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Dear President Muhammadu Buhari - Ibrahim Wala Garba


By Ibrahim Wala Garba
REMEMBER HOW NAMADI SAMBO RUBBISHED YOU ON THE MAMBILA HYDRO POWER PROJECT, YET NO SINGLE DOCUMENT WAS SIGNED BUT, DIVERTED OVER N67 BILLION INTO PRIVATE ACCOUNTS. 
Concerning the Mambila Hydro Power Project being undertaking by the Federal Government, you may wish to recall that in your campaign promises, you informed Nigerians that your Administration will revive the project. It was on that note that the then Vice President, Arc. Namadi Sambo, castigated you publicly. Here I quote:  “I want to seize this opportunity to make a (comment); I will start by not taking the advantage of the ignorance of the presidential candidate of APC, yesterday, when he said that he is going to revive the Mambilla. 

“That is not true. Karya ne (it’s a lie). Already, Mr President has approved the contract for the construction of the 3,050megawatts Mambilla power plant.
“And not only approval, he has provided the sum of $1.5 billion to begin the project.
“So, I’m sorry there’s no Mambilla to revive, already Mambilla is being developed and work is progressing”. - Arc. Namadi Sambo.

Mr. President Sir, we (citizens) have done an investigation and can also substantiate that, as at 2011, there was over N67 Billion raw cash available in an account in CBN under the Ministry of Power. But, as we speak, there is no single Naira in that account. We reliably gathered that the Ministry diverted the Money into private accounts.

Sir, on the 17th February 2015, Daily Trust made enquiries on the delayed take-off, it was gathered that initially the Coordinating Minister of the Economy (CME), Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was not in the picture of the project, the reason for the halted last minute moves to flag off the much awaited electricity project in the North East Nigeria last October.

"What delayed the project kick-off initially was that the Finance Ministry was not incorporated in the early process, and the Federal Ministry of Power could not have signed a loan agreement with another country without the Finance Ministry, on behalf of Nigeria. They now had to ensure that our Finance Minister travels to china to perfect the agreement signing," source said as reported by Daily Trust.

Towards the end of the campaign days, the then Hon. Minister of State. Power, Hon. Mohammed Wakil, in an interview stated that a new cost for the contract was about $5billion (about N1.021trn). This is a significant $1.8 billion (about N367.7bn) difference of an upward review from the initial transaction plan. 

Sir, it was so funny to note that Wakil had given October timeline during a political rally in Gombe State in September. He said, and I quote:
"The president (GEJ) has broken the jinx of the Mambilla hydro dam which is worth about $7billion. The dam is to generate over 3,000mw and is about the biggest on the continent." - Minister of State, Power.

Mr. President Sir, do you know that even as of the moment Wakil made that statement, nobody from the GEJ Cabinet had traveled to China to perfect the arrangement which his then Minister of Finance claimed she had no idea of?

"Giving the roots of the recent deadlock for the project's signing last October, officials hinted that the newly contracted company, -China Gezhouba Group Company Ltd - that built the 22,500mw Three Gorges Dam (world's largest dam) in China, will work with the financier, the China EXIM Bank, to arrange the finance. He stated that the companies arranged for the 85 percent financing through the Chinese Bank while the Federal Government will provide its 15 percent counterpart funding; but the agreement is awaiting a formal pact signing on financing between Nigeria and the Chinese government, similar to the process for the Zungeru hydro project.

Speaking on what delayed the agreement process months after it should have been signed, the ministry official further said if the election had been held as scheduled, the entire process would have been clearer now. "But now that election is in March, it is not ideal for anybody to travel now for such major transaction." - Daily Trust

AFTER ELECTION, WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! 
NO PACT/CONTRACT WAS SIGNED, NO MONEY EXCHANGED HANDS, NO PROJECT TAKE OFF. BUT, THE N67BILLION CASH AVAILABLE IN AN ACCOUNT IN CBN UNDER MINISTRY ALSO GREW WINGS.


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