Adedeji Adeleke, the father of award-winning superstar David, better known as Davido, recently shared the challenges he faced in obtaining the environmental permit for his over $2 billion power plant project.
Speaking as a Layperson from the West-Central Africa Division during the Seventh Day Adventist General Conference Annual Council in Maryland, USA, the billionaire industrialist recounted his experience as a member of the Baptist community.
He described encountering significant obstacles with “difficult government officials,” one of whom told him that the project would never “see the light of day.”
Determined not to accept this discouraging statement as the final verdict for his company, Pacific Energy, which is collaborating with Chinese engineering firms on the project, Adeleke turned to prayer, seeking divine guidance and support.
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“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 emphasized that his Chinese friend had to travel to Nigeria to explore solutions, as he believed that prayer alone would not suffice to complete the project. He highlighted that the former Minister of Power ultimately approved the initiative, recognizing its brilliance.
It’s worth noting that Adeleke previously discussed this power project while delivering a lecture at the 9th graduation ceremony of Adeleke University in Ede, Osun State, in July 2023.
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