Ajaokuta Not Obsolete, Vital for Nigeria's Devt

By Onimisi Alao (Daily Trust)

The Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited is not obsolete because the installed machines are still vital for Nigeria's industrial development, former secretary of the interim management committee of the company, Professor Ibrahim Abdullahi Madugu, has said.

Professor Madugu, who is a metallurgy engineer and currently director general and chief executive of National Metallurgical Development Centre (NMDC) located in Jos, said the Itakpe iron ore which was planned to feed its mills, as well as similar mineral deposits in Agbaja, Kotonkarfi, Obajana (where there is the Dangote Cement factory) and other places around Kogi, make the state a wealth zone.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Trust, Madugu said: "The future is very bright, not for Ajaokuta alone if we get our acts together and do things the right way. The whole of that Kogi State area will be like the Peaceburg area of Chicago. The raw materials are there in huge tons: the Agbaja iron ore, the Kotonkarfi iron ore, the Itakpe iron ore: those places contain wealth and one day it will come out. The world over, quality iron ore is depleting. They don't have it in France, they don't have it in England; they import. The Chinese import Australian iron ore, and we have virgin iron ore."

Madugu maintained that the machines at the company were still functional.

"Ajaokuta machines are not obsolete. What may be obsolete are the control panels; the electronics. You can easily change those ones. The black furnace itself, the basic oxygen furnace, the rolling mills are not obsolete. They are still viable," he said.

He expressed hope that Nigeria would use the dwindling oil price to develop its solid mineral sector.