He has proved that more good things can come out of Niger Delta aside from crude oil and youth restiveness. His name is Azibaola Robert (Starlight Ewalamasobo), a lawyer by profession who eventually became an engineer by passion now moving heavy-duty equipment. Starlight Ewalamasobo he wrote was given to him by his dad, which he said means special, extraordinary and unusual. Born at Otakeme Community in Ogbia local government area of Bayelsa State some fifty-something years ago, Azibaola (Starlight Ewalamasobo) Robert an entrepreneur, social thinker, innovator, motivator, eco-tourist and environmental conservationist recently spread his tentacles by venturing into tourism harnessing the peaceful Otuakeme forest when he went on a fourteen-day expedition where he discovered a lot of good things that will help the people of Niger Delta and Nigeria as a whole.

That he will unveil later. The restless Starlight has once written that it is very important to set out early, focus on one’s goals and persevere towards them and he has really achieved a lot in his fiftysomething years. The inquisitive Robert has once told the New Telegraph that he likes to dismantle anything machine to know exactly how it is coupled the reason of course that has made him always remain calm and calculative. Of course, his passion for engines recently earned him an honorary fellow of the Nigerian society of engineers the highest engineering body in the country.

Going down the memory lane, Robert read law in the Rivers state university of science and technology Port Harcourt graduating with a third class degree in 1993, a second class LLB from law school in Lagos and was called to bar in 1995. Deviating from his law profession because of passion in 1999, Azibaola found Mangrovetech Nigeria limited a civil engineering company which today is known as Kakatar with a slogan Nigerians building Nigeria. He proceeded to employ only Nigerian engineers.

In 2018, Azibaola Robert founded Zeetin Engineering, a precision engineering high in technology with heavy-duty machines in a state of the art factory in the Idu Industrial Area of Abuja. With its rare machines, today Zeetin prides itself in Nigeria precision engineering company with a focus that kick starts Nigeria technological development. Through these companies, he has employed several Nigerian engineers. Today he has the self-task of producing made in Nigeria automobile engines. And so with all these, the leadership of Nigeria society of engineers looked at and felt that it was proper to honour Azibaola (Starlight), Robert, as an honourary fellow of the society on that fateful day (7th of December, 2021) at Abuja.

Presenting the award to Robert Azibaola, the president of the Nigerian society of engineers Babagana Mohammed described him as a man who has a passion for engineering even though he didn’t study engineering but law. He said Azibaola believes so much in engineering the reason why he has employed so many engineers. Babagana said, “Azibaola believes so much that it is only Nigerians that can develop Nigeria the reason why he has employed many engineers and is paying them what is commensurate with what expatriates are paid in Nigeria. “That is the reason why we deem it fit to honour him today with an honorary fellow of the Nigeria society of engineers and we believe that he has more to offer to the engineering profession.”

Flanked by his supportive wife Stella and his beautiful children, Robert narrating how it all started, Azibaola (Starlight) said that he is also a carpenter adding that he set up Kakatar to show Nigerians that it is possible to build the infrastructures of Nigeria without bringing an outside. Azibaola narrated, “My passion is to know how we will be able to catalyze the technological development of Nigeria so that Nigerians won’t need to deepen on external forces for the basic things that we need on the roads in the kitchen, in our houses. Productivity is the issue. Zeetin is mainly into mechanical engineering. I intend to produce a fully functional engine which has not been done before in Nigeria. “I also intend to do electrical and of course train coaches. We import a lot of trained coaches in this country and it is not about the importation of train coaches, when it comes to training, you see a slow pace at which a slow infrastructure is moving. It is because we are unable to produce the basic parts here. “Everything has to be imported from abroad and when the trains break down they become obsolete because those that are manufacturing trains are not interested in producing spare parts of the 90s. They are interested in producing spare parts for 2024, in the future. “We are also looking at basic things like excavators. The bedrock of a country’s development is to be able to move the soil that paves the way for roads, buildings and for other infrastructure.

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