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. 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, and 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, and no functioning hydroelectric power plant stands on the main project site.
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