many interventions, including training 500 youths to eradicate poverty; providing thousands of protective kits to Nigerians during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020; and so many others. He has served as Chairman of the Rotary Club Foundation in Nigeria and twice as Chairman of the Installation Planning Committee of the Rotary Club of Port-Harcourt Central. On December 4, 2020, Johnbosco Onunkwo donated a gigantic complex at Onitsha for the Archbishop Valerian Okeke Music Academy (AVOMA).

## Membership

Onunkwo is a member of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN). He is also a Certified Fellow, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria (2017); Certified Member, The Institute of Chartered Economists of Nigeria (2018); Member, Certified Institute of Purchasing and Supply Administrators of Nigeria (2019); Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Management of Nigeria (2019); Member, Nigerian Institute of Management (2019); and member, Institute of Professional Entrepreneurs and Strategic Administrators of Nigeria (2020).

## Honours

He was awarded "the most outstanding Oil and Gas Personality for 2022" by Daily Champion Newspapers for his experience in engineering, politics and philanthropy. Onunkwo was also honoured with being the Grand Patron of Ohaneze Ndigbo Youth Wing (Worldwide). He was awarded the Outstanding Humanitarian of the Year 2018 by New Telegraph; He also received the Top10 Magazine's "Political Mobilizer of the Year" award in appreciation of his successful efforts to position COSGAS as the main organization assisting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in winning the 2023 presidential election in Nigeria. He was also awarded the Democracy Heroes Award 2019.