How I exorcised witches and wizards at the power sector, Prof. Chinedu Nebo

•What I did during the civil war

By Fred Iwenjora

Former minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Ositadinma Nebo has been at the top of Nigeria’s education sector having been Deputy Vice chancellor of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), Vice Chancellor, University of NIgeria Nsukka, Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Oye Ekiti, and now Vice Chancellor, University on the Niger.A first class mining engineer who also picked up a masters in mineral processing and metallurgical engineering as well as a Ph.D in material engineering and science becoming a professor in metallurgical and materials engineering was appointed pioneer Vice Chancellor of Federal University Oye Ekiti where his achievements are still being celebrated. This was after his meritorious five years tenure as Vice Chancellor of UNN. Not long after, the nation sought his engineering services when President Goodluck Jonathan appointed him as Minister of Power in February 2013. Today, Prof Nebo who is currently Pro chancellor of Coal City University Enugu, is the Vice Chancellor of University on the Niger, a faith based institution of higher learning set up by the Diocese of Niger, Anglican Communion and is based in Umunya, Anambra state.

In this exclusive chat with FRED IWENJORA, Prof Nebo talks about his new assignment at the University on the Niger, challenges and triumphs. He also talks about his life as an Engineer, as a ‘man of God’, and more.

Excerpts:

How do you feel to be called a planter and nurturer of new universities?

It is quite fulfilling because education is at the core of human development, so after being Vice Chancellor of University of Nigeria Nsukka for five years from 2004 to 2009, I was resting and taking some time off on sabbatical when I was invited by President Goodluck Jonathan to be the pioneer Vice Chancellor of Federal University Oye Ekiti in 2011. President Jonathan had at the time set up 9 new Universities making sure that states that did not have any federal universities had one. So as God would have it, I was appointed. It was not an easy journey. It was tough. There was a senator who belonged to the ruling party just as the governor belonged to the opposition bringing about an argument as to where the university should be sited. The governor is the custodian of all lands and refused to give us a site to take off and a place as a permanent site. It took a lot of walking around and about. But the Minister of Education was very understanding and accepted my suggestion and my appeal that instead of having only one campus, we should rather have two campuses; one situated at the senator’s choice and the other at the governor’s choice. That was the compromise that led to the two campuses, one at Oye Ekiti and the other at Ikole Ekiti. Again in 2023, I was invited to become the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the University on the Niger. Why am I being invited one may ask? Maybe because I had run a first generation University as UNN and established and run FUOYE very well.

It was in June, 2023 that the Anglican Diocese on the Niger got a Federal Govt licence to set up University on the Niger and they reached out to me. After serious prayers and consultations with my wife, we said let us give it a shot even though we felt that at our age, we should not be facing such a task of kick starting a new University. We accepted that responsibility. Also recall that I had been Deputy VC at Enugu State University of Technology for four years between January 2000 to January 2004. I think all these are the Lord’s doing. I believe in doing anything within my power to help young people grow and in boosting the education sector of Nigeria to put it in a place that would give our students and children proper education and make them among the best. That is what I would love to do any day any time. And from what we did at FUOYE, it shouldn’t amaze any one that that university continues to be among the top 20 universities in Nigeria whenever you do any ranking. All these to the glory of God. I later handed over to another wonderful intellectual and university administrator who took over from me; Prof Isaac Asuzu and he ran the university well before moving on. I am ever grateful to God for the privilege and opportunity to serve.

You sound as if there were no further challenges at FUOYE aside from the citing issue …

Of course, there were numerous challenges, starting from late take-off to assembling a top notch academic and support team to run the University. I believe that it was the way God wanted it, if not why was I the one appointed to set up a new University and in Ekiti for that matter, a so-called top petition writing state so to speak in the entire country? (laughter) In fact it may interest you to note that when my uncle heard that I was appointed to set up a new Federal university in Ekiti, he screamed: Oh…my nephew why? Why would they send him there? He was a postmaster for decades in Ado Ekiti and told me that Ekiti people file away all kinds of petition templates in the drawer only to dust any one that suits your face and slap it on your name if they wish to deal with you! But I told him I believed I would survive with determination and pulling together the best human resources, those I knew who were titans in the education industry with hope that we shall win; and we won. We succeeded. To me, that it was a south west Nigerian based institution made no difference. Like everything I lay my hands on, I wanted FUOYE to be Number 1 and so were we among the newly established ones. That was the mission and vision. While we were setting up and putting together all we needed to start a first year, we were already thinking of finishing school for my students. I told myself that I wanted students of Federal University, Oye Ekiti to be number one whenever they went for interviews. We planned to use their final year to groom them. I got our senate to approve 8 courses on entrepreneurship. Again when I became Minister of power, I championed raising funds for the faculty of engineering that FUOYE got one of the largest and most expensive engineering testing machines in all the federal universities in Nigeria. I was part of it all because I believed that Nigeria is one Nigeria. Of course you must remember that I was born in Kafanchan, started my primary school in Ibadan, continued primary school in Kafanchan and completed it in Port Harcourt. So I am a complete Nigerian by all standards if you want to say so. I can say that I took up the challenge and gave it my best to the glory of God. I have the most supportive wife who was praying for me. I also had a wonderful retinue of competent staff that helped me to grow that university. Top on the list were Prof. Chris Bolu and Venerable Echi Nwogu. That is the same thing I am currently doing at University on the Niger.

Could you point at challenges in running a federal university as compared with your new assignment at University on the Niger.

The funding architecture is quite different. Faith based universities are not as well funded compared to federal and state universities, otherwise we would have started on a permanent site. But to the glory of God, we have moved to our permanent site at Umunya. Our first year students have recently moved into the permanent site, but we still retain our Iyienu campus where we started. Our medical school and teaching hospital are still located at Iyienu. Our Pharmacy Faculty will still be located at the Iyienu as well.

Any other reasons why University on the Niger is different from others?

University on the Niger (UNINIGER) is based on the best practice model of entrepreneurial universities. Our emphasis on a multilingual culture, a sound artificial intelligence component, and a life-skills based entrepreneurial grooming make us unique. We are the only university that makes Chinese language learning compulsory, while offering classes in Igbo and French languages.

Many wondered what a Reverend gentleman could be doing at the Power Ministry. How did Engineering meet with a man of God like you?

My appointment to be VC of UNN had also raised quite some dust as people thought that I was only a pastor. Some others wondered what an Archdeacon was coming to do as head of a University. Many did not know I was Deputy VC at ESUT for many years earlier. Many also did not know I have a solid background in Engineering and scholarship. They did not know I was a first class graduate in mining engineering and professor in metallurgical and material engineering. I earned a first class honors degree in Mining engineering and have been teaching for many years as a professor. When I was appointed minister of power, we committed everything to God, accepted the responsibility and went to work knowing that my President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan meant very well for the country. We gave it our best and the records are there to show that we did whatever we could within the two years and few months on the saddle.

Many people say there are witches and wizards in the power sector stopping Nigeria from making progress. Did you see these so-called fiends during your tenure and how did you overcome them?

(Laughter) I believe human beings are the witches and wizards. During my screening at the senate, I told the senators I was going to exorcise the witches and wizards. And we fought a very rugged battle against people breaking our gas pipelines making it difficult to sustain electric power generation. The pipelines were being vandalised without end. The transmission outfits were not left out in the vandalism. I believed it was sabotage by people who wanted to make the government of President Jonathan look bad and they did. Why would any one in his right mind go ahead and vandalise the transmission lines? Why would they do that? Why break gas pipelines? This really beats my imagination. Some of these pipelines were destroyed in areas where it was so difficult to detect. It was frustrating and made power production such a big problem. Yet we were still able to keep generating around 4500 megawatts.

I dare say that President Jonathan did so much in the area of power generation and transmission infrastructure development in Nigeria which helped to boost the power capacity to roll out this power to all parts of Nigeria. We had problems with the distribution network because they were old and dilapidated. Privatisation would have helped to revamp those but most of the companies that bidded for the Discos and won did not have the capacity and wherewithal to put everything in place. Yet we managed until we completed our tenure. We also had other lofty dreams like encouraging captive power distribution where we opted to produce and distribute power to where it was needed rather than sending power transmission infrastructure through hundreds of kilometres where there are no houses, no industries. We planned to distribute power where it was needed. We left handover notes to the incoming government which I doubt if they looked at them at all. And they never consulted us. Like you know in Nigeria politicians and political parties know it all. If another party gets into power, they drop, destroy and abandon what their predecessors had done, instead of learning from them and building on them. That is one of the banes of Nigeria political society. Today it is still my opinion that white elephant power projects will not solve Nigeria’s power problems because the transmission infrastructure you need to wheel out these power will cripple the national economy so it is better to have distributed power like Prof Barth Nnaji and his Geometric Power are doing in Aba; taking power to where people need it. You save a lot of money and reach several users who are ready to pay for it.

Born in Kafanchan, raised across Nigeria…kindly take us through your childhood

I was born in Kafanchan, northern Nigeria and we moved to Ibadan where I had my kindergarten and primaries one and two. My father was transferred back to Kafanchan where I did my primaries three and four and then to Port Harcourt where I did my primaries 5 and 6. I later moved to Government Secondary School Afikpo for my secondary school. My father was a Railway worker. He started in the locomotive department as a fireman then to driver grade 3, then grade 2 and later grade 1 before becoming a locomotive Inspector. He was transferred all over Nigeria. I learnt to speak fluent Yoruba and at the end of Primary 1, I won a prize for that reason, a book called Ireke Onibudo which was a very big book for a primary 1 pupil at the time. Unfortunately I lost my fluency in Yoruba when we were transferred back to Kafanchan and I found no one to speak Yoruba with. There was not a single person to speak Yoruba or even Hausa with because at Holy Trinity school, Kafanchan, there were more than 99% Igbos. By the time we landed in Port Harcourt, I had lost all the Yoruba in my tongue. I did not know that people could easily lose a language but I did. But I never lost my Nigerianess having lived across the country.

 Some of my best friends along the way were Yorubas. I had a very unforgettable traumatic experience in Ibadan when my bosom friend and classmate Fatai died. He died of Tetanus infection. It was a simple thing that could have been handled. A dirty broom stick pricked his leg and his parents did not know it was dangerous and they kept using all kinds of things to treat it until tetanus infected it and he died. I cried for days and couldn’t be consoled that I won’t see Fatai again. People do not know that death traumatises even children.

Where were you during the Nigerian civil war?

We were in Port Harcourt when the war started in 1967. At a time we ran away from Port Harcourt to Eziama Osu close to Anara near Nkwerre all in the then Orlu area. I was about 16 years at the time I was conscripted into the Biafran Army. I was conscripted with my younger brother who was about 14. We escaped from the hands of our captors. My brother later joined the Boys company and later the army. I had told my parents that I won’t join unless it was the officer cadet corps. I did not like a two week training in which regular fighting soldiers were only taught to fire weapons which I reasoned was more dangerous than getting commissioned. I told my parents that I would like to try out the military school to be commissioned and well trained as an officer. I convinced them and they let go. We do not have so much time to narrate the miracles of those years including the approval to join the army despite that I was about 16 years. During the medical examination, the examiner said he doubted my age. He said he was not sure I wasn’t up to 17. I told him he was right. I told him I had been conscripted before and I do not want to be captured again to go for only two weeks training to cock and shoot. I think I managed to convince the medical doctor who examined us that if he allowed me and if successful in other tests, I would be very happy to be trained and commissioned with opportunities to go further. He said if I was strong hearted, I should move forward. He asked which school I attended. When I told him about Government College Afikpo, he screamed. He was happy that he attended the same school, a senior old boy of my school and a medical doctor. He said ‘Okay, I won’t be the one to fail you’. We were 1400 candidates for the interview that required 350 0fficer cadets. Eventually I was one of the 350 taken. I was in the top 40 out of 350 selected at the end of the three months training for what they called Advanced Platoon Commanders course. At the end of the course instead of handling the platoon, I ended up handling a company. I was sent to STF Division, Lion Brigade, Eagles Battalion where I commanded D company until the end of the war.

You seem to talk about these events with nostalgia…

I was a small boy at the time, but very exuberant and a fiery evangelist. It is so interesting that I was the youngest member of the company that I was its commander. God has been good to me in truth. My second in command was far my senior at Government College Afikpo. I was just coming into form one when he was in Upper six. When we met he said look at this small boy. But he also helped preserve my life. I was too idealistic. Like during a reconnaissance patrol, I always tried to dig deeper to bring evidence that I had gone into enemy camp, very dangerous missions. He was the senior voice telling me to beware and be careful and that life did not work that way. He helped to guide me. I have always been fortunate and grateful for such guidance.

Then boom, South Dakota; how did you find yourself studying mining engineering?

I was to go to Michigan State University under a scholarship to study mining Engineering. In those years, if you had distinction in WASC, you had an opportunity to get a scholarship to study and my course of study was in the US. But my understanding of geography was not vast at the time to know that most places in the western world were cold. I had heard that Michigan was much colder with 9 months of winter and only 3 months of summer only to find out that South Dakota was just as cold. I also chose it because it was known as one of top schools for mining and metallurgical engineering in the USA at that time. I felt I would get the best training there. I also got a federal government scholarship.

You may have been influenced by the huge coal deposits in Enugu Nigeria to study mining engineering.

Coal seems forgotten and gone.

Coal is not gone. It is coming up again in the purview of Nigeria. Nigeria still has many deposits of coal all over Enugu, Anambra, Kogi and Benue area etc. Thankfully the federal government is beginning to encourage people to go into coal mining. I believe that the best way to sustain electricity power generation in Nigeria is to have coal power the turbines since we have the material all over. The Enugu State government is also deeply interested in coal mining and coal utilization. But we can mine coal in many parts of Enugu and use it for power generation turbines where there is no oil or gas transportation infrastructure. So coal is coming up again by the grace of God. In answer to your original question, I chose mining engineering because I felt that a developing nation with minerals needed the manpower to help to produce these minerals and not just leave it for the white man to do. There are many phases in the processing of minerals. You have an ore body, if the body is rich in minerals; you excavate it and process the ore to recover the minerals. That was why I also went on to do my master’s degree in processing of ores i.e mineral processing so that the mineral will be concentrated and as a metallurgical engineer to produce metals from the minerals. That was why my Ph.D. was in materials engineering and science. I wanted to be sure I had all the value chain training in the mining of minerals to the final production into metals.

Having been born in 1952, what has life taught you at 73?

I will be 73 in June 2025. I would always say that God has been most gracious to me both as a person and as an ordained minister of the gospel. I cannot count my blessings. They are too numerous. From my ordination in 1991, I rose to become a Canon, then an Archdeacon, and eventually retiring as Provost of the Cathedral Church of St. Cyprian, Enugu. All these services were pro bono because I was a non-stipendiary priest. While I was VC of UNN, I was an Archdeacon working and preaching at the Chapel from time to time. I have preached all over the country. There are few places in Nigeria I have not gone to for evangelical programmes, revivals workshops, crusades, training young disciples and so on. I must say that the greatest gift God has given me aside my relationship with Him and my salvation as a Christian is my wife. God gave me the best possible woman I could ever ask for; a very devoted Christian and a wonderful woman who loves me and I love her. She is indeed my heartthrob. Our children refer to us as lovebirds and that is really what we are to each other. And God gave us two daughters and two sons and twelve grandchildren all to the glory of God. Come July 2025, we would be celebrating 48 years of marital bliss. In fact we are so fortunate. We got married one month after my 25th birthday. I believe getting married early made it possible for us to conclude this baby making and raising thing on time too. But our last son came nineteen years after his elder brother was born. This is the kind St Paul would say ‘born out of season’. He is now in final year at university.

Hope you do not mind to let us know very briefly where and how you met this jewel of yours that you shower all these praises upon, your wife?

While in secondary school, I helped pioneer a Scripture Union group at Girls’ High School, Ngwo, where Ifeyinwa was a student. She became one of our highly committed disciples. Through numerous general fellowships, we got to know each other. When I won a Federal Government Scholarship to study in the USA, my father insisted I must name a bride before travelling. On his insistence, I named Ifeyinwa. He was ecstatic, saying it was the same girl that he and my mother admired above all others. The rest is history.

Being ordained in 1991 meant that you were an engineer before being called man of God……

Before I was ordained man of God like you said, I was already deep in the works of God in the Anglican communion and the Scripture Union. I conducted Christian crusades all over the country. I think that my ordination was in recognition of my services to the church that the Bishop asked me to come for ordination. He even heard of my deep involvement since my university days in South Dakota, US. I was the only black member of the Trinity Church Rapid City and the youth director.

You belong to Agbaja leaders of thought, Nzuko Umunna, and other socio-political groups…

Take note that Agbaja group comprises the people of the old Udi division including Ezeagu and Udi LGAs of Enugu state made of intellectuals and opinion leaders of the area. It was our elders and big fathers of note including erudite Prof Chiweite Ejike, who was about 90 before he died, Chief Enechi Onyia SAN, Justice Ken Ezeike, eminent Jurist and now traditional ruler and His Royal Highness Igwe Chris Ogakwu etc, of Udi that got together to say they needed a leadership younger than themselves to pilot the affairs of this social cultural group, Agbaja Leaders of Thought. They invited me to lead the board of trustees and elected me in the presence of others. It was something like a conspiracy to ask me to step up and it has been worth the while. In addition, I am also the president of Nzuko Umunna, a global group that has been doing well for the progress of Ndigbo. Nzuko Umunna has been quite prominent in promoting peace in Nigeria amongst the various tribes and linguistic groups. 

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