Showing posts with label Mrs Olufunke Osibodu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mrs Olufunke Osibodu. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Where Are The Various Power Probe Report?

By Phillip Agbese
We are a nation of people that easily forget. We may, however, not be a nation that easily forgive. If it seems we forgive grievous sins of past, serving and future public office holders it is down to the collective amnesia that allows those who serially raped the country to get away with their crimes. Oftentimes we end up rewarding such persons with greater responsibilities because we simply cannot recall the enormity of their transgressions against the rest of us. 
We forget so we endure darkness when the power sectors has gulped billions of dollars without results.

We bemoan the high cost of lighting our homes as well as keep gadgets and equipment running irrespective of whether we are on post paid metering, pre-paid extortion or estimated robbery. But we forget that we are now being billed for the overpriced investment in electricity infrastructure, including the inflated value for components that were never bought. 

Only recently the Pharaoh of Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Mrs Olufunke Osibodu told Nigerians with glee that we have no right to expect stable electricity for another five years. We have forgotten why but we easily ignored and even immediately forgave the spewing of such poison. Afterall, this was a self styled undertaker of a commercial bank talking so we may not immediately become alarmed that Osibodu has a mandate to finally kill off a sector that years of theft has not seen off. 

The venue of Osibodu's dark prophecy is what should trigger the alarm bells for us. She spoke at the 11th Annual Founder’s Day event of the American University of Nigeria in Yola, which happens to be one of the many investments of a former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abukakar. He happens to have been the one that oversaw the privatization exercise, which had rehabilitation of electricity infrastructure before their sale as a mantra that played so continuously that it sounded worse than a broken record. 

What happened under Atiku Abubakar's watch set the tone for whatever brigandage was to follow under subsequent administrations. This of course is not counting any other shady dealings that were explained away as former President Olusegun Obasanjo being heavy handed on his over ambitious deputy.