The Mambilla Triumph: How The APC is Mourning Nigeria’s Victory For Cheap Propaganda

By Ibrahim Nasiru

On Thursday, September 17, 2026, an International Arbitration Tribunal under the auspices of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris issued a historic award in favour of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The tribunal completely rejected the predatory $2.35 billion damages claim and a separate $400 million settlement demand brought against our nation by Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited regarding the long-stalled 3,960MW Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.

In an unprecedented move, the three-member panel ordered Sunrise and its promoter, Leno Adesanya, to reimburse Nigeria approximately $11.82 million to cover the country’s legal fees and expenses.

Ordinarily, in a country governed by patriotic minds, a victory of this magnitude—which saves Nigeria from a staggering financial liability in these lean economic times, should be a moment of national celebration. Instead, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, through a hysterical statement signed by Dele Alake, chose to mourn Nigeria’s victory.

In a clumsy attempt to distort facts and rewrite international jurisprudence, the ruling party has launched a desperate smear campaign against the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), His Excellency Atiku Abubakar.

The APC’s desperate spin is not just bad politics; it is an illiterate misreading of a 620-page international legal judgment. In their rush to weaponize a 23-year-old private bank transaction dating back to January 2003, Alake and his handlers conveniently omitted the most critical resolution of the Paris tribunal: the ICC explicit determination that stopped short of finding any legal indictment or corruption against Atiku Abubakar.

The tribunal made no legal finding that the former Vice President used his official position to improperly facilitate the Mambilla contract. Dele Alake’s heavy-handed use of the word “bribe” is a malicious fabrication manufactured strictly in the propaganda laboratories of a panicked ruling party.

The sudden obsession of the APC with a private, uncorroborated foreign exchange transaction from nearly a quarter of a century ago is a textbook diversionary tactic. It is a desperate smokescreen designed to hide the staggering governance failures of the last decade. The people of Taraba State and the wider Nigerian public know exactly why the Mambilla Hydroelectric project remains a phantom dream.

It did not stall because of administrative paperwork from 2003. It remains paralyzed due to the profound incompetence, institutional corruption, and execution inertia of successive APC administrations that have managed the power sector for ten years without adding a single megawatt to the national grid from Mambilla, all while sinking the country into historic debt.

By traveling twenty-three years back in time to hunt for mud to throw, the APC has inadvertently exposed its deep electoral vulnerability. The ruling party cannot campaign on the current reality of the Nigerian economy. They cannot defend the catastrophic price of a bag of rice, runaway fuel costs, or a collapsed national electricity grid. Because they cannot look Nigerians in the eye and defend their economic record, they must dig up ancient dust from two decades ago to bamboozle the electorate.

The contrast in statesmanship could not be clearer. While Atiku Abubakar continues to build a formidable, issue-based coalition under the ADC to offer Nigerians real economic alternatives and rescue the nation from bad governance, the ruling party is stuck running a campaign based on stale memoirs and distorted court transcripts.

Nigeria’s legal team deserves utmost commendation for staving off this multi-billion dollar predatory claim in Paris, clearing the legal hurdles around our flagship power project. The ADC campaign remains focused on the future.

No amount of historical revisionism, panic-driven press statements, or cheap rhetoric from Dele Alake will distract the Nigerian electorate from demanding accountability for the economic hardships imposed on them today.

The masses are wiser, the narrative has shifted, and no smokescreen can cover a broken economy.

Ibrahim Nasiru
Is A Public Affairs Analyst