Before the exit of ex- President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, he told an optimistic audience including journalists on a visit to the site that the Federal Government under his watch had cleared all legal encumbrances working against a smooth fresh take off of the state-owned steel complex in limbo for decades.
Not a few Nigerians took him for granted because he was in some instances known for being firm on his promises. However, nearly two years after his exit as President, the steel mill is still in comatose.
At the time, the government said 11 companies had indicated interest to take over Ajaokuta Steel Company on a concession basis. All that is not anything fruitful as nothing has come out of that bogus proposition.
Three of the 11 bidders were Russian companies, the then Minister of Mines and Steel Development, was quoted as saying in Abuja while listing his ministry’s achievements in the wee hours of the former President’s exit.
The steel company, located in Kogi State, was built by the Soviets between 1979 and the mid-1990s but has never produced steel as the project was never completed. It was also mismanaged.
In September 2023, the Nigerian government agreed to pay $496 million to settle an Indian firm’s claim over the steel complex.
The dispute followed the Federal Government’s revocation in 2008 of an agreement that handed control of the steelworks and the National Iron Ore Mining Company to Global Steel Holdings Limited, an Indian firm. In cancelling the deal, previous administration said the terms of the concession at the time were not favourable to the country.
“One of the major albatross on Ajaokuta was the concession that occurred under President Olusegun Obasanjo to Messers Global Steel Industries”, Mr. Olamilekan Adegbite, former minister had said . “Things went sour and they took us to court. The court case went on for about 12 years, but thanks to a patriotic Nigerian lawyer in the UK who handled the case very effectively”.
He said the COVID-19 pandemic deterred the government’s plan to make Ajaokuta steel company functional before the end of 2022 but after exiting in 2023, nothing fundamental has happened there.
Olamilekan then noted that; “As of today, the process is on. In 2019, I had promised that Ajaokuta Steel would start (operations) before we leave office. That is not possible anymore; not because of lack of effort but, especially because of COVID-19. We started the process in October 2019, when we went to Sochi, Russia, to attend a summit with Mr President”.
“On the sidelines of a bilateral meeting, we met with the Russian government, led by President Vladimir Putin and President Muhammadu Buhari and we requested, among other things, that they should help us to resuscitate Ajaokuta Steel because the Soviets built Ajaokuta steel and they acceded to that request.
“On the sidelines of a bilateral meeting, we met with the Russian government, led by President Vladimir Putin and President Muhammadu Buhari and we requested, among other things, that they should help us to resuscitate Ajaokuta Steel because the Soviets built Ajaokuta steel and they acceded to that request.
“I came back to Nigeria and explained our plans to resuscitate Ajaokuta steel and we will make sure it works.
All the optimism raised by the Buhari government that Ajaokuta would come on stream before exiting in 2023 ended up as a unfulfilled wish despite firm commitments it had purportedly reached with the Russian counterparts who built the complex.
Ajaokuta remains one major industry that can change our fortune as a nation, including several other untapped resources. We must revisit them to create millions of direct and indirect jobs alongside the enormous socio-economic benefits.
