By Jaafar Jaafar
Social media buskers and cheerleaders are trying hard to absolve the Buhari govt of blame in the Mambila hydro power project fiasco exposed by the BBC Hausa. They said the presidency was quoted out of context, and that it never claimed work had started at Mambila.
But the official cheerleaders say otherwise. They told us equipment had been procured. They shared the photos of the project sites to convince us Mambila project was coming to fruition. And we truly believed them.
Buhari himself taunted Obasanjo for allegedly spending $16 billion on power without commensurate results. Although in actual sense, Obasanjo spent $3.5 billion (at rate of N150 to $1) to build new power generating stations under the National Integrated Power Projects (NIPPs), we have seen Papalanto, Omotosho, Alaoji and Geregu gas plants on ground. We have also seen the workers’ quarters Obasanjo built at Mambila in preparation for the project. Without Obasanjo’s efforts, Nigeria would have been in perpetual darkness today. Now ask yourself, how many megawatts, apart from megawatts of propaganda, has Buhari added to the national grid?
Even the Shagari administration, which Buhari criminally truncated, completed Jebba and Shiroro hydroelectric power plants and Egbin thermal plant initiated by the past military regimes.
The question is #WhereIsMambilaProject billions Buhari approved?
Jaafar Jaafar is the publisher of Daily Nigerian
