Donga River, which cuts through Nigeria’s Mambilla Plateau in Taraba State, is part of the natural wealth that has made the plateau the centre of one of Nigeria’s most ambitious electricity projects. It carries the enormous water resources that have long been at the heart of the country’s most ambitious hydroelectric dream.
For more than five decades, various governments have talked about harnessing the plateau’s rivers to generate electricity on a scale capable of transforming Nigeria’s power sector.
Conceived in 1972, the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project was designed to generate approximately 3,050 megawatts of electricity. Its estimated cost has risen to almost $6 billion, making it one of the most expensive power infrastructure projects ever proposed in Nigeria.
But 54 years after the dream was conceived, there is still no hydropower dam to show, no single turbine generating electricity, no functioning hydroelectric power plant stands on the main project site. Instead, abandoned staff quarters, deteriorating buildings and frustrated communities offer a stark picture of a project that has remained trapped between government’s promises, contractual disputes, financing challenges and allegations of corruption. The question is simple but difficult to answer: What happened to Mambilla? The story dates back to 1972 during the military administration of General Yakubu Gowon. At the time, Nigeria was beginning to recognise the enormous potential of the Mambilla Plateau as a source of hydroelectric power.
The idea was ambitious: The country’s water resources would be harnessed to generate electricity, while the development of the plateau would create economic opportunities for surrounding communities and contribute significantly to national power generation. The project was expected to become a major pillar of Nigeria’s electricity infrastructure.
But years passed, military administrations gave way to democratic governments, presidents came and left, feasibility studies were conducted, planning continued, contracts were discussed, awarded and revised, yet the dam itself remained a dream.
Historical records show that planning and feasibility efforts continued through subsequent decades, including significant developments in the 1980s, but Mambilla became trapped in the familiar cycle that has characterised several major infrastructure projects in Nigeria: announcements, followed by delays, contracts followed by disputes, negotiations followed by new negotiations.
For communities on the plateau, the project increasingly became a promise that was always just a few years away.
The contract that changed everything
One of the most significant developments came in 2003 when the federal government entered into an agreement with Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited in relation to the Mambilla project. Years later, another consortium emerged as the proposed contractor for the massive project.
On November 12, 2017 under former President Muhammadu Buhari, the federal government signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract estimated at $5.8 billion with a Chinese consortium, comprising China Gezhouba Group Corporation, Sinohydro Corporation and CGCOC Group.
The agreement appeared to offer Mambilla its biggest opportunity in decades. After years of planning and delays, the project seemed finally ready to move from paper to construction. But instead of bulldozers moving onto the plateau, the project became entangled in a complex contractual dispute.
Documents reviewed for this investigation show that the Attorney-General of the Federation had raised concerns in correspondence to the Ministry of Power regarding the existing contractual relationship involving Sunrise Power.
The dispute eventually moved beyond Nigeria. It became a subject of arbitration and international legal proceedings, creating another major obstacle to the construction of the dam.
In 2019, negotiations intensified. Then in January 2020, Sunrise Power and the federal government signed a settlement agreement.
For many observers, the settlement appeared to remove one of the major obstacles standing in the way of construction, but the end of the dispute did not translate into the beginning of the dam. The project remained largely where it had been for decades on paper. Where is the $5.792b?
The figures attached to Mambilla are staggering. The estimated value of the EPC contract was $5.792 billion. The financing structure was based on an 85:15 debt-to-equity arrangement.
Under the proposed arrangement, approximately 85 per cent of the financing was expected to come from Chinese lenders, principally the Export-Import Bank of China, while Nigeria would provide the remaining 15 per cent as counterpart funding.
On paper, the arrangement appeared straightforward. China would provide the bulk of the financing, Nigeria would provide counterpart funding, a Chinese consortium would construct the project. And Nigeria would eventually receive approximately 3,050 megawatts of additional generating capacity.
But the reality has been dramatically different: There is still no functioning Mambilla hydroelectric plant.
Successive administrations continued to revive the project. Government officials travelled abroad to discuss financing; Chinese officials visited Nigeria; statements have been issued announcing progress; budgetary provisions have been made and construction dates discussed, yet physical evidence remains difficult to ignore; and the dam is not there.
The abandoned buildings
To understand the reality of Mambilla, it is not enough to examine government’s statements or official documents; you have to travel to the plateau.
At Zango Ajiya, one of the locations associated with facilities for the Mambilla project, there is physical evidence of a project that has waited too long. Buildings constructed in anticipation of the massive development now stand abandoned. Some have been overtaken by vegetation. Windows are broken, fittings have been damaged or removed, rooms that were supposed to accommodate workers and support a major national infrastructure project are empty, and the compound has become an abandoned monument.
The original intention was for the facility to provide staff accommodation and storage facilities for equipment connected to the Mambilla project, but instead, years of inactivity have allowed nature to reclaim parts of the property.
Grass and vegetation grow around the buildings, the structures are exposed to the elements, the once-promising facilities have become increasingly difficult to distinguish from abandoned government infrastructure scattered across Nigeria. But unlike many abandoned projects, Zango Ajiya facilities are linked to a project that was supposed to generate more than 3,050 megawatts of electricity and transform the country’s energy landscape.
For Ibrahim Zango, the abandoned facility is not simply a symbol of government failure; it is part of his everyday environment.
With no significant project activity taking place, Ibrahim has cleared sections of the overgrown compound and planted crops. Where government workers and contractors were once expected to operate, farming now takes place.
His story captures the strange reality of Mambilla.
Infrastructure intended to support a multi-billion-dollar hydroelectric project has become a place where ordinary residents try to make a living.
Inside the buildings, the evidence of neglect is even more striking. The fittings are damaged, rooms are empty, windows have been broken and the structures exposed to weather and time.
For a project that was expected to attract thousands of workers and billions of dollars in investment, the silence is difficult to comprehend.
Perhaps the greatest cost of Mambilla’s delay cannot be measured in dollars but the lives of people who have spent decades waiting.
The Mambilla Plateau is rich in water resources and blessed with enormous potential for hydroelectric generation, yet communities around the proposed project area continue to struggle with access to reliable electricity.
For residents, Mambilla is no longer simply an infrastructure project, it has become a symbol of promises repeatedly made and repeatedly postponed.
Government officials had come to the plateau, announcements have been made and renewed, but reliable electricity remains elusive.
For Hassan Suleiman Abbas, who has lived on the Mambilla Plateau for more than 50 years, he has watched the region develop and generations grow up. He has watched roads, communities and businesses change, but one thing remains largely unchanged: the absence of reliable electricity.
Despite spending more than five decades in the region, Hassan said he had never experienced electricity supplied to his community through the national grid. His experience highlights one of the great ironies of the Mambilla story – a region at the centre of a proposed 3,050-megawatt hydroelectric project remains largely deprived of reliable electricity.
The rivers continue to flow, the water continues to move through the valleys, the energy potential remains, but electricity has not arrived. Gembu: Keeping the lights on
In Gembu, one of the major communities on the Mambilla Plateau, residents and local organisations have been forced to seek alternative solutions.
One organisation attempting to address the problem is Gechan, a non-governmental organisation involved in efforts to provide electricity to parts of the community.
But providing electricity without a reliable grid comes with enormous challenges. Generators require fuel, which requires money. And machines require maintenance.
And when diesel prices rise, the cost of keeping the lights on becomes even more difficult.
Ezra Emmanuel said the cost of running generators had become a major obstacle.
The removal of petrol subsidy and the resulting increase in fuel cost have added pressure to organisations attempting to provide electricity through alternative means.
For small organisations, the economics are brutal: Every additional hour of electricity means another litre of fuel, every breakdown requires money and every maintenance job adds another cost.
The irony is that this is precisely the problem Mambilla was supposed to help solve.
A large-scale hydroelectric project could potentially provide electricity without the recurring fuel costs associated with diesel generators.
But after more than five decades, communities are still relying on smaller interventions to keep the lights on.
The corruption question
The Mambilla story is not only about engineering delays, it is also about accountability.
The project has become intertwined with wider questions concerning Nigeria’s management of major power infrastructure projects and public funds.
One of the most significant developments came with the prosecution of a former Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, who served under President Muhammadu Buhari.
Mamman was prosecuted in a corruption case involving funds connected to major power projects, including Mambilla and Zungeru.
In May 2026, the Federal High Court convicted Mamman and sentenced him to 75 years in prison over fraud and money-laundering charges involving billions of naira.
The case has renewed public attention on how funds associated with major power projects were managed.
The conviction also raises a broader question about Mambilla itself: How much has Nigeria spent on this project over the decades and what has the country received in return?
For a project estimated at $6 billion, the absence of a functioning dam makes that question unavoidable.
More than five decades of promises should leave more than abandoned buildings behind. That is why the investigation followed the paper trail.
From the conception of the project in 1972 to feasibility studies and technical planning, contract awards to financing negotiations, contractual disputes, arbitration and settlement to the billions of dollars attached to the project, the history reveals a project repeatedly brought back into the national conversation but rarely translated into physical construction.
At different points, successive governments offered different explanations for the state of the projecty. From contractual disputes, financing difficulties, negotiations, legal challenges, changes in government, administrative processes, each obstacle has contributed to the long delay.
For residents living around the proposed project area, explanations do not produce electricity.
A project that outlived governments
Mambilla has survived Nigeria’s political transitions. It was conceived under a military government and passed through successive regimes. It also survived the return to democracy and has appeared in the plans of successive civilian governments. What it has not survived is implementation.
Presidents promised to revive it, ministers spoke about it and officials travelled to negotiate financing, yet Mambilla remains unfinished.
That longevity raises another uncomfortable question: Why has no administration been able to overcome the obstacles that have kept the project from construction for more than half a century?
Now that the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu inherited the same challenge, will Mambilla finally move from promise to reality?
The stakes are enormous. With barely four months to Nigeria’s general elections, will Mambilla once again feature in campaign promises? Who will ultimately take credit for the implementation of the hydroelectric dam?
Unfortunately, Nigeria continues to struggle with inadequate electricity generation and distribution, industries face unreliable power, small businesses spend significant portions of their income on alternative electricity, hospitals and schools continue to depend on unstable power supplies in many communities.
For a country with a population of more than 200 million people and enormous economic ambitions, the need for additional reliable electricity is difficult to overstate.
A 3,050-megawatt hydroelectric project would therefore represent a significant addition to Nigeria’s electricity generation capacity.
But Mambilla is more than a number. Its successful completion could potentially transform communities around the plateau. It could create jobs, stimulate local businesses, support industries and improve public services. It could finally connect the enormous energy potential of the region to Nigeria’s wider electricity system. But none of those benefits can be realised until construction actually happens.
For the people of Mambilla Plateau, the delay has become personal. Generations have grown up hearing about the project, children have become adults and dults have grown old. Some who heard the original promises are no longer alive to see whether the project would ever be completed.
Meanwhile, the rivers that inspired the project continue to flow, the mountains remain, the land remains fertile, the energy potential remains enormous, but the promised transformation has not arrived.
That is perhaps the most painful irony of Mambilla.