Dr Adedeji Adeleke, the father of popular singer David Adeleke, fondly called Davido, says he is responsible for generating 15 per cent of Nigeria’s electricity supply.
Adeleke disclosed this while speaking at the Seventh-Day Adventist Church’s General Conference Annual Council held in Maryland, United States, on Tuesday, October 15, 2024.
The billionaire business added that he is in the process of constructing a 1,250-megawatt power plant, saying the project would be the largest in Nigeria upon completion in January 2025.
He said: “I am a businessman in Nigeria; I’m in the electricity business. I own power plants. I generate presently about 15 percent of the electricity needs of Nigeria.
“I have Chinese engineering companies that work for me. I am building and almost complete by January, by the grace of God, tenth new power plant that will be the biggest thermal power plant in Nigeria.
“It’s a 1,250-megawatt power plant to become operational in January.”
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Adeleke further stated an unnamed government official threatened to prevent the execution of the project, saying: “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 official 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.”
Adeleke disclosed 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.
He said prayer did as the then Minister of Power granted the approval because he saw that the project was a brilliant plan.
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