Workers of Ajaokuta Steel company erupted in joy over the weekend as the Company commence production of rods, Per Second News gathered.

The steel company established by the Shehu Shagari administration in1981has been operating on skeletal services due to the near abandonment of the project by past administrations, a situation which made the management of the company to be tranversing from one private consultancy company to the other.

But the current operator of the company, Reprom Nig Limited in its bid to make a difference over the weekend ordered for some tons of billets, a major raw material for the mass production of rods and angle bars.

Conducting news men round the plant, Mr Attah Achimugu MD of Reprom Nig Limited said that with the arrival of billets the rolling mills which have been abandoned for years will now bounce back to life as it will now be used to produce large scale of rods and angle bar for domestic use and for export purposes.

Mr Achimugu said that his company had entered into a MoU with the Ministry of Mines and development in March 2013 to render technical services to the company.

He said that the MOU was centrallly to reactivate the thermal power plant and the light Mill section of the company, and stressed that with the arrival of the billets and lighting of the furnace, the steel company was now ready for full production.

He added that his company will need atleast 1000 tonnes of billet to enable them effectively take off while the steel company is expected to generate over 400,000 assorted finished products annually when completed.

It was jubilation time for Ajaokuta Steel Complex workers, who rolled out their drums to celebrate the commencement of trial rolling and production of iron rods.

Paul Ameh, an elated worker with Reprom Nig Ltd, the company that operates the complex, said the development meant that salary arrears would be paid, especially as management had promised that, “as soon as the billets arrived, work would start and our salary arrears would be paid.”

Ameh decried the near comatose status of the company to which the Shehu Shagari administration had committed huge resources to construct, but which has been left to lay fallow due to conspiracy of some foreign elements and unscrupulous Nigerian politicians and leaders.

Salamatu Ahmed, wife of a worker in the company, said the women were happy because their husbands would, once again, be able to answer their names as breadwinners.

Established in1981, the company has been operating skeletally due to the near abandonment of the project by successive administrations, a situation which made the management of the company engage private consultants one after the other. Hence, hope for early resuscitation of the Ajaokuta Steel complex was heightened as Reprom Nig Ltd brought in tonnes of billets, a major raw material for mass production of rods and angle bars. The company announced that

the Light Section Mill (LSM) of the Complex would commence production of iron rods in commercial quantities by December 2014.

Conducting news men round the plant, the Managing Director of Reprom, Mr. Attah Achimugu, said, with the arrival of billets, the rolling mills which have been abandoned for years will start rolling to produce large quantities of rods and angle bar for domestic use and for export.

According to him “One of the major items we have been waiting for to enable us light the blast furnace are the billets, which have started arriving at the company. We will continue to stockpile the billets until we have appreciable quantity of not less than 5000 before we can join hands with the management of Ajaokuta Steel Complex to light the furnace to commence commercial production.

“We are sourcing the billets locally and from abroad through our partnership with Greener Nations Foreign Economic Corporation.”

Achimugu, an engineer, also disclosed that Reprom have done the technical audit of the steel complex in 2009/2010.

He said the management of Ajaokuta Steel Complex and Reprom are working to realise the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan in steel development.

Achimugu said Reprom signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Mines in March 2013 to render technical services to the company.

He said the MOU was mainly for the reactivation of the thermal power plant and the light Mill section of the company, stressing that with the arrival of the billets and lighting of the furnace, the steel company was now ready for full production.

According to him, his company will need at least 1000 metric tones of billet to enable them effectively take off while the steel company, when completed, is expected to generate over 400,000 assorted finished products annually.

The managing director of Ajaokuta Steel Company, Mr. Joseph Isah Omobere, expressed happiness over the new development and praised president Goodluck Jonathan for his determination to complete the steel company.

This was coming barely two weeks after workers reprimanded some Nigerians bent on sabotaging their efforts to actualise the dream of resuscitating the company.

Piqued by the connivance of some Nigerian leaders in the international conspiracy against the Ajaokuta Steel Company, the workers took the bull by the horn to confront the agenda that has been carefully scripted long before the project could even take off.

The workers could not hold back their anger over what they described as premeditated, ill-motivated and malicious comments on the status of Ajaokuta Steel Complex.

The vitriolic comments credited to chairman of Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON), Alhaji Kola Belgore, portrayed the company as moribund venture, where the Federal Government wastes N3.4bn monthly. Belgore, as if he was armed with accurate figures based on his wide banking experience, indicated that the workers were taking home N3.4billion monthly for doing nothing.

He lamented that, despite the huge potentials of Ajaokuta Steel Mill, it remained unproductive. “There are 2,500 engines mounted (and engineers) and 6000 employees and we are paying them every month a total of N3.4bn; that is what we are paying for doing nothing monthly,” he stated.

Belgore spoke in Ilorin at an award ceremony in honor of the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Sulaiman Abba, AIG Ambrose Aisabor, Corps Marshal of the FRSC and three other alumni if the Nigeria Institute of Policy and Stategic Studies (NIPPS) in Kuru, Jos.

The ceremony was organised by the immediate past president of Association of Alumni of Institute (AANI) and chairman, LUBCON Group of Companies, Alhaji Jani Ibrahim.

The AMCON chairman decried the state of the country, saying things were virtually static.

He proudly announced that AMCON is the only corporation with over N6trillion; yet, not one kobo of the money is missing. He blamed the unemployment situation on closure of companies and businesses in the country.

He lamented that the country was importing fuel despite being an oil-producing country, saying it is ridiculous, and that the development has made Nigeria a laughing stock among the comity of nations.

He added, “the truth is that we are not happy and if here we say we are happy, it is because most of us are in a comfort zone of the society, we are privileged in the society. If we ask the masses of this country who are downtrodden, they would tell you they are not happy with the situation of the country.

“The country is virtually static. Things are not moving in the right direction and everybody is keeping quiet. It has nothing to do with politics; it has to do with our collective interest. “God endowed Nigeria very well with human, material resources yet we are seriously under performing as a nation. We must wake up and try to do something to move us in the right direction.

“The nation is blessed with petrol and yet we are importing fuel in the country. We are importing petrol and we are the 7th largest producer in the world. What kind of ridicule is that? Yet we all kept quiet. You saw what happened when they were investigating those that said they imported fuel to the country. They did not bring anything yet through connivance they manipulated papers and they were collecting billions as cost of importing fuel.

We should begin to look different.

“I am privileged to be managing AMCON today, it is not noise making that made people know us; it is the output of what we are doing. It is performance. AMCON is the only establishment in Nigeria that has over N6trillion that is working with, not one kobo has missed.

The allegation drew the ire of workers, who came together under the aegis of the Iron and Steel Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (ISSSAN) and the Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria (SEWUN) and issued a joint press conference to condemned Belgore’s comments as malicious and capable of discouraging willing investors.

The workers perceived the attack on the company as targeted at painting the company in bad light before the Presidency that has resolved to upstage the plant for the benefit of all Nigerians.

National President of ISSSAN, Comrade Otori Malik Saliu, who addressed the media, said it is an attempt to blackmail the company by diminishing its real value for the agents of the imperialists to take it over as scrap. Comrade Saliu said the statement was not only unfortunate but sad commentary coming from a highly placed personality like Belgore.

He said the reports were malicious and naked lies that were not based on facts but fiction from the author’s imagination. According to him, the workers have been toiling to ensure the company is not drowned by comments from ignorant leaders comments.

In his words, “As responsible unions, we have had course to tell Nigerians several times that the role of some highly placed Nigerians on the Ajaokuta steel company is not only sad, but can be best be described as sabotage against Nigeria. Saliu explained that, given the calibre of audience, — the members of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) — and the senior position of the author of the negative report, it became expedient and instructive for the leadership of the union to set the records straight.

According to Saliu, “the screaming headlines in several national dailies that the Ajaokuta Steel Company staff were taking N3.4billion monthly for doing nothing, is the result of outright ignorance of the agents of imperialism wanting to take Ajaokuta as scrap through blackmail.”

He said, contrary to the reports, the staff strength of the company remains 2,900; while their monthly wage bill stood at about N228 million.

Continuing, he said Belgore should have made verification from the 2014 budget that is available for every Nigerian.

“As a banker, he has access to information from the federal budget office. We state categorically that Mr. Belgore lied and misinformed Nigerians.”

He said the staff have been patriotic to the extent that, even after their salaries were withheld for 13months they were still coming to work between 2009 and 2010 to protect and defend the steel plant.

The president explained that the workers patriotism was to prevent vandalisation and ensure that the underground water at the company did not submerge the plant facilities.

He pointed out that, even the technical audit of the steel plant that was done in 2010 vindicated the staff as the company was given a clean bill of health.

He further stated that, contrary to the allusion to idleness, the workers were working in their various departments adding that the Steel Complex has reached 80 percent completion, while the rolling mill, which is an arm of it, has gone into full operation.

“We have been producing specialised equipments for some neighboring countries and companies, thereby contributing our own quota to the development of the economy; while Ajaokuta Steel is not fully operational, all infrastructure are maintained and core departments are still running.”

The workers commended the current effort of the Federal Government to revive the steel company.

Conflicting interests by powerful countries like France, the US and others against the interest of Russia the builder of Ajaokuta Steel Project had been the major snag that has continued to jeopardise the countries efforts to resuscitate the company.

These countries continued to toss Nigeria about like a coin, while the steel complex on which the country had spent her fortune lied prostrate, even though it continued to gulp money.

The fact remains that the powerful nations of the world had never been at peace with the prospect of Nigeria turning into a big producer of steel. Indeed, those who have a good knowledge of what steel production could turn oil-rich Nigeria into had concluded that the west has a cause to shiver at the smart future awaiting Nigeria. It is another way of putting into focus the misfortune likely to be suffered by the developed world in the event that Nigeria, Africa and other developing nations stop being the usual dumping ground for all the junks from the leading nations of the world.

Against this background, steel production, aside from having Nigeria richer, has the ability to turn around the economies of weaker nations hitherto being exploited by the super powers, and by implication, impact negatively on the extent of influence of the hitherto richer countries.

The belief then was that, unknown to Nigerians, the lingering impossibility over Ajaokuta steel complex had its roots in the conspiracy by influential countries, who may not be able to stand the idea of having a giant (Nigeria) woken up and then getting empowered limitlessly by resources from steel.

If its present comatose state can be overcome, it has the potential of boosting the technological dream and industrial drive of the nation. The mill further stands to aid acquisition of technical expertise, enhance technological growth and provide a template for inputs for infrastructural development in the country.

Speaking on the deteriorating state of human capital and infrastructural aspects of Nigeria in an interview with The Guardian in Lokoja, the President, Council for Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) Kashim Ali, said that, just as Nigeria produces the best cable wire in the world, the Ajaokuta Steel Complex also has what it takes to produce all kinds of globally competitive vehicles, if developed to full capacity.

Ali, who also lamented Nigerians’ dependence on foreign goods, explained that the key to nation building is to embark on a rapid industrial revolution through conscious decision.

President Olusegun Obasanjo had, in a bid to privatise the company in 2003, reached a ‘failed’ agreement with Solgas. And in 2004 too, the administration concessioned the Ajaokuta Steel plant to an Indian firm, Global Infrastructure Holdings

Limited (GIHL). The latter company’s management signed a concession agreement with government in 2007 but defaulted, which led to its cancellation by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua.

The ensuing court case is reportedly pending in a Londo court, thereby constituting a seeming cog in the wheel of moving forward on it.

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imoleay0: Dr Jonathan is really working.