By Adekunle Adekoya
On Wednesday, the national power grid managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, collapsed for the 11th time in 2024, leaving the country in complete blackout. Some people said that it wasn’t the 11th but the 12th time, on the average, a collapse of once a month.
Data from the National System Operator, NSO, showed that as of 2pm that day, none of Nigeria’s 26 power plants was on the grid.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Two major reports on the anti-corruption landscape made the headlines these last few days. Both left me wondering about the mental state of the perpetrators, given the sheer scale of what they were up to.
All of us still remember the late maximum dictator, General Sani Abacha. Since his passing, it has come to light that the redoubtable General siphoned so much money from the national exchequer that 30 generations from him would never have to work again.
By Adekunle Adekoya
“There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910). Please note that Mark Twain himself attributed it to former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
Last Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, released a report on the National Gross Domestic Product for Q1 2024, that is, the first three months of this year. On its website, NBS gave the following overview: Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 2.98% (year-on-year) in real terms in the first quarter of 2024.
By Adekunle Adekoya
During the work week ending today, that infamous Bretton Woods institution, the International Monetary Fund, IMF, was in doublespeak regarding the economy of many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and particularly mentioned countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, and my dear country ( I have no other!), Nigeria.
Urging Nigeria and the other countries to rethink implementation strategies of the reforms embarked on, the IMF, in its latest Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa report, noted that the countries involved in deep reforms, including Nigeria, Ghana, Ethiopia and Kenya, may now be experiencing what it called ‘adjustment fatigue’, while some are facing civil resistance.
By Adekunle Adekoya
For some time now, the detention and arraignment of under-age protesters by the Police dominated conversations at home and abroad.
In August, a nationwide protest against the harsh economic policies preferred by the federal administration led by President Bola Tinubu began, tagged #EndBadGovernance. Largely driven by social media conversations, organisers sought to mobilise the populace to register their displeasure with the way things have turned and are still turning for them. So, August 1-10 was billed as protest days. Before the day, government machinery went into overdrive, with massive resources committed to ensuring that the protests did not hold.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Since May 29, 2023, Nigerians have been struggling with unrelenting rises in the cost of living following peremptory removal of subsidy on petrol by President Bola Tinubu.
By Adekunle Adekoya
My fellow countrymen and women are incurable optimists. As the grind got harder and life became more brutish and nasty as a result of the economic policies the president chose to adopt and implement, most Nigerians continued to look at the brighter side of life, praying and hoping that things will get better.
By Adekunle Adekoya
AS each day dawns in Nigeria, the economic omens are getting more and more bothersome, sending wave after wave of apprehension about how to make ends meet down the spines of most of us, except, perhaps, those permanently connected to sources of unending funds, like politicians, clergymen, and motor park operatives, known as agberos.
These three classes of Nigerians are about the only ones seemingly immune from the excruciating impact of the economic policies of the government in power. They are immune from it because the systems in which they operate is wired to generate money that they can spend at will without let and hindrance, and the sums available are simply humongous.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Last week I opined that in terms of security, our dear nation is still at 100 level. To those who know, 100 level, in our clime, is generally used to refer to the first year of study in a university. In other countries, 100 level students, or JAMBites, here, are also called freshmen. Compared with many countries, Nigeria is a fresher in terms of security, and yes, some fellow African countries, lumped together as the Third World. Much of what goes on here is simply not tolerated next door in Benin Republic.
On a trip to Cotonou a few years ago, I was amazed at how the gendarmes (police) there controlled traffic by merely blowing whistles. I saw, on that trip, how a truck that rammed into a street light pole on the highway was arrested and detained. I was also told that the vehicle will not be released to its owners until they have paid the cost of repairing the damaged street light pole. Here, that happens daily, and government bears the cost. In any case, most of the street light poles don’t give light, so nobody bothers.
By Adekunle Adekoya
In the last few weeks, the
global news media and the internet have been awash with the exploits
of the state of Israel in the campaign against Hamas, Hezbollah and other real
and apparent threats. In sympathy, Iran launched at least 180 missiles into
Israel last Tuesday. Israel claimed most of the missiles were rendered
ineffective by her advanced air defence systems called the Iron Dome, David’s
Sling, and Arrow.
For information, the Iron Dome is the most well-known of Israel’s missile shields, and is designed to intercept short-range rockets, as well as shells and mortars, at ranges of between 4km and 70km from the missile launcher. David’s Sling is meant to destroy longer-range rockets, cruise missiles and medium-range or long-range ballistic missiles from a distance of up to 300km. The Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 systems defend against medium-range and long-range ballistic missiles when they are anywhere up to 2,400km away.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. — Aristotle (384-322 BC).
The state of affairs in our dear country, Nigeria, as at now, is simply bothersome. When an Ijebu man is finding it difficult to afford garri, which he wants to soak in water and gulp down with either a piece of meat, a cutlet of fish or a handful of groundnuts, then there is a hell of a lot of things to worry about. Two weeks ago, I was at home, in Ijebu-Ode for the burial of an in-law. Returning after the affair, I detoured to the popular Oke-Aje Market, near the Moslem Praying Ground to buy garri, which I really can’t do without.
By Adekunle Adekoya
“Politics is the only profession where you can lie, cheat, and steal, and still be respected.” — Mark Twain (1835-1910)
Today, I am helplessly wallowing in self-pity and pity for my fellow compatriots as I ponder the state of affairs in our dear country. We don’t have another country, do we? Why are our politicians hell-bent on destroying this country as they pursue self-interest instead of the common good?
By Adekunle Adekoya
“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” — Helen Keller (1880-1968)
As I write this, we were in the evening of the first day of protests tagged #EndBadGovernance, organised by several civil society organisations in reaction to the worsening economic situation in the country. The protests were to last from August 1 till the 10th. In the seven or eight days preceding D-Day, organisers of the protests were brought under immense pressure to abort the action, with every appointee of government at both state and federal levels issuing statements on why the protests are needless.
By Adekunle Adekoya
The downpour of last Wednesday, which left many parts of the country flooded, and the attendant tragedies, is still talk of the town. It is an annual ritual from which we have learnt nothing, and forgotten nothing. The octopoidal Federal Government, whose officials these days, talk more about everything but do little about anything said 21 local government areas in 10 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, are submerged.
Videos and pictures of flooded areas, particularly in Lagos trended heavily in the social media. It was pathetic seeing buildings and roads in parts of Lagos like Lekki, Ikeja, Agege, Gbagada and others completely submerged. And the rains have just begun, it being early July. The trending images triggered commentaries which ignited verbal exchanges.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Earlier in the week, there were reports of massive protests in Kenya, an East African country. The protests were actually not new, having begun in 2023, in reaction to bids by the government of Kenya to raise taxes. According to the 24-hour English news channel, Al Jazeera, the protests signify a major shift in Kenya, where, previously, most people accepted the inadequacies of government.
By Adekunle Adekoya
When we move forward by a mile, it seems we always do something that will make us take backward steps for 10 miles. And so, it was alarming and distressing to read reports of cholera outbreak in our country again, especially in Lagos, our most sophisticated showpiece of urbanisation. Many have died, and more are hospitalised as a result. I thought we’d heard the last about cholera; I remember the epidemic that raged in our country in the early ‘70s.
No less than six people fell to the cholera epidemic in my little village of Gbawojo, nestled in the forested plains of Ijebu North-East Local Government Area of Ogun State. It was 1971 and I was in primary school in Sagamu, at Wesley School, Oko1. From our school gate we could have glimpses of the courtyard of the Akarigbo’s palace. The Akarigbo of Remoland then was the late Oba Moses Awolesi, Erinwole II.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Time flies. Does time really fly? Whichever, next Wednesday will mark the first anniversary of the Tinubu presidency. May 29, 2023, was a day many Nigerians will not forget in a hurry. It was on that day that flimsy fabrics holding economic strands together was brutally rent asunder by a proclamation that we are all now familiar with: removal of subsidy on petrol. Up till the moment Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was reading his inaugural address to the nation, petrol sold for N187 per litre.
Before he finished reading the address, many petrol marketers shut their stations, and queues began growing at filling stations. By the following day, May 30, reality dawned on Nigerians as they awoke to the reality of higher prices of petrol. The increase was threefold; a litre of petrol was selling for N568, and that was the cheapest, available only at NNPC Retail stations. Other marketers, major or minor sold for prices anywhere between N700 and N650 in the Lagos and Abuja areas.
By Adekunle Adekoya
Penultimate Wednesday, the Lagos State Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, on Wednesday, said the state government he works for has discovered dwellings under the Dolphin Estate Bridge, Ikoyi, where tenants pay N250,000 annual rent.
According to the commissioner, the under-bridge
dwellings, which he called apartments in his post on the matter on his X
(former Twitter) handle, had 86 partitioned rooms, sized “10×10 and 12×10”.
He added that the enforcement team of Lagos State’s Ministry of Environment and Water Resources had successfully removed all structures, including a container utilised for various illegal activities, from beneath the Dolphin Estate Bridge.
By Adekunle Adekoya
As a people, we ought to be ashamed of ourselves when it comes to electricity. Since 1972 when the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria, ECN, was merged with the Niger Dams Authority to create the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, millions of Nigerians have been born and have died with their dreams of living in a country with reliable power supply unrealised.
By Adekunle Adekoya
It is no longer news that electricity tariff has been hiked, ostensibly for users in what many now know as Band A areas, though in reality the tariff was hiked across all bands. I can support this assertion with readings from the bill sent to me by Ikeja DISCO, or IKEDC. I live in a part of Lagos classified to be under Band E. That is Egan, Igando in the Ikotun-Igando LCDA area. That is part of the larger old Alimosho Local Government.
In our area, we have remained on estimated billing to date; very few houses have pre-paid metres installed. We actually are not sure which band we are in, the bill sometimes read Band D or Band E. I will explain shortly. Prior to the tariff hike announcement, my bill for January 2024, sent by SMS, stated that the tariff is E-Non MD, with current charges of N1,679.15.
