Onyemelukwe: ‘Father of Electricity’ in Nigeria

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 ever.

Born April 1, 1933 in Nanka, Anambra, he attended the University College, Ibadan for two years before he was sent by the British colonial government to Leeds University. He received his B.Sc. Engineering degree in 1956 and worked in the power sector in the United Kingdom. He had nearly abandoned any intention of returning to Nigeria when the Electricity Corporation on Nigeria recruited him as part of the drive to fill civil service and parastatal positions after Nigeria’s independence from Britain in 1960.

In 1963, he became 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.

Onyemelukwe initiated the planning and development of the 330 KV electricity grid still used in Nigeria today when he became Chief Electrical Engineer.
Onyemelukwe 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. Thus, when Catherine’s 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. 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 in the United Kingdom. He and his wife Catherine moved to Westport in 1993.

Today, Colechurch is active in 32 countries worldwide and has head offices in London and a sub-head office in the US. The group has an asset base of about $750m and annual turnover was $400m, the staff strength worldwide is 2,500 as at 2009.

He died on January 18, 2020 of cancer in his westport home in the US, aged 86.