It may after all be a hatched job and not an investigative journalism the report of the BBC Hausa service on the status of the power project. What that interview tried to portray was budgetary provisions were made and disbursed yet not a single material was mobilised to site.
In truth what the BBC reported was Miles away from the situation on ground. Plans for the take off of the project hit a brick wall “With the ground survey for the project completed in August 2010 and environmental approval in December 2011, the capacity of the project was thereafter increased to 3,050MW in 2012.
“The project was, however, put on hold due to administrative clashes, until it again received government approval in 2016 when the Federal Ministry of Power Works and Housing awarded the project development contract to a consortium of three Chinese companies, including the Gezhouba Group, in November 2017” according to thisday report August 10, 2021.
In August 20, 2003, Sunrise power transmissioncompanyof Nigeria, according to available information, engaged Sinohydro to construct the project on an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) basis, but work was stopped when the firm got the information that the Federal Executive Council did not approve the memo recommending it for the project and directing Sunrise to tender for the project when it was advertised.
From the now stalled arrangement, the federal government now awarded the Chinese Export Import (Exim) Bank the contract for the hydropower project. In the new arrangement, China Exim Bank will be funding 85 per cent of the estimated $5.8bn mambila project cost, while the remaining 15 per cent funding will come from the federal government.
This Sunrise company did not find funny and through its legal representation Femi Falana took the federal government to court demanding damages. In the mean time, the Exim withdrew from the contract pending the outcome of the case.
This is a summary of the MAMBILA POWER PROJECT. You may wish to read for added knowledge the links here attached from credible news medium. Interestingly, these reports came long ago before the BBC Hausa report.
https://m.guardian.ng/news/how-litigation-stalled-5-6b-mambilla-power-project/ April 2021
https://dailytrust.com/sunrise-files-400m-suit-over-botched-mambilla-power-deal may 2021
