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With Funsho Arogundade
For more than three decades, energy tycoon and philanthropist, Chief Leemon Ikpea, has built his reputation around an idea that Nigerians could build and own businesses capable of competing in some of the most technically demanding sectors of the economy. He demonstrated this when, at a time, Nigerian oil and gas industry largely depended on multinational corporations and foreign technical expertise, Ikpea decided to invest in indigenous engineering capacity via his company, Lee Engineering and Construction.
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Gradually, the company registered its presence and built what has become a formidable presence across engineering, construction, and fabrication services within the energy and other allied interests. Today, aside from Lee Engineering & Construction, Ikpea also runs Lee International Machinery & Services Limited; Tribet Aviation; and Lee Oasis, among others.
In the same fashion, Ikpea has consistently maintained that Nigerians cannot afford to remain spectators in the development of their own economy, ditto in the area of social services to the people. Thus, the billionaire tycoon floated a non-profit, Agbonjagwe Leemon Ikpea Foundation to serve as a vehicle for the provision of healthcare and education for underserved communities.
Ikpea recently donated a 62-bed hospital to his community in Ewatto, Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State. The over N2 billion facility, located in the Idumu-Iyase quarter of his hometown, was commissioned by both Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo and Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare. The hospital will operate as an annex of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, a federal hospital in Edo State. Its facilities include wards, operating theatres, an accident and emergency unit, X-ray and CT scanning services, physiotherapy and ambulances. There are also Doctors’ residences and a police post attached to the facility. Ikpea said the arrangement by his Foundation includes keeping standards high and making the hospital sustainable, while ownership of the facility would remain with the foundation.
