Adedeji Adeleke, father of award-winning superstar Davido, recently opened up about the challenges he faced while securing the environmental permit for his $2 billion power plant project.
Speaking as a Layperson from the West-Central Africa Division at the Seventh Day Adventist General Conference Annual Council in Maryland, USA, the billionaire industrialist shared his experience dealing with government bottlenecks.
Adeleke, a Baptist member, recounted how difficult government officials posed obstacles to his company’s efforts, with one official boldly declaring that the project would “never see the light of day.”
Faced with this challenge, Adeleke turned to prayer, refusing to accept the official’s words as the final verdict for his company, Pacific Energy, which was working alongside Chinese engineering firms to bring the project to life.
“I am a businessman in Nigeria. I’m into the electricity business. I own a power plant, I generate about 15 per cent of the electricity needs for Nigeria. I have Chinese engineering companies that work for me. I’m building the biggest power plant in Nigeria that will be completed in January 2025. It is a 1,250-megawatt power plant.
“During the course of the design and getting the permit, we ran into difficult government officials. For environmental reasons, our permit was denied, and the particular government officials that I held a meeting with told me to my face that my project would never see the light of the day. But while he was saying that, I was saying in my mind that this guy is talking as if he is God. I was saying in my mind that God should listen to him; Because he is not God, whatever he is saying is null and void.”
“So I left, disappointed and I told my Chinese friends that unfortunately we have difficulty and this project is going to stall. Meanwhile, the project is worth about $2 billion. In the process, a lot of money had already gone into the design and preliminaries. Before we get to the stage where we would need a permit and then break ground. So my Chinese friend was worried because the Afrexim Bank of China was involved so that meant bankruptcy for him. I told him not to worry,” he said.
Adeleke further stressed that his Chinese friend had to travel down to Nigeria to discuss a way out because he never believed that prayer was enough to get the project done, noting that it did as the then Minister of Power granted the approval because he saw that the project was a brilliant one.
Recall that Adeleke had earlier spoken about this power project while delivering a lecture note at the 9th graduation ceremony of Adeleke University, Ede, Osun State in July 2023.
(Punch)
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