Despite several discreet measures and huge sums pumped in by the late president, Umoru Musa Yar’Adua, foreign welders are said to have taken over in the construction of the 4,128 km Trans-Sahara Gas pipeline Project (TSGPP).
Members of the Nigerian Institute of Welders (NIW) who raised alarm during their national stakeholders’ conference in Port Harcourt in the week said many well-trained Nigerian welders and other technicians were roaming about.
About 1,037km is said to be in Nigeria while 841km is in Niger Republic and 2,310 km is in Algeria.
A final agreement was signed in 2019 while actual construction has started in Nigeria. Many European companies and countries such as Russia’s GASPROM, India’s GAIL, France’s Total S.A, Italy’s Eni-SpA and Shell have asked to participate in the project expected to create another gas supply route to Europe by delivering over 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.
Construction work starts in Warri in Nigeria to run through Ajaokuta, Kaduna, Kano to Niger Republic from where it is expected to get to Hassi R’Mel in Algria and connect to the existing Trans- Mediterranean, Maghreb-Europe, Medgaz and Galsi pipeline.
The alarm however is that Nigerian welders and technicians have been shut out of the project.
Raising the alarm at the NIW stakeholders meeting in Port Harcourt, a professor and member of the NIW, Shehu Abdullahi Ma’aji of the Federal University of Technology in Minna who is on sabbatical at the Kano University of Science and Technology in Wudil complained that Nigerian welders and other technicians have been shut out. He said imported workforce has taken over.
He said it was time to summon a meeting of stakeholders in the welding technology in Nigeria to discuss the threat. “God forbid that this gas pipeline from Ajaokuta to Kaduna, to Kano, to Niger, Morocco to Algeria will not involve Nigerian technicians.
“This kind of thing won’t happen in India or China. They are ready to do training overnight and get the required manpower. The funding is from foreign loans. They will siphon the money back through this way. We must find the way forward.”
The technologist who said he alone has trained over 500 certified welders revealed how the late president saw a proposal from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the size of money that was to go to foreign welders and technicians and allegedly screamed.
He further revealed how the late Yar’Adua demanded to know why Nigerian welders were not to be involved and that he was told the Nigerians were not internationally certified.
Ma’aji said that was how the late Yar’Adua directed that everything must be done to get Nigerian welders on the project by setting machinery in motion to train and certify them fast.
He further disclosed how Yar’Adua funded the Nigerian Institute of Welders and insisted it must register with international welders and to certify Nigerian youths in welding so they can take over.
He said Yar’Adua had queried thus: “How can we have all these youths and we cannot engage them.” That thus started the scheme to make Nigerian welders take upper hand in the $13Bn pipeline project.
Ma’agaji went on: “At around 2015, the petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) made an effort to give a lot of funds to NIW to train welders. My centre, Fed University Technology, Minna, trained more than 500 technicians there who were certified by International Institute of Welders (IIW) in the US and they are recognized as certified welders.”
He said Nigeria recently signed agreement with other countries for the Trans-Sahara gas pipelines g and that the Ukrainian crisis has heightened the international appetite for gas from Nigeria. “Then, there was an agreement to lay this pipeline. Go and see who are the technicians working there! Foreigners! It means the Yar’Adua intervention failed.”
The expert wondered what went wrong. “Is it because of in-house management lapses that NIW cannot take up this challenge? The trained youths are crying. The money that should sit at home is fleeing abroad. That is one of the reasons of this stakeholders workshop which is to reassess ourselves and find out the challenge why we can’t take up the slots in the welding industry.
“Why can’t NIW penetrate the government and convince them to get slots for Nigerians on this sensitive gas pipeline project?”
He revealed how the PTDF in 2015 pumped money to train our youths abroad. It is the duty of the NIW to move fast when the gas pipeline came up and tell the government that we have this number of technicians ready.”
He would not confirm is a register of trained and certified welders is with the NIW which is in collaboration with
Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board that deals with local labour.
He however said: “NCDMB knows we have trained the youths and they have their records. If you ask for them today, they will come out. Some went to the UAE and were absorbed there because they were found good.
“It is a skill. If you stop practicing it, you lose some of it. That disturbs us because some of the boys are doing non-core welding jobs just to feed.
“We have suggested for retraining to suit the gas pipeline welding if our boys are not up to. We can upscale them. It is not one day job. It can take up to three years and we can create a training model for them.”
Ma’aji warned that Nigeria is facing a lot of challenges with its teeming youths moving about without jobs. “They are looking like nuisance because if you fail to engage somebody, he will engage himself. It’s a disturbing issue.”
Olusola Bello
