By Muhammed Jamiu Adoke
I will be honest, by April 2026, when Prof. Nasir Naeem Abdulsalam clocked one year as Managing Director of Ajaokuta Steel Company, a quiet dread had begun to settle in my chest. Typical me, I had wondered why months after months had passed there are no fanfare, no headline-grabbing announcement, no ribbon-cutting ceremony to reassure a nation that has waited since the late 1970s for its steel dream to materialise. I feared, like many Nigerians who have watched successive administrations promise and fail on Ajaokuta, that we were simply witnessing another chapter of silence dressed up as “due dilligence.” Yet, I didn’t flinch because I know Prof. Nasir right from the Univeristy of Abuja as a man who works in silence and produces the best of outcomes. I truly know so! But what I didn’t know was that behind the scenes, away from the cameras and the noise, a quiet revolution was being methodically assembled, one that would eventually roar into the open with the signing of a landmark 20-year gas supply agreement with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) just few days ago.
It is only fair, in hindsight, to appraise the man at the centre of this unfolding story. Prof. Nasir Abdulsalam did not arrive at Ajaokuta as a stranger to the sector. Before his appointment, he had served as Technical Adviser to the Minister of Steel Development and as Special Assistant (Academics) to the Director-General of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), giving him both the technical grounding and the policy fluency that the position demanded. As a professor with strong ties to the University of Abuja, he brought an academic rigour to a job that had, for decades, been treated as a political sinecure rather than an industrial mission. That distinction matters a lot! Ajaokuta has never lacked appointees; what it has lacked is stewardship rooted in competence, patience, and a genuine understanding of steel metallurgy and industrial logistics. What makes Prof. Nasir’s tenure so far particularly commendable is how well he appears to have settled into the demands of the role. Rather than rushing into premature declarations of “production resumption,” as some of his predecessors were tempted to do for optics, he chose the harder, less glamorous path of fixing the fundamentals.
No doubt, investors and technical partners had, for years, identified an unreliable energy supply as the single biggest obstacle standing between Ajaokuta and full-scale steel production. It takes discipline to resist the pressure for quick wins and instead spend a year quietly negotiating the removal of that obstacle. That discipline has now paid off, and rather spectacularly too.
The gains of the newly signed MoU and accompanying gas supply arrangements with NNPCL cannot be overstated. For the first time in the plant’s history, Ajaokuta now has a guaranteed, long-term energy pipeline, a 20-year gas sale and aggregation arrangement designed to power the complex’s operations without the interruptions that have historically crippled similar industrial revival attempts in Nigeria.
Beyond gas for power, the broader partnership with NNPCL also envisions Ajaokuta producing raw materials for oil and gas pipes, positioning the plant as a critical enabler for major national infrastructure projects, including gas pipeline expansion efforts across the country. This is no longer just about reviving a steel plant; it is about weaving Ajaokuta into the very fabric of Nigeria’s energy and industrial value chain, turning what was once a monument to abandoned potential into an active participant in nation-building.
The economic multiplier effects that flow from this single agreement deserve to be spelt out clearly. A functioning Ajaokuta Steel Complex promises thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Kogi State and beyond, a significant reduction in Nigeria’s heavy dependence on imported steel and steel products, increased local content in construction and manufacturing, and the potential to position the country as a steel-exporting hub for the West African sub-region.
With guaranteed energy supply now secured, the confidence of prospective investors which had been long deterred by the very question this agreement answers, is expected to rise considerably, potentially unlocking the remaining capital needed to complete outstanding phases of the plant’s rehabilitation.
Nevertheless, as heart-warming as this development is, it would be dishonest and unhelpful to declare victory just yet. It is not yet uhuru! A gas supply agreement, however historic, is an enabler, not an outcome. Nigerians have been disappointed before by MoUs that generated headlines but no molten steel. The true test of this administration’s commitment, and of Prof. Nasir’s leadership, will be measured in blast furnaces actually fired, in billets and coils actually rolling off production lines, and in Ajaokuta steel actually reaching construction sites, factories, and export terminals. Until that day comes, cautious optimism should remain our watchword.
To actualise President Tinubu’s vision within the shortest possible time, a few concrete steps recommend themselves. Sequel to the giant strides being taken by Prof. Nasir’s led administration, the federal government should ring-fence and fast-track the release of any outstanding counterpart funding or capital investment required to complete rehabilitation works, rather than leaving this solely to the pace of external financing. Also, a transparent, time-bound production roadmap, with quarterly milestones publicly reported, should be published so that Nigerians can track progress with rekindling hopes. In addition, complementary infrastructure such as rail linkages for haulage, reliable water supply, and access roads must be upgraded in tandem, since gas alone cannot move finished steel to market. This is very important as the Ajaokuta-Lokoja route is currently in a state of comatose.
Finally, Prof. Nasir’s team should institutionalise regular stakeholder engagement with host communities in Kogi State, organised labour, and the National Assembly, to insulate the project from the political turbulence that has sunk previous revival attempts. If these steps are pursued with the same quiet discipline that produced this gas deal, Nigeria’s 46-year wait for a working Ajaokuta Steel Company may finally, mercifully, be coming to an end. And should there be politically instigated hinderances, Nigerians (now carried along by the purported timelines/roadmaps) would all be interested in ensuring that this National project does not go down the drain anymore.
May the sun rise tomorrow.
– Muhammed Jamiu Adoke writes from Abuja.
