Colonel (retired) Robert (Bob) Nnaemeka Akonobi was appointed military governor of Anambra State, Nigeria, from December 1987 to August 1990 during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida.[1]
On 27 June 1988, Akonobi reconstituted the board of Nigeria Mineral Water Industries, empowering it turn the company into a profitable private venture.[2]
In 1989, he established the Anambra State Oil Palm Development Agency.[3]
He officially commissioned the Anambra State University of Technology Teaching Hospital, since renamed the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital, on 19 July 1991.[4]
Akonobi was entangled in the struggle between the Wawa (Anambra North) and Ijekebee (Anambra South) groups, which reached its peak in a bloodbath at Nkpor junction in 1983.[5]
In a controversial book titled Akonobi Brothers and Sisters (ABS), a later governor of Anambra State Christian Onoh accused Akonobi of using his position to acquire property in Enugu.[6]
Onoh, who owned 510 undeveloped lots of land, described "monumental corruption" and said the Akonobi brothers had stolen huge amounts of Federal funds. Akonibi denied the allegations.[7]
After the restoration of democracy with the Nigerian Fourth Republic, Akonobi joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and became a force in Anambra State politics. In 2002, he was coordinator of President Olusegun Obasanjo's Campaign Organization in Anambra State for the 2003 elections.[8]
He became a member of the New Anambra Elders Forum, set up after a political crisis that followed the 2003 elections.[9]
In February 2008 Akonobi's home in Enugu was destroyed by fire.[10]
^Ojo, Bamidele A. (1998). Nigeria's Third Republic: the problems and prospects of political transition to civil rule. Nova Publishers. p. 158. ISBN1-56072-580-X.
