With less than six months of Buhari’s administration, one wonders why a project as important as the Mambila hydro project which promises 50,000 skilled jobs, enormous economic spillovers and 3,050 megawatts of electricity has not seen the light of the day since 1972 when the project was conceived.
From the Obasanjo era till date, it’s either been one conspiracy or the other, lies and fairy tales as a result of bureaucracy and weak commitment to see this viable project through, like every other lopsided approach towards meaningful projects.
President Muhammadu Buhari, surprisingly has been the only siting president to have given the project some level of hope to succeed.
If there is one thing the APC-led government has achieved, it is tremendous infrastructural development. It has, with little financial resources at its disposal, executed more milestone projects than any other administration.
However, the millions of naira question still remains, if Buhari will fulfil his promise in the execution of the much needed Mambila Hydro Power Project before handing over or if the current crises would continue to linger? Studies have found that both short- and long-term gains of this viable project will not only eradicate poverty at the long-term but also address sociological problems and security challenges in the North East.
The Mambila Hydro project is regarded as Africa’s biggest dam project. The Buhari-led government approved the constitution of an Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (IMSC), and Project Delivery Committee (PDC), for the N2 trillion Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project with progress and milestone targets. Sunrise Power Transmission Company (SPTC) which won the bidding process in 2003 and secured the approval of President Olusegun Obasanjo still remains the only local content pioneer with the lasting solution via its funding arrangement with the Chinese Export-Import Bank who is to provide 85 per cent of the funding (as a loan) while the government will provide 15 per cent ($870 million). As of today, the federal government has failed to conclude its agreement with Sunrise.
It is advisable, looking at the benefits of this project, that the government should meet its own side of the agreement, sheath its sword and follow the honourable path to enable the project to take-off.
By Ibrahim Mustapha wrote from Pambegua, Kaduna State
