Billionaire industrialist, Dr. Adedeji Adeleke, father of Nigerian music star Davido, has opened up about the hurdles he faced in his ambitious $2 billion power plant project aimed at generating 1,250 megawatts of electricity—approximately 15% of Nigeria’s energy needs.
Adeleke, speaking as a Layperson from the West-Central Africa Division at the Seventh-Day Adventist General Conference Annual Council held in Maryland, United States, recounted how government bureaucracy nearly derailed the project. According to him, one official went as far as to declare that the project was “doomed to fail.”
“During the course of the design and getting the permit, we ran into difficult government officials,” Adeleke stated. “For environmental reasons, our permit was denied, and the particular government official I held a meeting with told me to my face that my project would never see the light of day.”
Unshaken, Adeleke turned to his faith, trusting in divine intervention to push the project forward. He continued: “But while he was saying that, I was saying in my mind that this guy is talking as if he is God. Whatever he is saying is null and void.”
Despite the government roadblocks, Adeleke assured his Chinese partners, who had already invested significantly in the project and were worried about financial ruin, that the situation would improve. He emphasized that his vision remained intact and that he was determined to see the power plant, set for completion in January 2025, come to fruition.
“I told my Chinese friends that unfortunately we have difficulty and this project is going to stall… But I told him not to worry,” he added.
