Fake Kites Are Flown In Nigeria With Official Connivance – Ishola Ninuola
A younger colleague of old, now a consultant got in touch with me (always updating me on projects he is on now), and intimated me that he was working on an iron deposit, now, lying side-by-side with a limestone. And I’m like ‘where the hell is that now?’ He has not reverted back. It’s in the nature of some consultants to give half (teasing) information. And the mistake you make is probe them further. May be he is just probing if I knew something on this. Because I’ve not heard from him for years. The promoters of the so-called project might also be floating a kite in these days of rumours on social media. Some groups are also positioning themselves to take over the light section mill in Ajaokuta.
An iron-mining and processing plant of 6.0 million ton per/annum capacity that will create 4, 000 jobs jobs just sprang up somewhere in Nigeria from nowhere at all. Producing 6 million tons p/a Direct Reduced Iron from nothing virtually. Even 100,000 tons p/a will raise some eyebrow. Where is the raw material, the infrastructure, the energy (gas) and all that? But virtually it seems everything is possible in Nigeria. Even the picture used to make up the story appears made indoor and not on-sight. Yes anything is possible here. Some months back, a smart Alec from Germany was promoted as dealing with the Minister and was marketing a wonder new technology that would investigate mineral deposits 10 kilometres into the ground. The fellow stated that only 10 percent of Nigeria is explored. It was questioned how he arrived at that figure. He even projected how much trillion dollars of gold his equipment would get for Nigeria. Similar to the $11 billion P&ID fraud exactly. A lot of times these kites are flown with official connivance from inside, with every-one trying to pick everyone’s brains. This is what you get when the leadership of a country fails to look for its Grade-A experts, or even intentionally takes them as competitors that must be kept at bay at all costs. Even foreign governments are beginning to take advantage of Nigeria’s government because of the apparent tone of desperation coming out of official channels that tend to portray this country of experts all over the world as completely lacking of experts at home. We’ll just wait and see.
On solid minerals sector.
Nigeria has been on this so-called road since the 90s. The difference now seems the increased press. Unfortunately, the press does not grow riches for a country. It is still ill-advised policy to think mineral resources will replace what oil was in Nigeria’s economy. And it is unfortunate that Nigerian leadership refuses to even consider alternative policy direction to this current one; a policy alternative that she now really needs for meaningful industrialisation of her economy. We believe we are Nigeria’s foremost experts in this field today, by God’s grace, and we have continued to reach out to successive Nigerian governments since about 2005 on this, without success, unfortunately.
Some years back, we were invited to meet one of the ministers, who was then to visit the old students in Lagos, and the concerned minister did not show up, unfortunately. We also made attempts to reach the country’s President before current one, also without success. But we are still resolved to keep on trying to reach government, if not for anything, for our teeming future generations.
