By Aliyu Galadima 

Nigeria’s steel complex, Ajaokuta Steel Company Ltd gulped N42.03bn in budgetary allocation between 2016 and 2024 under former president Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu despite its moribund state.

The figure is based on an analysis of the budget allocation for the steel company under the two presidents.

In April 2024, the Minister of Steel Development, Shuaibu Audu told Nigerians that the government is embarking on a three-year plan to resuscitate the moribund complex.

Audu said he intends to visit Russia on a formal invitation from Tyamzhpromexport ,TPE, and other consortium partners to engage in further discussions to secure funding to the tune of about $2bn required for the revival of the entire steel plant.

But the moribund Ajaokuta Steel has enjoyed N42.03bn in budgetary allocations for salaries, overhead and capital expenditure in the last nine years, from 2016 to 2024.

The Ajaotuta Steel Company was built on a 24,000 hectares (59,000 acres) site in 1979 under former President Shehu Shagari with the idea of large-scale national steel production.

Shagari left the project 84 per cent completed in 1983. The steel company reached 98% completion in 1994, with 40 of the 43 plants at the facility being built. The project was mismanaged and remains incomplete over 45 years later.

Both former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Buhari made unsuccessful efforts to revive the steel company.

In 2019, at the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi, Buhari and Russian President, Vladimir Putin agreed on a revitalization of the steel mill with Russian support and the project funding from the Afreximbank and the Russian Export Center.

But it was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the agreement was abandoned. In January 2024, Tinubu opened discussions with Chinese steel company Luan Steel Holding Group with the aim of reviving the Ajaokuta Steel Company.

Investigations have revealed that despite its moribund state, the company is still enjoying huge annual budgetary allocations by the government.

Between 2016 to 2024, the company has enjoyed N42.03bn in budgetary allocation. Out of the N42.03bn allocated to the company in the nine-year period, the sum of N33.99bn representing 80.87% went for personnel costs.

The Federal Government under former President Muhammadu Buhari budgeted N28.42bn for Ajaokuta Steel out of which N26bn was used to fund personnel cost.

Under the Bola Tinubu government, between 2023 and 2024, a total of N13.61 was budgeted for the steel company. A total of N7.98bn was used as personel cost.

A breakdown shows that under Buhari, N3.88bn, N4.27bn, N4.28bn, and N3.59bn was allocatee to the Plant in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 respectively.

For the 2020, 2021, and 2022 fiscal periods, the government allocated the sum of N3.73bn, N4.21bn and N4.46bn to the Steel Plant respectively.

In the 2023 budget, the government allocated N4.14bn for the moribund steel company. Checks showed that personnel cost gulped N3.58bn and out of this amount, N2.7bn is for salaries and wages. Overhead for the year was N80.17m and capital expenditure was N482.85m.

The government also made another budget of N40m for concessions of the steel company. Another allocation of N80m was made with the title, ‘Transaction Advisor Services For The Resuscitation Of The Ajaokuta Project’. Consequently, N4.16bn was budgeted in total for the company.

In the 2024 appropriation, the Federal Ministry of Steel Development led by Shuaibu Audu budgeted N4.45bn for the moribund company.

A breakdown showed that N4.4bn was for personnel cost; N150m for overhead and another N150m was budgeted for capital allocation.

Another N4bn was allocated for the concession of the steel company with code, ERGP1100950. N800m was also allocated with the title, ‘Transaction Advisor Services For The Resuscitation Of The Ajaokuta Project ,ERGP30185618′.

Audu’s ministry also budgeted N200m with the title ‘Revitalizing The Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited ,Ascl, and the National Iron Ore Mining Company ,NIOMCO’. The code is ERGP3205686. The Ministry budgeted a total of N9.45bn for the company in 2024.

The Senate ad-hoc committee set up to investigate alleged cases of corruption and inefficiency at the Ajaokuta Steel and the National Iron Ore Mining Company from 2002 to the present had raised alarm over the bogus personnel budget by the troubled company.

At the resumed hearing which involved key stakeholders from the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development represented by the Permanent Secretary, Directors from the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Bureau of Public Enterprises ,BPE, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, and the Steel and Engineering Union Workers of Nigeria, among others, the committee expressed shock that the troubled company could budget N4.2bn in the 2024 budget for workers when in actual fact less then 10 workers are always turning up for work daily.

Speaking on how to resuscitate the plan, the Group Managing Director of KAM Holding Ltd, an iron and steel manufacturing company, Dr Kamoru Yusuf said in an interview that government should adopt the model used by the Peoples Republic of China which later transformed the country’s steel industry within 25 years which led to massive development of the industrial sector in China.

He said, “What the Chinese Government did was to indigenise one of the country’s major industries the iron and steel, into the hands of their people with the government holding only 25% interest while local investors were allowed to own 75% stake.

“I urge Nigerian government to redirect its policy on the industry because haven expended close to 40 years experimenting a particular model without result, it should be clear and in fact obvious that the commercial interest of the offshore investors does not match the developmental interest of the government of Nigeria as well as the industrial aspiration of her citizens”.

 Chief of Defence Staff ,CDS, Gen. Christopher Musa, has said that the military and security agencies are after those behind the call for undemocratic change of government.

Musa said this yesterday during a combined news conference by the heads of security agencies and Service Chiefs at the Defence Headquarters.

He said the military knew that some protesters calling for regime changes were sponsored, adding that the military and other security agencies were trailing them to bring them to book.

“I want to appreciate Nigerians for their understanding, for their commitment to upholding the law and order.

“We have had issues in the past few days, but you can see that people have seen reason for us not to continue with the destruction, to stop the looting, to stop giving opportunities for others to subvert our nation and to destroy our nation.

“They have also seen reasons to join hands together with the security forces to make Nigeria better.

“We want to assure them we on this side that we are fully committed to Nigeria, we love the country, we are mindful of the fact that we have been equipped and so we are duty bound to protect the country.

“We are only after those that are against the states, not those that are innocent.

“So I want to make that very clear and we will continue to work together as a team to support Mr President in achieving his mandate of peace and tranquility in our dear country Nigeria”, he said.

The CDS called for the collaboration of all other agencies to ensure that they achieved success and called for calm, mediation, discussion, dialogue towards national unity and cohesion as one great country.

He said the Nigerian military was people centric in all its activities, adding they were not interested in anybody being killed or injured or being prosecuted, except those that have crossed the line.

He said the joint news conference was an opportunity to show that the military and all the security agencies were working as a team in line with the mandate of the president.