More action, less talk on Mambilla hydro project

The assurance given by President Muhammadu Buhari recently that his administration will accord the highest priority to the completion of the Mambilla Hydropower Project has given hope that the jinx that has bedevilled this all-important project for three decades is about to be broken, at last. Speaking when he received in audience officials of a […]

The assurance given by President Muhammadu Buhari recently that his administration will accord the highest priority to the completion of the Mambilla Hydropower Project has given hope that the jinx that has bedevilled this all-important project for three decades is about to be broken, at last. Speaking when he received in audience officials of a Chinese construction company, President Buhari promised to ensure that the Mambilla project and other uncompleted or abandoned hydro-power projects in the country are completed expeditiously in order to boost power supply in the country. He said “I am going to ask for details of the Mambilla Hydro-Power Project and others. Very soon we will get together and redefine the project agreements for faster results.’’
The president will get an earful of briefing on this matter. The problems associated with the Mambilla project are as big as the potentials of the project itself. The Mambilla Power Station is expected to be one of the biggest dam projects in all Africa, a hydropower plant that will be connected to three dams on the Donga River in Taraba State.  First conceived in 1982, Mambilla Dam is a large, rolled compact concrete dam and reservoir that stands at 1,300 metres above sea level. Water  is expected to be diverted from the reservoir towards the western side of the plateau through 3 hydraulic tunnels totalling 33 kilometres, intercepted by two smaller dams [Sum Sum and Nghu dams] 50 metres below the Mambilla dam. The tunnels then lead into a 1,000-metre drop shaft tunnelled down through the rock to a massive underground powerhouse with a generating capacity of 3,050 megawatts. The water then exits via a short tunnel to the base of the Mambilla Plateau and flows into a tributary river that rejoins the Donga River.
Even though every military and civilian administration since the 2nd Republic had promised to complete it, all that is visible at the site of the massive project now are a few rusty beacons placed by consultants that did some feasibility studies. The Olusegun Obasanjo administration restarted the project in 2002, but did not get to award the building contract. The Musa Yar’adua government that followed undertook a review and made little progress on the project; the Jonathan administration made little headway.
The German consulting firm Lahmeyer started work at the site in 2005 and did extensive engineering studies. It was replaced in March 2011 by a new project consultant, Coyne et Bellier of France. Between 2004 and 2006 tenders were placed and bids were received for Lot 1, which was the civil and hydraulic segment. CGC/CGGC won the lot 1 tenders in 2006 but while Lot 3 was advertised, it was never awarded. In November 2012, it was reported that government signed a contract with the Chinese firm Sinohydro to build Mambilla Power Station but the Power Ministry announced the cancellation of this contract in December 2013. The ministry explained at the time that it was working on “firming the project cost” with Chinese EPC firms interested in providing funding for the project.
A special report by Daily Trust last year found that intrigues involving powerful interests in the Presidency and the Power Ministry were stalling the project, with officials scrambling to hijack the multi-billion dollar contract for companies of their cronies and associates. The messy manner in which contracts were awarded and revoked without following due process and laid down procedure has already ensured that there are many court cases hanging on the project. Different consultants and contractors are claiming that they spent huge amounts of money only for their contracts to be revoked without just cause, and blamed ‘selfish interest of various top officials’.
President Buhari is well-placed to break this jinx. With his anti-corruption profile, he it is that is capable to dismantle the cobwebs of self-interest and aggrandisement and ensure that the right procedure is followed and finally position the Mambilla project on course to a rapid completion. The president should clear all the decks of impunity and selfishness, resolve all the outstanding suits out of court and then open the whole project to a new, international competitive bidding that will ensure that Nigeria gets the best technical quality for such a huge expenditure. Mambilla project has been on for 33 years. This administration should complete it in one-tenth of that time.