Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu will on Monday 26 February commission the much-anticipated 188-megawatt private power station at Osisioma Industrial Layout, Aba, Abia State.
The commissioning earlier scheduled for Saturday 24 February was abruptly moved to Monday by the presidency, citing, “unexpected developments” but it is more than likely a dig at the secessionist campaigners in the Southeast region, which had enforced a Sit-At-Home protest every Monday since 2021 to press home their demands.
The power station belongs to Geometric Integrated Power Company Ltd, owned by renowned professor of engineering, Prof. Bartholomew Nnaji.
The power plant is expected to supply electricity to at least nine of the 17 local government areas of Abia State on a 24-hour basis – the first power project in Nigeria to so accomplish.
The Managing Director of the Geometric Power Group, Ben Caven, described the $800 million integrated power project plant as the most significant investment in Southeast Nigeria – either by government or the private-sector. This gas-fired power project includes the construction of a 27km natural gas pipeline from Owaza in Ukwa West Local Government Area to the plant at Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba.
Caven said the installation of 150,000km of cables and wires, the establishment of four new power substations around the state and the refurbishment of three others inherited from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) made the power project one of the most extensive and integrated in Nigeria.
Tracing The Project’s History
Professor Bart Nnaji, the founder of the company initiated the integrated project after a visit by the then World Bank President, James Wolfensohn, in company of the former Nigeria’s Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to Aba on March 17, 2004. During the visit, the the discussions centered on the prevailing challenge of epileptic power supply facing both large and medium-scale industrialists in Aba – arguably Africa’s hub of indigenous manufacturing, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
The conversations birthed the idea of a 50-megawatts power infrastructure project to serve the need. Prof. Nnaji upped it to 188 megawatts.
Shedding more light on the driving force behind his decision to establish the Geometric Power Plant in Aba while speaking at a leadership colloquium on “Igbo Leadership and Development,” Nnaji said his passion was to see industrial development of Igbo land as the catalyst for Nigeria’s overall industrialization and socioeconomic progress.
“I am passionate about the rapid development of Nigeria, starting with Ala Igbo because of the structural problems it has faced since the end of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War in 1970 and also because of its enormous technological and economic potential”, he said.
Nnaji said he was making his “contribution to help reclaim the old economic days of the Great Zik of Africa, Dr. M.I. Okpara and many others”, and expressed the hope that once the project takes off, “not even the sky will be the limit of the attainments of the people and government of Abia State. Abia can set the stage of development miracle which has been waiting to happen” in Nigeria.
He said he was irrevocably committed to addressing the structural challenges faced by Ala Igbo since the end of the war which left the region devastated with no concerted rehabilitation efforts initially promised by the central government.
He said although the project would have been more financially lucrative in other areas of Nigeria where Nigeria’s government concentrated development such as at Ikeja, Ilupeju Industrial Estate, both in Lagos, Agbara Industrial Layout in Ogun State, or around the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, and although he, unfortunately, faced “a tortious ten-year tussle over the right ownership of the Aba-Ringed Fence Area” with previous governments in the state, he was happy of his decision not to leave Ala Igbo because, “Only the investors and promoters of Geometric Power would have benefitted directly, but the people and governments of Ala-Igbo would be the losers.”
Other pet projects of the renowned engineer are the manufacturing plant at Emene, Enugu, for the production of high-standard vehicle spare parts and engines and the 22megawatt Emergency Plant in Abuja which is supplying electricity to Nigeria’s seat of power at Aso Rock, the NNPC headquarters, the Abuja Business District and other places.
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