ALSCON: Development denied

It is Only in Hollywood movie scripts that you can find such bizarre twists to a story that looked so perfect and out of this world. The Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) is a perfect winner for such a script. Beginning in 1997 when the Military Government spent about 6.3 billion USD to build […]

It is Only in Hollywood movie scripts that you can find such bizarre twists to a story that looked so perfect and out of this world.
The Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON) is a perfect winner for such a script. Beginning in 1997 when the Military Government spent about 6.3 billion USD to build the Company on 23,800 Acres of land, donated by the Ikot Abasi Community of Akwa Ibom State, it was a fait accompli that development has come to stay in Nigeria via the ALSCON which has the longest conveyor belt in the world.
ALSCON is a world class Aluminum facility designed to produce 127,000 tonnes of Aluminium per year. In its hey days between 1997-1999, it was producing at 25% of its installed capacity about, 40,000 tonnes, with a staff strength of 1,800, and making about 120 million USD per annum. At its inception it was a Turnkey Project designed to compete with the best in the world.
Today it is a shadow of itself, depreciating so fast and losing billions of Naira daily to vandals. In a Conundrum that lasted for more than ten years and defied solution, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) which is saddled with the responsibility of carrying out successful Privatization exercise for the benefit of the country has been adamant in this case.
The BPE refused to comply with a July 6, 2012 Supreme Court of Nigeria Judgment asking it (BPE), and the preferred bidder (BFI Group), for ALSCON to sign the Mutual Share Purchase Agreement SPA between them and for BFI Group to pay 10% of the bid price in order to revitalize the Company.
What puzzles us here is the defiance by the BPE to comply with the Judgment of the Supreme Court and under our eyes adhering to an arbitration of a Court in England to allow the present occupants of ALSCON remain in the premises disregarding the Judgement of the Supreme Court and another Judgment of the Federal High Court in 2014 ordering the enforcement of the July 6, 2012 Supreme Court Ruling and ordering the IGP and all Security Agencies to enforce that Ruling.
I am not a Lawyer; I am talking as a layman Politician and Representative of the people. For the BPE to be so adamant and defending the actions they took, is a betrayal of trust and responsibility. At a point it seemed comical to contemplate what was happening at the Public Hearing held at the House of Representatives on the 28th of April 2016, to investigate the reasons behind the non-implementation of a Supreme Court Order which has stalled the revitalization and re-opening of ALSCON via House Resolution.
In a thought provoking, passionate and deeply moving presentation given by Labour representatives of the staff of ALSCON, I was touched by the level of apathy, inhumanity and humiliation meted out to the Host Community of Ikot-Abasi and Akwa Ibom State. They lamented the Lack of benefits to the workers with about 2.3 billion naira owed them in salaries and other benefits. There is massive environmental degradation, leading to many ailments and loss of many lives in the community.
The asset stripping on the facility is mind boggling, as spare parts worth 40 million USD in the warehouse were carted away. Billets, Anodes, Ingots and Busbars are taken away daily as scrap. The most surprising thing about the matter is that nothing on the facility is scrap because everything there can be recycled.
A well-equipped hospital using cutting edge technology served the facility and the host community. Today the hospital is unable to function and abandoned.
Imagine a facility that made it possible for the Host Community to have electricity for two years without power outage and other attendant privileges enjoyed, to be neglected in such a brazen manner. Mr. Wolfgang, the German Project Manager of Ferrostal AG, the Company that built the facility described its present state as “a shame”.
What we have failed to see is the potential of creating wealth for our nation by harnessing the capital investment in ALSCON, but we have left it to waste and increase penury in our land.
When the media talked about this, I took it upon myself to fight for the people that have been shortchanged, especially the Ikot-Abasi people who sacrificed their farmland for the factory to be built in anticipation of a brighter day, only to be bedeviled by misery.
How can government apparatus be an instrument for manipulating the people? How can an appendage of government be used in destroying, the moral, economic and political landscape of Nigeria by stepping on Judgments of the highest court in the nation?
I sympathize and empathize with the people of Ikot-Abasi, who are dying from pollution and workers laid off without benefits, this is a clear indication of injustice to mankind.
I believe the President and the Vice-President, who is the Chairman of the National Council on Privatization, will not allow the Rule of Law to be undermined in any guise. Those who are behind this rip off of Public Enterprises must realize that their time has come to an end, and an era of change and hope for the common man is at hand. This is the last chance for Nigerians to reclaim their glory by coming together and making things right.

Yerima is a member, House of Representatives. He wrote this piece from Abuja.