Senator Alex Kadiri has described the decrepit Ajaokuta Steel Plant as a “national disgrace and shame.”
He also lamented the deplorable condition of the road leading to Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, regretting that it has been under construction for the past seventeen years “with no portion that can be said to have been concluded.”
The Senator who represented Kogi East from 1999 to 2003 further commended former Nigerian President, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, “for conceiving the Ajaokuta Steel Complex project that would have taken Nigeria to its Eldorado.”
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He made the remarks in Abuja after a trip to Odu in Dekina, Local Government of Kogi State.
“The steel complex which was said to have been 90% completed in 1984 by late Nigerian first executive President Alhaji Shehu Shagari had been abandoned by successive administrations and the gigantic project has been lying fallow almost in the shadow of its potential,” he added.
The Lawmaker said Nigerians need to pray for Shehu Shagari. Because the level he left Ajaokuta as the president of Nigeria is where it is today he described the gigantic project as a national disgrace and shame.
“Nigerians, we are so wasteful, so indecent. I don’t think Nigerians deserve any good things.
“The road leading to Lokoja the Kogi State capital has been under construction for the past seventeen years yet the road has no portion that can be said to have been concluded.
“There’s no other state capital that looks like mine. Which was also the first country’s capital. I passed through that road with tears in my eyes.
“It’s very unfortunate for me that my party is APC. It has not done anything across the river Niger for the past eight years.
“God knows, we know, If this is a democracy, then we are not practicing in that part of Kogi state. Nigerian resources were just wasted by INEC by conducting a sham election.
“Once I arrived at my village, everyone was looking very frail and impoverished and dispirited in the country in which they live. They can’t go elsewhere, they’re stuck.
“I’m even mocked by my children about the fact that I speak about such things and I’m being paid with a deaf ear.
“They feel that I’m criticizing the government too much and should keep quiet like every other person because that’s what Nigeria wants.
“Nigerians are being treated like conquered stifles. We’ve not conquered Nigeria. We’ve not conquered Kogi state.
We’ve not conquered the Igala people. We’ve not conquered the individuals. We’ve forced them and this force cannot be sustained,” he continued.
He further lamented that the recent governorship election in the state “was a rape of democracy as nobody voted for anyone. There was no election.
The government will feel like they are in control of all the local governments, we’ve all the councils, all the chairmen.”
This is as he further maintained “They now want to construct boreholes, roads, schools, and so on, which are the functions of the executive.
They are supposed to make laws for the good governance of the country, the state, and the local governments. They are not expected to do such.”
He warned of the dangers of stretching the People’s patience.