Nigeria: A Government Of Sadists!

By Femi Fani-Kayode

On the night of 12th December 2015 in the city of Zaria, Kaduna state, Sheik El Zakzaky, the leader of the 10 million-strong Shia muslim community in Nigeria, was shot, brutalized and dumped in a wheelbarrow. He barely escaped with his life but sadly, according to Iranian government sources and the New York Times, his wife, two of his sons and no less than one thousand of his shia muslim followers were not so lucky.

*Femi-Fani-Kayode 

They were massacred in the sanctity of their homes that night by members of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Up until the time that I am writing this essay not one word of regret or remorse has been expressed by President Muhammadu Buhari, the Nigerian Armed Forces or the Federal Government about the whole incident.

That alone speaks volumes but what is more important to note is the fact that this is one of the most brutal and callous events in the history of our country. It was premeditated, well-planned, well-orchestrated and well-executed. Homes were bombed and burnt to the ground and innocent and defenseless men, women and children were slaughtered in an unrelenting frenzy of violence.

 After the carnage the bodies of the victims were left in the compound of the houses and in the streets and gutters for carrion birds to feed on and for street urchins and petty thieves to rob. This was indeed a sordid and shameful chapter: it was not only mass murder but it was also a crime against humanity. Those that were murdered were targeted simply because they were Shia Muslims and simply because, earlier in the day, some of them had mounted a road block which obstructed the convoy of the General Burutai, the Chief of Army Staff.

It is very clear that by this act alone the Chief of Army Staff, under whose orders these men were acting, President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces, and every single officer and soldier that took part in the massacre are guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and are therefore candidates for the International Criminal Court at the Hague. Our leaders must be accountable and it is my fervent prayer and desire that the whole matter ends up there and that both Buhari and Burutai are called to justice.

Who Really Wants Biafra?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi
In one of his recent articles, my brother and colleague, Oguwike Nwachuku, posited that based on the rabid anti-Igbo sentiment that seems to have become the all-consuming pastime of some Nigerians, there may well be a school where they are thought how to hate the Igbo.

Oguwike wrote in the wake of the Eze Ndigbo controversy in Akure, Ondo State and the resort to ethnic profiling by some Afenifere chieftains who derogatorily labelled Ndigbo “migrants” in their own country, even as they insist that the idea of one, indivisible, indissoluble Nigeria is non-negotiable.

In the last four weeks since some members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) mobilised supporters to take to the streets, I have come to feel the intensity of the hatred against Ndigbo.

Given the opportunity, some people would not bat an eyelid in chasing the Igbo into the Atlantic Ocean as they wished before the April elections.

But just as I noted in my reaction to the Eze Ndigbo saga, those who call Ndigbo names and stoke the embers of morbid hatred against them across the land have not bothered to ask how many Igbo support the agitation for secession.

How many Igbo actually want another civil war? How many Igbo want to abandon their property again for those who were busy sleeping while they were sweating under the bridges, in the scorching sun to inherit?

The military, perhaps reading the now famous body language of the President and Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari, has warned pro-Biafra protesters to stop or face the consequences.

Why There Should Be No Tariff Increase In The Power Sector!

...NERC Should Make A Public Statement On Charging Methodology

By Idowu Oyebanjo

One of the main problems with the power sector reform in Nigeria is the absence of technocrats in the right positions. This will always lead to reversals and policy summersaults. When those with lack of knowledge of Power Systems speak, especially when the target audience resides predominantly in a country where there has not been electricity for so long, they tend to get away with it.

The problem is that such people constitute a laughing stock when similar comments are made before an international audience. Hear the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor: "For you to have good electricity, you need to pay a little more (to have better maybe)...".

I can guarantee that the National Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) does not know what it means to determine a cost reflective tariff because these are some of the fundamentals of power systems that only those who have studied power systems and have demonstrable experience or practice can handle. Fake consultants employed by NERC can't do it. The DISCOs or GENCOs advocating for these price increases have not done it either. Can we as public request that NERC publish the analysis used to determine the so called "cost reflective tariffs?"

The power sector needs Nigerians who studied Power Systems, and who work in economies where uninterrupted power supply is the norm, to mediate the correct transition to privatised electricity utility. Although I maintained this position 7 years ago, the position is still valid because you cannot apply the Quota System syndrome to the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. It will fail! There is need to start again or at best, re-jig the status quo of the reform in a way the losses to the nation can be minimised.

*Amadi, NERC Chairman 

Another example of putting the cart before the horse is the fact that the wheeling capacity of the transmission network is known to be lower or at least equal to the peak generation achieved recently in response to the "Buhari Body language" in August 2015. This simply means there is no improvement to power supply that can take place now even when tariffs are increased because the weakest link has not changed and will not change overnight. More than that, I warned the authorities against establishing the electricity market because the power system is not yet ready for it but they have gone ahead because some believe the laws of economics apply to the physics of electricity. 

Try as you may, you will always recourse to the recommendations made by power systems engineer who know their onions. They aren't many worldwide so not all consultants can be of help.  I think because Nigeria has been in darkness for so long, it is in a mysterious way reflective of the attitude of those in charge of the power sector reform. Can we say for the umpteenth time that the only way, and I mean the only way, to have stable electricity supply is to liaise with power system engineers of Nigerian origin with demonstrable experience of power system leading the course in some way?

All of these amount to one thing - Abusing the sensitivities of the already impoverished consumers is the way to loot more money from the federation especially when the government at the federal level has tightened loop holes using the TSA.

 *Idowu Oyebanjo, MNSE, CEng MIET, a Chartered Power System Engineer in the UK is a regular contributor to SCRUPLES