AJAOKUTA, ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE LIMITS OF CONFRONTATION: WHY SENATOR NATASHA AKPOTI-UDUAGHAN GOT IT WRONG

The recent heated exchange between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and the Minister of Steel Development, Prince Shuaibu Audu, during the joint budget defence session of the National Assembly has once again drawn national attention to the long-suffering Ajaokuta Steel Company. While robust oversight is a constitutional duty of lawmakers, the tone, framing, and substance of the senator’s intervention raise important questions about method, motive, and maturity in public discourse.
No one disputes that Ajaokuta Steel Plant is a national tragedy of stalled ambition. For over four decades, successive governments have pledged to revive it. Billions of dollars have been expended with little to show. It is therefore understandable that emotions run high whenever the plant is discussed. However, passion must not eclipse prudence, especially in a forum as consequential as a joint budget defence session.

Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s comparison of Ajaokuta’s funding needs with the proposed 750-kilometre coastal road project—reportedly costing ₦15 trillion—was rhetorically striking but fundamentally flawed. National budgeting is not a zero-sum emotional contest between projects. Infrastructure priorities are determined by strategic economic frameworks, sectoral projections, financing structures, and long-term development plans. The coastal road, whether one agrees with it or not, is a transportation and logistics infrastructure project expected to unlock coastal economies and attract private capital. Ajaokuta, on the other hand, is a heavy industrial project with complex technical, legal, and financial entanglements spanning decades.

To juxtapose both projects as though one automatically undermines the other oversimplifies Nigeria’s economic planning process. It creates a false dichotomy and fuels public resentment rather than constructive debate. Ajaokuta’s revival requires clarity of ownership, technology partnerships, commercial viability studies, and credible financing models—not rhetorical comparisons designed to inflame.

Furthermore, questioning “the government’s real intention” in reviving the plant suggests bad faith without presenting concrete evidence of sabotage or insincerity. Oversight should interrogate timelines, procurement processes, and measurable deliverables. It should not descend into insinuations. When lawmakers imply hidden motives without substantiation, they risk eroding public trust in institutions rather than strengthening them.

The senator also criticized the committee for holding meetings and engaging with the media, suggesting that these efforts have yielded minimal impact. Yet legislative oversight often begins with consultations, stakeholder engagements, and policy reviews. A project as legally entangled as Ajaokuta—especially after arbitration disputes and international contractual complications—cannot be revived by fiat. It requires deliberate restructuring. Public hearings and media engagements are part of democratic accountability, not evidence of inaction.
Perhaps most contentious was her reference to the 2019 Nigeria–Russia bilateral agreement, under which $1.45 billion was reportedly pledged for Ajaokuta. Her caution that the minister should not “mislead Nigerians” implies that he may have misrepresented the status of that agreement. While transparency is essential, such accusations should be supported by documentary clarity rather than delivered in confrontational soundbites.

International agreements are often subject to renegotiation, feasibility assessments, and sovereign guarantees. A pledge is not the same as disbursed capital. Many bilateral memoranda of understanding never translate into cash-backed commitments. If the Russian facility remains contingent or conditional, it is legitimate for the minister to explain its current status without being accused of dishonesty. To frame policy complexities as deception risks politicizing what should be a technical discussion.
There is also the matter of decorum. Budget defence sessions are not campaign rallies. They are structured engagements where ministers present fiscal plans and legislators scrutinize them. Heated exchanges may generate headlines, but they do little to foster collaborative solutions. Nigeria’s steel sector has suffered not just from funding deficits but from policy inconsistency and political theatrics. What it needs now is stability.

It is worth noting that Minister Shuaibu Audu assumed office within a broader reform agenda aimed at repositioning the mining and steel sectors as pillars of economic diversification. His tenure, still relatively recent in the lifespan of Ajaokuta’s decades-long stagnation, cannot be solely blamed for historical inertia. Demanding immediate transformation of a project that has been dormant for over 40 years ignores the structural realities involved.

Constructive oversight would involve requesting detailed implementation timelines, insisting on performance benchmarks, and proposing legislative support mechanisms such as special purpose vehicles, concession frameworks, or public-private partnerships. It would not rely primarily on dramatic comparisons or adversarial posturing.

Moreover, public confidence in Ajaokuta’s revival depends on unified messaging from political leaders. Investors—local and international—observe these proceedings. When they see discord framed as distrust between legislative and executive arms, it reinforces perceptions of instability. Industrial megaprojects require investor confidence anchored in predictable governance.

This is not to suggest that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan should remain silent. On the contrary, her constituency in Kogi Central has a legitimate interest in Ajaokuta’s success. Her advocacy for the plant is understandable and commendable in principle. However, advocacy must be strategic. Effective lawmakers build coalitions, engage quietly where necessary, and apply pressure through structured channels. Confrontation for its own sake may win applause in partisan circles but rarely accelerates complex industrial reforms.
The revival of Ajaokuta demands less grandstanding and more governance. It requires technical audits, credible investors, dispute resolution mechanisms, and political alignment. It also requires acknowledging that no single minister or senator can single-handedly fix what decades of mismanagement created.

In the end, Nigerians deserve transparency, realism, and responsibility. They deserve leaders who debate vigorously yet respectfully, who challenge figures with facts rather than insinuations, and who recognize that economic transformation is a marathon, not a media moment.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s passion for Ajaokuta is not in question. What is in question is whether her approach during the budget defence advanced the cause of steel revival or merely amplified political friction. At a time when Nigeria seeks industrial rebirth, the country needs statesmanship more than spectacle.

Ajaokuta is too important to become a stage for antagonism. It must instead be the arena for collaboration, clarity, and credible commitment. Only then can the promise of Nigeria’s steel dream move from perpetual debate to practical delivery.