Meet Engr. Clement Onyemelukwe, the man who designed the Nigerian National Grid, regarded as the “Father of Electricity” in Nigeria. All you need to know about him?
Engr. Clement Chukwukadibia Onyemelukwe initiated the planning and development of the electricity grid still used in Nigeria today when he became Chief Electrical Engineer in 1962. Onyemelukwe is reputed as the “Father of Nigerian Electricity” and the first Nigerian to marry a Peace Corps volunteer.
Born on April 1, 1933, in Nanka, he attended DMGS, a premier colonial-era boys’ secondary school in Onitsha, and later University College Ibadan before he was sent by the British colonial government to Leeds University. Onyemelukwe hailed from Nanka in Anambra state. He received his B.Sc. Engineering degree in 1956 and worked in the power sector in the United Kingdom. He acquired a second degree in Economics from London University.
He nearly abandoned any intention of returning to Nigeria when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) recruited him as part of the drive to fill civil service and parastatal positions after Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960. In 1961, he became deputy chief, and the following year, he was made chief engineer, taking over from the British man who had run the operations for many years. It was on his desk that the first outline of what is now the PHCN, formerly ECN and NEPA grid, was formulated. All the chief executives of NEPA, the renamed national electricity corporation, since its inception up to 2001, were his former staff.
Onyemelukwe initiated the planning and development of the 330 KV electricity grid still used in Nigeria today when he became Chief Electrical Engineer in 1962.
Clement Onyemelukwe, Nigerian Chief Electrical Engineer of the country’s Electricity Corporation, generated international attention when he married Catherine Zastrow, a white Peace Corps volunteer, who had just completed her service in 1964. Interracial marriage was illegal in Kentucky, which was still Catherine’s U.S. residence while she was in the Peace Corps. When her parents returned to Kentucky after the wedding, they had to change their phone number because of hate calls. The couple received telegrams from people all over the world, mostly supportive but a few critical. A photo of the wedding appeared in the popular Life Magazine in January 1965 and was also noted in Ebony Magazine. “Peace Corps Worker to Wed Nigerian Engineer,” was the bold headline for a brief article in The New York Times from Lagos, Nigeria, on Dec. 23, 1964. The couple “went through last-minute preparations today for their wedding Saturday at St. Saviour’s Church,” the piece said.
With the Nigerian civil war looming in 1967, Clement left ECN to take up leadership of Biafra’s Coal Corporation and electricity utility. He was also made executive chairman of the Biafra Airports Board. Late in the war, he became chairman of the Panel on Post-War Reconstruction. He returned to Lagos and the Electricity Corporation after the Biafran war in January 1970. He was also the one who made sure that planes landed and took off safely in Biafra during the war.
He left the electricity industry to found Freeman Engineering in Lagos in 1973. In 1976, he founded Colechurch International Ltd, a project management and promotion company, in the United Kingdom. He and his wife Catherine moved to Westport in 1993. He initially held a residence card, known as a “green card,” as he was spending a good part of his time in his home country Nigeria on business. In 2007, he finally became an American citizen. He was a speaker at the Y’s Men and an active library user while working on his latest book or researching business ideas.
Engineer Onyemelukwe is the owner of Colechurch of International Ltd. His son, China Danfort Onyemelukwe, is one of the most prominent and important investment bankers in the world.
Today, Colechurch is active in 32 countries worldwide and has its head office in London and a sub-head office in the US. The group has an asset base of about $750m, and the annual turnover was $400m. The staff strength worldwide is 2,500 as of 2009.
Clem Onyemelukwe has an impressive and perhaps intimidating profile. He earned an Engineering degree in 1956 from the University of Leeds and an Economics degree from London University in 1960. He has written many books and lectured widely on the power industry, economic development, and growth in global top universities and conferences.
He died on January 18, 2020, of Metastatic non-small cell, non-smoker’s lung cancer in his Westport home in the US, aged 86.
Onyemelukwe was the author of five books, namely:
1. Industrial Planning and Management in Nigeria (Longmans UK) 1964
2. Men and Management in Contemporary Africa (Longmans UK) 1973
3. Economic Underdevelopment: An Inside View (Longmans UK) 1974
4. Science of Economic Development and Growth: The theory of Factor Proportions (M. E. Sharpe Publishing US) 2004
His last book,
5. The Decline of the American Economy,” is due out in spring 2020.
Clem was well-loved by the community at the Unitarian Church in Westport and others. His warm smile, easy laugh, and joy in recounting stories of Nigeria made him an engaging conversationalist. He loved to discuss politics and economics with anyone.
He is survived by his wife Catherine, their three children, Chinakueze, Elizabeth, and Samuel, and five grandchildren, Kenechi, Nkiru, Teya, Bruche, and Ikem. His brother Prof. Geoffrey Chukwubuike Onyemelukwe, Consultant Physician, and Professor of Medicine and Immunology at the Ahmed Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria, and three sisters also survive him. He was predeceased by his cousin (Most. Revd. Dr. Jonathan Arinzechukwu Onyemelukwe, former Anglican Bishop On The Niger), who died in July 2011, and one sister.
Engr. Clement Chukwukadibia Onyemelukwe was buried in the family compound in his ancestral village, Nanka in Anambra state, beside his parents in April 2020, reinforcing the saying “na isi nwa eze adịghị atọ na mba”. The son of a king’s corpse must be buried at home, not in a foreign land.
About The Author
