Enoch Amakiri George: An iroko in the forest of engineering is gone

*ENOCH AMAKIRI J GEORGE (1930 – 2025)
A Nigerian Engineering Masterclass

William Shakespeare, the famous English playwright, poet and actor in one of his works, noted that: “Some are born great
Some achieve greatness, and Some have greatness Thrust upon them”
This means that some people are naturally gifted, while others attain greatness through their actions.
These words of Shakespeare were apt in his 16th century generation. They are even more so today, some five centuries after.
ENOCH AMAKIRI JOB GEORGE, a man of impeccable integrity and “a titan in geotechnical engineering”, fits into both bills. He was naturally gifted and achieved success by dint of hard work.
Nigeria was still in slumber in the early hours of February 16, 2025 when he quietly slipped and joined his ancestors peacefully, painlessly in his sleep.
He will be remembered by the many lives he touched and the great legacies he left. He was a man of indomitable courage and quiet sophistication, a builder of people, a good listener, dancer, highly principled and a “master of his craft” with deep intellectual fortitude. He was an iroko in the forest of engineering.
Born in 1930, the year of the inaugural FIFA World Cup Competition, Enoch George was the great grandson of Okrika’s fabulous Christian war chief, named Chief Inyanaboitamuno George of Dokube Ado Royal family, who gave protection to Christianity at Okrika. Okrika was a vibrant and dynamic “city-state” in the Niger Delta and one of the major ethnic nationalities in Rivers State.
He was sent to school by his father, a fisher man, who did not consider him physically fit to withstand the intense rigours of the fishing occupation.
He excelled in academics despite financial and other challenges and passed out with distinction, a testament to his extremely natural intelligence endowment.
Enoch George was a man of many parts. He was an expert in soil mechanics and was associated with the design and construction of many roads and dams in the United Kingdom (UK) including the first truly urban motorway built in Lancashire , the M 61 Manchester to Preston, Motor Way in 1968.
This particular project presented several challenges not usually associated with normal rural highways.
Enoch George provided the solution which cracked the technical puzzle.
He returned to Nigeria in 1973 to contribute to the development of the country. As the pioneer Chief Engineer and Head of Estate and Works Department, he produced the comprehensive master plan of the now Rivers State University, with the basic infrastructure that gave the institution recognition.
He later established the Enoch George and Associates, to provide cutting edge geotechnical engineering services, which were previously handled exclusively by expatriate companies . His contributions to the highly technical energy sector, are legendary.
For 15 years spanning 1984 to 1999, Enoch George carried out the subsoil investigation for all land drilling locations in Shell Eastern Division. He was selected by Shell International to carry out the critical settlement monitoring of the prestressed concrete LNG storage tanks of the NLNG at Bonny Island following
his impressive work for Shell Nigeria, investigation into collapsed land locations housing already drilled wells that were expanded to accommodate drilling of new oil wells. His Report led to complete overhaul of well cementation process in Shell globally.
He also carried out full time supervision of foundation construction for Alakiri Gas Plant that has been supplying gas feed stock to NAFCON and now Notore; site investigation verification for Gbaran Ubie gas plant; confirmatory test of the 28 kilometers section of Ogbia to Nembe road in Bayelsa State and site investigation for the now defunct coastal road, among other critical national assets.
Because of his knowledge in this rare and highly specialized field, Enoch George played key roles in the opening of doors that previously shut out Nigerian experts and firms from the industry. He was a Nigerian content development pioneer.
Similarly, he endowed the Enoch George Professorial Chair in Geotechnical Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt, to bequeath a lasting legacy to the coming generation of engineers in the subject.
A Fellow of many prestigious international and national engineering professional associations, such as the British Institution of Civil Engineers, the British Institution of Highways and Transportation Engineers, and the Nigerian Institution of Civil Engineers among others, Enoch George was an engineering masterclass.
In recognition of his contribution, Her Majesty’s Government, offered him British Citizenship. He politely rejected the offer; they then collected his Nigerian Passport and stamped in it: “Permitted to live in the UK for life”.
He was also honoured by various organisations, including the British Institution of Civil Engineers Award for attaining 50 years in the profession continually and his community, the Dokube Royal House of Okrika with the title of Amatelimabo of Dokube, (the Corner stone and builder of the community).
That is the kind of man he was: A man of prodigious talents, a trail blazer, a pathfinder, a family man, and a man of velvet humility and disarming simplicity.
As his remains return to mother earth on Friday 14th March, 2025 may his great soul rest in PEACE.