Funds for iron rods for dams, 2nd Niger Bridge more than enough to fix ASC
The recent visit of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara to the moribund facilities of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex (ASC) in Kogi State has revealed an issue of national irony.
During the visit earlier in the week, the Speaker was informed that what is now holding the effective takeoff of production activities at the iron smelting plant is only $500m.
In his comments after a tour of the factory, he decried the inability of previous governments to fix the largest iron manufacturing plant in Africa and noted that the failure remains a collective object of shame to national leaders both past and present.
He observed that if only $500m is now needed for ASC to come alive, it will be an irony of a nation importing rods worth billions of dollars to construct the Mambila Power Plant and the ongoing second Niger Bridge.
Accordingly, Dogara vowed to use available legislative resources to source for funds to fix the steel complex so that Nigeria will stop importing what God has given us freely.
“$500m is 10 times the amount of money to be used to import iron rods for the construction of only Mambila Power Plant and second Niger Bridge. So why can’t we do the needful and raise this fund to equally save more for the economy.
Only on Wednesday, the Vice President, Prof Yemi Osinbajo stated that the federal government has resolved all outstanding legal issues that have halted operations at the Ajaokuta Steel Company.
Speaking at the Kogi State Economic and Investment Summit, he said “We have now resolved the legal issues holding down work in Ajaokuta at the Ajaokuta steel complex”.
