By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
The plan was that I should come in daytime, but I arrived at night.
It was already completely dark when I dropped off from the interstate bus under the Osisioma flyover at the outskirts of Aba township.
Then I took a motorbike for a five-minute ride to the gate of Geometric Power Limited, Aba, Abia State.
The genial man at the gate asked me to make a phone call to his leader as I had told him I had his number.
The answer from the other end was so welcoming: “Maxim, so you are here now. Tell the man with you to lead you to where I am.”
Professor Bart O. Nnaji, FAS, FAEng, CON, NNOM, Chairman/CEO of Geometric Power Limited, hardly needs any introduction.
It just suffices to state that his Geometric Power in Aba is the first private sector power company in Nigeria.
Geometric Power built the Aba IPP with investment of $800 million, including a 188 MW gas-fired power plant, as well as the Aba electricity distribution company servicing well over four million people.
The company is in joint venture with General Electric of USA to build 1.125 MW OMA Power plant, with its 500 MW Phase 1 development completed.
Geometric Power is also in a Joint Venture to build the 500 MW Adia power plant in Abia State.
Sitting there at table with the ever personable Prof Nnaji, one could not but wonder how he was able to surmount the numerous troubles put in his way for all of 20 years, and counting, before bringing the dream of Geometric Power to fruition.
He had served as Nigeria’s Minister of Power from July 2011 to August 28, 2012 but had to resign his esteemed post when the then President Goodluck Jonathan was under pressure by unforeseen interests and powers.
He had courageously spearheaded the reform of the Nigerian power sector under the leadership of President Jonathan who would eventually reveal that the good Prof committed no offence whatsoever.
Prof Nnaji had previously been the Special Adviser to the President on Power and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Power from June 2010 to July 2011.
He was the pioneer President of the Independent Power Providers Association of Nigeria (IPPAN) from 2007 to 2010.
A stellar world citizen, Prof Nnaji distinguished himself as the Founder and Director of the United States National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research e-Design Center for IT Enabled Design and Realization System for Mechanically Engineered Products and Systems from June 2003 to August 2007.
Between July 2002 and September 2007, he was the William Kepler Whiteford Professor, Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh, USA.
From 1996 to 2003, he was the ALCOA Foundation Professor in Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh.
Prof Nnaji served as Professor of Robotics and Computer-integrated Manufacturing, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Massachusetts from 1983 to August 31, 1997.
He was Director, Automation and Robotics Laboratory, University of Massachusetts at Amherst from 1984 to 1997.
Amid all the callings, he was appointed the Federal Minister of Science and Technology of Nigeria in 1993.
It is noteworthy that he graduated first in his class and with distinction in Applied Physics at St John’s University, New York in May 1980, a course he studied for just two years and nine months!
He was determined to make up for the three years he lost during the Nigeria-Biafra war of 1967 to 1970.
In the fast lane, he took his M.S in January, 1982 and the PhD in May, 1983 before adding post-doctoral certificate courses at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in 1985.
It is a wonder that such a man who has travelled the globe is very much at home in his native Umuode community in Enugu State.
While participating with the community folks in their traditional mores, a concerned Reverend Father had cause to wonder if Prof Bart Nnaji had bowed the knee to paganism!
Now it is incumbent on me to say a word about “The Boss” angle atop this article because in my book, Prof Nnaji’s adorable wife, Agatha, is a living saint whom the doting husband introduces as – yes – “The Boss!”
At dinner time, she angelically served us the food and made the sign of the cross and said prayers in the Catholic way.
She has backed her husband through all the rigours and challenges over the years, and now knows about electricity as much as Prof Bart Nnaji!
Once upon a visit to South Africa, some uppity white tech heads were deigning to introduce Prof Bart and his wife to e-Design only for “The Boss” to politely inform them that the inventor of the project was the man standing there by her side!
Talk of a jumped-up catechumen teaching the Pope catechism!
Mrs Nnaji’s title of “Osodieme” fits her like a prim and proper headgear, for she is a perfect fit to all her husband’s undertakings.
Watching her coordinating the work at the construction site of the new building to ensure free metering for the Aba community could be likened to seamless clockwork.
One can conveniently live in the Geometric community without really stepping out into the outer Aba town because accommodation, feeding, clinic, sporting facilities, security etc. are all efficiently put together.
The poles and pillars of Geometric Power are powerfully built such that not even an earthquake can bring the structure down!
Prof Amanze Akpuda of Abia State University who had just published an epochal book on the pioneer Igbo novelist, Pita Nwana, author of Omenuko, stressed that Prof Nnaji deserves high honours not just in engineering or the sciences but also in public administration.
Everybody is quite at home in the Geometric community, like the creche age girl jumping on Prof Bart’s lap at home and insisting that the television be switched to the Cartoon Network channel so that she could watch “JimJam”.
In the evening, Prof Bart and “The Boss” exercised themselves by taking a long walk to the gate of the premises and back, with the elegant wife walking way ahead of the husband.
One had to remember that the young Bart was a prized mid-1970s East Central State athlete representing in long and triple jump and the relays.
A portly Chinese engineer employed by Geometric Power barely waved as we undertook the evening walk, and Prof Nnaji quipped: “That one doesn’t greet anybody.”
I immediately remembered the good knowledge I learnt from Onitsha Market Literature, to wit: “Salutation is not love!”
Armed with the great example of Prof Bart Nnaji in setting up Geometric Power Limited, I am more than assured that Nigeria can work if the right persons are allowed to do the job.
Saying goodbye to Prof Bart Nnaji and “The Boss” was a wrench to the heart.
I shall return!
