We drove via the Ajaokuta Steel Company on a luxury bus en route to Abia state in February 1998 for the National Youth Service Corps assignment.
Sighting the monumental edifice, evidently for the first time like myself, a bewildered Ibo lady sitting by my side abruptly stood up from her seat, screaming sonorously, Chinekeoooo!!! She saw an intimidating and stupendous infrastructure that gulped humongous fund but was laying unused and wasted. But this is Nigeria where bad things are plentiful while good ones are scarce. Though I was able to suppress my domineering emotion unlike the Ibo lady, yet, two rhetorical questions kept knocking on my mind.
Who wants order in Nigeria to make the Ajaokuta Steel Company a reality? Who wants disorder in Nigeria so that ASC remains dysfunctional? A functional Ajaokuta will give life to Nigeria’s ailing economy. However, as far as the ASC is a milestone for our national stupidity and absurdity, Nigeria lacks constructive order but blatant disorder in our scheme of national affairs. That’s why most of us prefer destructions to constructions. That’s why the undesirable democrats with insatiable desire for financial felonies will go to any extent to engage in budget padding but Ajaokuta remains dormant.
These are the indelible symptoms of bad governance defining our national character. For long, Nigeria has been passing through the notorious process of resource and morality plundering and the ASC is a great casualty. Consequently, the ASC will hardly see the light owing to the perpetuation of corruption and political will bankruptcy, the twin evils attacking it.
I came across a mind-blowing question emanating from Mr. Pandhi’s unreserved fury regarding the gigantic project. He had more than 20 years experience of steel production and worked for about 10 steel companies in India and had worked at the Ajaokuta Company. He queried, ” Is there any nation on this earth that will sink more than 5.1 billion dollars of its hard-earned money on a project and walk away from it when it is 98% completed?”
I added a little modification to this question, ‘Is it not shameful and unjingoistic that a 43- year–old monumental project of tremendous development fortunes, with just 2% remaining to make it fully operational could be thrown away to the political vultures to destroy our hopes and aspirations?’ Again, Pandhi had this to lament about us, ” Nothing is running in this country. There is no discipline here. With my experience, if you kill the steel plant, you kill employment, you kill GDP, you kill the intellectuality of the country.”
‘Nothing is running in this country’ can be juxtaposed alongside Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s inaugural address in May 1999 entitled ‘ New Dawn’. In it, Obasanjo regretted that good men were shunned and kept away from government, while those who should be kept away were drawn near. For Ajaokuta to suffer this irreparable loss, the bad Samaritans of Nigeria have been battling to see that the project does not see the light at the end of the tunnel. In the end, the nation’s economy is bleeding. In the end, we are not ashamed of this act of irresponsibility and betrayal of the generations.
Ironically, the good Samaritans are never wanted in government to do the needful for our collective prosperity. The following typical example suffices here. Mr. Paul Unongo was Nigeria’s Minister of Steel Development. He made a shocking revelation thus: “I was 40. I wanted the project to work. We produced steel for six months. But I was made to resign through political pressure because I stood in the way of those who wanted to move money from Ajaokuta for selfish purposes.”
While Ajaokuta continues to remain uncompleted because of our culturalisation of corruption, the world is laughing at our high insensitivity and gross financial immorality pertaining to legislative and executive squandermania at a time when the ASC needs just 2% completion to revamp our economy. The reactionary forces working against ASC are visible and conquerable. Who will fight these state enemies and the prophets of doom so that we can move forward?
Ajaokuta Company was established on September 18, 1979 and charged with the responsibility of constructing and operating the Ajaokuta integrated iron and steel plant. The foundation laying was conducted by the late President Shehu Shagari in 1980 and had reached 98% completion in 1994, with 40 of the 43 plants at the facility having been built.
Analysts believe that steel production and consumption levels are indices of national power. According to the World Bank, steel is a major indicator for measuring economic progress and a key driver of other high-investment and job-creating industries. As potential development smiled at us in 1973, iron ore of the required quality was discovered in Itakpe, Ajabanoko and Oshokoshoko. Interestingly, Nigeria is believed to possess the 12th largest iron deposits in the world and the second largest in Africa.
Setting up the project met global standards, having proximity to raw materials, water and good weather. When completed, it is hoped that the plant will have the capacity to generate about 1.7 billion dollars per annum, employ over 10,000 engineers and technicians, recruit 10,000 other personnel and lead to the creation of over 2 million indirect jobs. It is also capable of enhancing our GDP and launch the country into the orbit of industrialised nations.
It is also projected that upon completion, Nigeria’s export earnings are expected to increase by over 1 billion dollars per annum and could save over 15 billion dollars worth of steel products imported into the country yearly. It is also envisaged to produce 1.3 million tonnes at first stage, 2.6 million at the second stage and 5.2 million tonnes per annum at the third phase. Sadly, the Punch newspaper of May 5, 2022 reported that after spending over 8 billion dollars on Ajaokuta, Nigeria imported 837 billion naira iron, steel and metals in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.
To our utmost shame and disgust, South Korea which started its steel construction around the same time with Ajaokuta now has a revenue base of over 60 billion dollars per annum and employs over 65,000 staff. Interestingly, South Korea and Japan have inadequate raw materials like iron ore and steel but are among the world’s top 10 countries in steel production. This reminds us of the Malaysia experiment of palm oil seedlings procured in Nigeria. Malaysia is now a first class exporter of palm oil while Nigeria is battling for economic survival.
Undoubtedly, Nigeria is a good reference for self-imposed underdevelopment and self-inflicted decadence, yet we are joyfully adamant. We have shown to the world that our national consciousness is unproductive. We are living in a country where failure is a pride while success is abominable. Our refineries are moribund. Who cares? Our power sector has defied solutions after injecting collosal funds. Where are the culprits? What would have been the rate of our development regarding the assemblying of Peugeot cars in Kaduna, Fiat in Kano and Styer in Bauchi and the construction of railways across the country, among others if Ajaokuta had not been a conduit for siphoning funds?
Nigeria’s rich atmosphere for steel production, its oil wealth and agricultural potentialities are key drivers to make the country one of the greatest in the world. But for now, the abandoned Ajaokuta Steel Complex is a destructive order for our national disgrace.
Abdu Abdullahi
Ringim
Jigawa State
07036207998
