In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Monday, a former Metallurgical Engineer of Ajaokuta Steel Company, David Esezobor, stated that the reason the Ajaokuta steel investment hasn’t brought any result even after so much investment in its development, is because of the government’s lack of will as well as external hindrance.
“It’s lack of political and economic will of the government. The industry is an international industry. The Ajakuta is a complex. It’s an integrated plant in which you have about 20 mini plants as a unit. The issue is there is a lot of confusion, controversies and conspiracy surrounding Ajaokuta right from the inception.
“Due to pressures from outside, it was turned to a backward integration. There are a lot of external conspirators who will not allow Ajakuta to stand, but if we have that political and economic will of the government, it will actually come to fulfillment.”
Esezobor praised Tinubu’s administration, for addressing the Ajaokuta issue early enough, unlike previous governments who only address the issue when their time to leave office is almost due.
He also said the traditional council’s move will help to shift our focus to local politics.
“This is the only administration since 1999 that brought this saga of Ajaokuta at the first year of the administration. Unlike other administrations, they will only bring up Ajaokuta issue when they are about to leave the offices.
“It’s good that there is this move by the traditional council, because it will make us focus on local politics, the internal conspirators. We used to talk about the external conspirators such as Internatinal Monetary Fund, the World Bank that are bent to make sure that Ajaokuta will never stand, because it is not just for Nigeria alone, it is also for the African sub-regions. Nigeria has a wide market or consumption of iron and steel.”
With regard to whether the technology at Ajaokuta is obsolete, he assured that this is not the case.
“The technology that we envisaged for Ajaokuta is the same technology Chinese are using today. If you google, you’ll find out that globally, seventy percent of the steel production is through the same technology. And in China alone, ninety percent of the steel they produce is the same technology.”
He also supported the move by the senate, while condemning the attitude of the traditional leaders who are opposing the senate’s probe.
He expressed confidence that the move of the senate will lead to progress.
“The move by the traditional rulers should be totally condemned. Is it that easy to forget the incident that happened when their subjects were brutalized, some of them were killed because they wanted to protect the equipment and materials from being stolen. The youth rallied round to ensure that this does not happen, but unfortunately, the Global were having police and soldiers and they brutalized the young ones. Some of them were killed, and it’s the same traditional rulers that are elders that are writing this kind of petition.
“I think the move of the senate will actually open up what is hidden, and the way forward. I have that belief that they will do the right thing.”
The engineer also made it clear that the development of Ajaokuta isn’t going be of benefit to only Nigeria, but also to African sub-regions.
“It is not just for Nigeria alone, it is also for the African sub-regions, and Nigeria has a wide market for consumption of iron and steel.”
Melissa Enoch
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