We drove via the Ajaokuta Steel Company on a luxury bus en route Abia State in February 1998 for the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) assignment.
Sighting the monumental edifice, evidently for the first time like myself, a bewildered Igbo young woman sitting by my side abruptly stood up from her seat, screaming sonorously. She saw an intimidating and stupendous infrastructure that gulped humongous fund but was lying unused and wasted.
But this is Nigeria, where bad things are plenty while good ones are scarce. Although I was able to suppress my domineering emotion, unlike the young woman, 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.
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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 $5.1billion of its hard earned money on a project and walk away from it when it is 98 per cent 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 per cent 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, gross domestic product (GDP) and the intellectuality of the country.”
‘Nothing is running in this country’ can be juxtaposed alongside Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s inaugural address in May 1999, titled ‘ 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 country’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, Nigeria’s former minister of steel development, made a shocking revelation thus: “I was 40 and 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 per cent 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 per cent 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.
It is also projected that upon completion, Nigeria’s export earnings are expected to increase by over $1bn per annum and could save over $15bn worth of steel products imported into the country yearly. It is also envisaged to produce 1.3million tonnes at first stage, 2.6million at the second stage and 5.2million tonnes per annum at the third phase.
Sadly, the Punch newspaper of May 5, 2022 reported that after spending over $8bn on Ajaokuta, Nigeria imported N837bn iron, steel and metals in the third and fourth quarters of 2021.
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.
Abdu Abdullahi Ringim wrote from Jigawa
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