Power: Interrogating The Gaps In Fashola’s Roadmap

By Calixthus Okoruwa  

The minister with responsibility for Nigeria’s pivotal power sector, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has recently released what he calls “a roadmap for change” in the sector. It is commendable that his effort in this arena will be underscored by planning and more so that he has chosen to share this plan with the public. This conveys a sense of mission.

*Fashola 

Fashola’s roadmap is not different in any material way from the August 2010 “Roadmap for Power Sector Reform” the robust roadmap that was developed by the previous government. Incidentally, despite the lofty agenda of that apparently painstakingly-crafted plan, six years later, Nigeria still totters on circa 5000MW of power-generating and -transmission capacity respectively.

While such factors as corruption and insincerity of purpose can be listed among the causes of the failure of that otherwise meticulous plan, there is no doubt that hordes of genuine problems many of which hallmark the famed difficulty of doing business in Nigeria are also contributors. One of the most instructive but least recognised of these problems, in my view, has been citizen disinterest, arising from an inability or unwillingness of government to carry citizens along on its implementation journey. Not unexpectedly, therefore, initial public excitement soon gave way first to apathy and thereafter, sheer derision. If Fashola’s roadmap is not to go the way of its predecessor, it is pertinent that it is ardently confronted and interrogated by the average citizen.

 Even without expressly stating it, Fashola may have tactically reduced Nigeria’s power target over the next five years by half. While the original roadmap set a target of 40000MW by 2020, Fashola has cut this to 20000MW, stating that the Transmission Company of Nigeria, “TCN, has expressed a desire” to increase transmission in a stepwise manner from today’s 5000MW through to 20000MW over the next five years.

Ken Nnamani And Co’s Beggarly Villa Trip

By Ochereome Nnanna

I would not have commented on the recent appearance by a group of political adventurers in Aso Villa if not for the fact that they were described as “Igbo leaders” in some sections of the media. If they had simply gone as All Progressives Congress (APC) members from the South East visiting the President and leader of their party for whatever purposes, it would have passed as a non-event (though I have not seen APC leaders from other geopolitical zones going similarly cap-in-hand for special attention of President Muhammadu Buhari).

They called their gathering South East Group for Change (SEGC), probably a name they coined just for the Aso Rock trip, as nothing of such had been heard before now. Led by Mr. Ken Nnamani, a former Senate President, some of the known names included Mr. Osita Izunaso, a former one-term senator; Mr. Ernest Ndukwe, a two-term Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr. Chris Akomas, a former Deputy Governor of Abia State and Chief George Moghalu.

Apart from Moghalu, the rest were in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) when the going was good. They owed the high public offices attached to their names to the PDP, and now that the APC has become the new party with the “knife and yam”, they have trooped over there to reap where they did not sow. They are political opportunists, and it shocks many of Nnamani’s former admirers that he has degenerated to this level after once seeming a strong presidential possibility from Igboland.

Of this lot, only Moghalu is a genuine, thoroughbred APC leader. From 1999, Moghalu has been in the movement that eventually transmogrified into the APC – from the All People’s Party (APP) to the All Nigerian People’s Party (ANPP) to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to the APC. He is a true party man; a genuine politician who stuck with the former opposition party through sun, rain, storms and high winds until it finally became the ruling party.

Buhari told us that the reason he violated the constitutional principle of federal character in the appointment of his inner government, was that he distributed positions to those who toiled and suffered with him over the years as a reward for their loyalty. I wonder how Moghalu could not qualify for appointment since he had been one of Buhari’s faithful point men in the South East since 2003 when he first ran for president. He was in that movement long before Dr. Chris Ngige decamped from the PDP. Even though no communiqué or media statement was issued after that visit (Buhari, knowing them for the opportunists they were, probably had nothing tangible to tell them), I read a most annoying analysis credited to an unnamed member of the group.

Sexual Harassment ‎Bill: A Step In The Right Direction

By Cynthia Ferdinand

 The history of sexual harassment dates back to the pre-colonial era when women were accorded little or no rights whatsoever – they were often married out against their wish, sacrificed as virgins or married to deities where they became ready sexual preys to the chief priests or custodians of such deities.

(pix: nature)

While these repressive and degrading habits have abated following the introduction of Western education, it is unfortunate that the inhuman practice has not only crept into our citadels of learning but has continued to assume worrisome proportions to the consternation of parents and education authorities in the country alike. The effects of incessant sexual harassment of female students in higher institutions cannot be over-emphasized as it has continued to militate against the attainment of the educational vision and objectives of many a female folk in the country.

There have been overwhelming narratives on sexual harassment by victims such that researchers of international repute have described Nigerian tertiary institutions as sex colonies were rape and other forms of coerced copulation and sexual intimacy are practiced without sanctions. To many young Nigerians, especially female students in tertiary institutions, sexual harassment is something of a norm.

United Nations (UN) reports state that “one out of three women experience sexual harassment in their lifetime”. According to the European Union Commission recommendation: “There are also adverse consequences arising from sexual harassment for employers. In general terms, sexual harassment is an obstacle to the proper integration of women into the labour market.” It is further regrettable that over the years, aside provisions against rape and other untoward sexual behaviours in both the Criminal and Penal Codes, there have been no clear cut and effective legislation aimed at checkmating or eliminating this abhorrent practice from our institutions of higher learning.

 As a consequence, it is today difficult to explicitly articulate what constitutes sexual harassment and what sanctions there are to deter male predators. Another factor that has helped sustained this barbaric tendency, is the seeming societal indifference to the plight of victims due to discrepancies in views as to what actually constitute sexual harassment against the opposite sex.

Be that as it may, no matter the view we want to give to the menace of sexual harassment, its cumulative, demoralizing and harmful effect cannot be glossed over. It is unarguable that many academic careers of female students have been disrupted and frustrated and led inexorably to depression, ostracism, mental anguish and loss of self esteem on the part of victims of sexual harassment.

Nigeria: Change For The Worse, Litany Of Failures

By Fem Aribasala

When Buhari seized power, Nigeria’s GDP was $444. When he was overthrown in 1985, Nigeria’s GDP had dropped dramatically to $344. When Buhari seized power, one dollar exchanged for 0.724 naira. But by the time he was overthrown, one dollar exchanged for 0.894 naira; a 23% devaluation in barely two years. It was not surprising, therefore, that there was wild jubilation throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria when Buhari was overthrown.

*Buhari 

Litany Of Failure

History is now repeating itself in Nigeria. Since electing Buhari as president one year ago, Nigeria’s GDP has plummeted, with the economy suffering a negative growth in the first quarter of 2016; the worst in 25 years. Prices have skyrocketed. Investors have packed their bags and left Nigeria. Job losses and lay-offs have increased geometrically. Petrol stations have surreptitiously doubled their prices. Nigeria is now on the cusp of a recession.

Buhari was handed over $30 billion in foreign reserves by the Jonathan administration. He inherited over $2.5 billion in the Sovereign Wealth Fund; $1.4 billion in the ECA; and $4.65 billion in back taxes from NLNG. But virtually all of this has been squandered in one year of gross incompetence.

The president took the illegal and ill-advised step of providing N713 billion as bailout for insolvent state governments, without the approval of the national assembly, only to discover that those monies were squandered and not even used as intended to pay salary arrears. He squandered billions of dollars defending doggedly an unrealistic official value of the naira, only to finally admit defeat after the damage had been done.

Billions of dollars were mopped up by corrupt officials and shrewd middlemen who obtained dollars at the official N200 to $1 rate, only to sell this for huge profit at the N380 to $1 black market rate.

Babatunde Fashola boasted while in opposition that: “A serious government will fix the power problem in six months.” Now in office as Minister of Power for over six months, power blackouts have been unprecedented under his watch condemning the Buhari administration by his own words as a most unserious government.

Change For Worse

Goodluck Jonathan warned Nigerians about the bankruptcy of Buhari and the APC. His words have now become prophetic. He said in the heat of the 2015 election campaign: “The choice before Nigerians in the coming election is simple. It is a choice between going forward and backward, between the new ways and old ways, between freedom and repression, between a record of visible achievements and beneficial reforms and desperate power seekers with empty promises.”

After 365 days of a disastrous Buhari presidency, only diehard Buharimaniacs can deny that Jonathan’s warning has not come true. Propaganda has an expiration date, and it must now be abundantly clear that the expiration date for the hot air of Buhari’s government has long passed. Many of those like Dele Sobowale, Oby Ezekwesili and Wole Soyinka, who sang the praises of Buhari during the 2015 election, are already having a buyer’s remorse. Most Nigerians now realise they have been sold a fake bill of goods by Buhari and the APC.

Jonathan’s Bill Of Rights Or Failures?

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

It remains a puzzle of governance in Africa why those we entrust with leadership do not creditably acquit themselves like their counterparts in some nations of the world.  Before our politicians get power, we are enthralled by their resonant visions of an equitable society that would be an all-powerful response to the mockery that the black man would irremediably chafe under the affliction of  inept leadership. But once they are in office, they often fail to translate such grand dreams into reality.  After they leave office, they regain the trajectory of articulating how a great society should be run.

*Jonathan 

This is the problem of a nation whose leaders do not really prepare for leadership. They are imposed on the citizens by themselves, others or circumstances. It is only when they are thrown up by circumstances or other people or they bulldoze their way into power that they start to learn about what they should do while in office. Of course, this is in the rare case of when they learn at all. Most times, our leaders do not bother to learn about the real issues for which they are in office.

Rather, once they get to office, they become not only enamoured of it, they are pre-occupied with how to sustain themselves in their position to the detriment of good governance. This is when they think of the next election and how they would return to their offices.  It is when they would globe-trot, marry more wives and take more chieftaincy titles. It is because our leaders only remember the right things they should have done only after leaving office that the country would remain undeveloped or even retrogress.

But the real tragedy is that such leaders do not behave in a manner that shows that they regret frittering away some opportunities to do great things for their country. For instance, ever since former President Olusegun Obasanjo left office, he has been  behaving as though he were the only Nigerian alive who  could proffer solutions to the  seemingly intractable problems of the nation. It is in the same mould that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has caught the limelight by canvassing the restructuring of the country as the solution to its myriad of problems. If they had used the opportunities they had to do what they are talking about now, they would not need to push them into public consciousness now.

Ever since he left office, former President Goodluck Jonathan has been silent. Even when it seemed he would react to the persistent  insinuations of his complicity in the corruption charges hanging over many of his aides, he has avoided being embroiled in them. But he broke his silence on Monday when he spoke in London. Indeed, Jonathan’s speech brims with stellar ideas about how to run a society that is underpinned by a clearly defined bill of rights. Jonathan wants such a bill of rights to be similar to the British Magna Carta established some 800 years ago, and  the one introduced by America’s Founding Fathers.

Buhari’s Medical Trip, A Blot On Nigeria’s Image

By Osahon Enabulele

I heard with shock and disappointment the statement issued on Sunday, June 5, 2016, by the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to Mr. President, informing the general public that President Muhammadu Buhari will proceed on a 10-day medical vacation to London from Monday, June 6, 2016, during which period he is billed to see an E.N.T. specialist for a persistent ear infection, based on a recommendation for further evaluation said to have been advanced by Mr. President’s Personal Physician and an E.N.T. specialist in Abuja.

Even though the nature of the persistent ear infection/specific diagnosis was not stated in the Special Adviser’s press release, I wish to commend Mr. President for the medical disclosure (a departure from the past) and sincerely sympathise with him, especially at this critical stage of our country’s history and development, and wish him quick recovery.

However, I am very constrained to state that this foreign medical trip flies in the face of the Federal Government’s earlier declaration of her resolve to halt the embarrassing phenomenon of outward medical tourism, which as at the end of the year 2013 had led to a humongous capital flight of about $1billion dollars, particularly from expenses incurred by political and public office holders (and their accompanying aides), whose foreign medical trips (most of which are unnecessary) were financed with tax payers’ resources.

 At various times, one had advised Mr. President to make a clear public pronouncement on his resolve to show leadership by example with respect to the utilisation of the medical expertise and facilities that abound in Nigeria by him and other members of the Federal Executive Council, particularly in concrete expression of Section 46 of the National Health Act which seeks to address the abuse of tax payers’ resources through frivolous foreign medical travels embarked upon by political and public office holders.

Undoubtedly, this latest move by Mr. President at a time the Federal Government is said to be on a change mission and rebirth of national consciousness and commitment through a backward integration agenda, Mr. President has lost a golden opportunity to assert his change mantra through a clear demonstration of leadership by example, by staying back to receive medical treatment in Nigeria and thereby inspiring confidence in Nigeria’s health sector which currently boasts of medical experts that favourably compare with medical experts anywhere in the world, if not even better.

APC Regime: One Year Of Extreme Pain In Nigeria

By Adeola Aderounmu

One year after the official emergence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) mandate, the most unexpected scenarios are here. The current situation in Nigeria today was unimaginable 12 months ago when the expectations and stakes were raised through the emergence of the APC mandate.

*Tinubu and Buhari 

Even my invented slogan that the 1999-2015 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) years were the worst years of the Nigerian life had been beaten flat. What Nigerians have experienced in 2016 alone is by all measure the worst year of the Nigerian life.

What led to these unexpected new lows of general sufferings is arguable. But the degradation of human life, extremely high cost of living and endless surges of joy-killers like the fuel-related problems are both sad and regrettable.

My opinion is that if there had been adequate proactive-ness, Nigerians would not be suffering more today than they already did under the wasteful 16 years of PDP. The APC-Buhari mandate was ill-equipped for the year that went by. Therefore the mandate becomes a questionable one, I’m afraid.

My opinion is premised upon the fact that the APC-mandate and the rest of us had a clear understanding of what the challenges ahead were. We knew that Nigeria was in bad shape. Our collective expectation was that things should not get worse because they were already bad.

The APC-mandate failed to curb a bad situation. So it grew worse and it’s still going down the road to perdition in so many uncountable ways.

What enlightened and knowledgeable Nigerians must do now is to see the current situation in Nigeria as an opportunity to access the country right from 1960 to date. Why Nigeria got into the mess it is now is no longer rocket science.

Primarily, the country was misruled by almost all the regimes that have held sway at one time or the other after independence in 1960. As if the colonial drainage was not enough albeit side-a-side remarkable infrastructure development, the indigenes of Nigeria chose to simply loot the country to dryness.

As you read, Nigeria is being looted by some elements either directly by their positions in government or indirectly by the failure of the system to curb external appendages of looting.

The crime of looting is so grave that the recovered cash that was revealed recently by the APC government is a tip of the iceberg of what actually disappeared under both the APC- and the PDP-states in the last 17 years.

Politicians on both fronts practically emptied the states treasuries daily. At the parasitic center, the Jonathan-led central PDP government wasted and looted Nigeria’s monies in no manner that were different from his predecessors both civilians and military.

Everything that has a beginning will have an end. When the APC-Buhari mandate is over (because it will be), we will surely be informed of how much went down the drain daily. That, and what went down in the APC terrains whilst PDP held swayed are top secret today. We are looking the other way because the bulk of the latter brought Mr. Buhari to power.

In Nigeria, anybody who is elected or selected as the president can play god. It’s all thanks to the system. But I love the concept of time and truth. They outlive everyone and everything.

APC And Restructuring: Wither Oyegun

By Charles Nwaneri

Many Nigerians, concerned about the slow progress of the nation since independence in 1960, and desirous of giving the country a new lease of life via restructuring the federation by devolving more powers and responsibilities to the constituent parts have at various times and for long, called for the restructuring of the country.

*Tinubu, Buhari and Oyegun 

By restructuring, these concerned Nigerians want a situation whereby more freedom is allowed the constituents to be in charge of their affairs while the central government retains control of only those areas of national affairs where sovereignty confers superiority and exclusive jurisdiction on the Central government. In a restructured system, the constituent units would have more control over their local resources and endowments and exploit these for their benefit, paying only royalty and taxes to the central authority. This means that in such a federation, unlike what we have now, states or federating units would be less dependent on the central authority for revenue and their pace of development.

With less revenue and authority, the attraction of the center would be reduced while the economic and development action will be more at the constituent levels thus reducing competition for power and control at the center.

Something close to a weak center obtained in the 1960’s when Nigeria operated the Parliamentary system of government, anchored on the regions with latter being the constituent parts of the then Federation. The then powerful regions dictated and decided the pace of politics and economic development. In fact, at that time, the regions were engaged in healthy rivalry for development as none depended on the central government for funding rather each paid taxes to the center when they export their agricultural products which was the mainstay of the nation’s economy. However, while there are many voices clamouring for restructuring, there is no consensus as to the degree; time or even in what sectors of national life these important changes should take place, though the sector of State Police has dominated national discourse for some time.

Since the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar renewed his clarion call for the restructuring of the country, at a book launch last week in Abuja, a Pandora box of sorts have been opened among Nigerians.

Goodluck Jonathan, Enough!

By Kennedy Emetulu

Okay, I strongly supported President Goodluck Jonathan in the last election, even though I’m not a PDP member, and I have condemned and continue to condemn the present attempt to vilify him or make him a scapegoat for the supposed failure of his administration. I do admit he has a lot to be blamed for, but I just don’t think the present occupiers of Aso Rock should use him as an excuse for their own scandalous failures still dangerously unfolding. I believe Jonathan, like other previous heads of state and presidents, has done his bit while in office and must be allowed to go anywhere he wants freely and contributes to national development and discourse as he deems fit.

*Goodluck Jonathan 

I have watched him traverse the world since he left office, and I was convinced that he was doing this to garner support for his newly-established Goodluck Jonathan Foundation. I have also accepted the fact that he was being welcomed, hosted and given all manner of awards here and there abroad as a natural result of the commendable thing he did by handing over power the manner he did after the election of last year. Now, here is my problem: How long is he going to be globetrotting for? How can he be globetrotting now even more than he did while in office? What exactly is the purpose of all this? Apart from the work he did on behalf of the Commonwealth in Tanzania, I haven’t seen much of a benefit Goodluck Jonathan has brought to Nigeria or Africa with all these travels all over meeting with nondescript people here and there.

When I saw him return to Nigeria recently after the falsehood that he was seeking exile abroad, I was happy. But just as we were welcoming him home, he was out again and now is in London! I have just read the speech he delivered there, and I’m wondering what that is all about. 

Who doubted his Nigerianness? Of what value is that Bloomberg appearance or that speech? Of what value is a speech that’s just a list of what he achieved while in government? How is that useful for where we are now as a nation?

Now That Atiku Has Spoken

By Abraham Ogbodo

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the one better known as Turaki Adamawa has spoken. It is not as if he had been struck dumb by a strange spirit, or something close to such and there had been protracted efforts to recover his speech and good result only came last Tuesday when he spoke at a book launch in Lagos.

In fact, the man has been talking since the beginning of this democracy on May 29, 1999. It is just that he has been saying other things that do not command hot attention. Things like how his love for the new found democracy in Nigeria pushed him and others to stop former President Olusegun Obasanjo from evolving into a life president as Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

He has also been talking on his unequalled leadership prowess, and how such had put him in a better stead to occupy Aso Rock Villa in 2007, instead of late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua; in 2011, instead of Goodluck Jonathan, and even in 2015, instead of the incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari. It was while waiting till 2019 to represent the same matter that the Turaki, launched more forcefully into the subject matter of Restructuring Nigeria.

He got the right attention for the first time since 2007. Essentially, he said this Nigeria that Nigerians love so much would vanish, leaving everybody fantastically short-changed if we continued in our ways. His words: “our current structure and the practices it has encouraged have been a major impediment to the economic and political development of our country. In short, it has not served Nigeria well, and at THE RISK OF REPROACH (emphasis mine) it has not served my part of the country, the North well. The call for restructuring is even more relevant today in light of the governance and economic challenges facing us. And the rising tide of agitations, some militant and violent, require a reset in our relationships as a united nation.”

Atiku said much more in his about 2000-word message. The choice of that quote is actually to underscore the inherent hesitation in his speech. He came close to confessing that he was being compelled (apparently by forces beyond his control) to say something he shouldn’t say as a Fulani man from Northern Nigeria. In all, ‘Restructuring of Nigeria’ is not among the high topics taught at all levels of intellectual engagement up North. And if it is ever discussed, it is to explain that restructuring of Nigeria into anything other than what obtains currently, is a sin against the North and Islam.

This is why Atiku, in all sincerity, shall need some support from his northern constituency to be able to stand by his big message, come rain or shine. If he remains a lone voice in this wilderness of political restructuring, his people may think he is ‘possessed by demons.’ Although Alhaji Babarabe Musa and even Dr. Junaid Mohammed have said something, voices with higher pitch are required to make the Atiku’s message get close to a reflection of Northern thinking in the light of current national challenges.

Ending AIDS By 2030

By Michel Sidibé and Isaac Adewole  

The AIDS epidemic has defined the global health agenda for an entire generation. The first AIDS-related deaths were diagnosed 35 years ago and HIV rapidly became a global crisis. The epidemic threatened all countries and had the power to destabilise the most vulnerable. By 2000, AIDS had wiped out decades of development gains.

Today, many nations have taken great steps in getting ahead of the virus. Nigeria, for example, has reduced the number of new HIV infections from 240, 000 in year 2010 to 190,000 in 2015. Estimated AIDS related deaths in the country declined from 160,000 in 2010 to 148,000 in 2015 while new infections among children declined by 20% between 2010 and 2015. HIV prevalence among pregnant women also has declined by 48.3% from 2001 to 2014.

Life expectancy has risen in many of the most severely affected countries in sub-Saharan Africa as access to antiretroviral medicines has expanded and testing and prevention services have been scaled up. Worldwide, there are now more than 17 million people living with HIV accessing antiretroviral medicines.

  But as world leaders grapple with a growing number of global concerns and threats, including terrorism, massive displacement, climate change and an uncertain economic outlook – it would be a misstep to let up on the response to AIDS. Here are three reasons why AIDS deserves continued attention:

1.    To restore dignity, health and hope to the people left behind in the AIDS response;
2.    To build robust and resilient societies ready to face future health crises ; and
3.    To serve as a beacon for what can be achieved through international solidarity and political will
Our generation has been presented with an opportunity that must not be thrown away. We have the technology, medicines and tools to end the AIDS epidemic by 2030, avoiding more than 17 million new HIV infections and saving almost 11 million lives.

Dora Akunyili – An Exceptional Leader Worth Remembering

By The Association for Credible Leadership in Nigeria (ACLN)

The saying: “Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader; they only set out to make a difference”, is apt in describing only few Nigerians likelate Dora Nkem Akuyili (OFR), former Director General of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

*Dora Akunyili

It is another June 7th marking the second year of your glorious departure from planet earth, thus the Association of Credible Leadership in Nigeria (ACLN) acknowledges her struggles and numerous achievements targeted at repositioning Nigeria. Born in Makurdi, Benue State, Akuyili started her educational career with a distinction in her First School Leaving Certificate at St. Patrick’s Primary School, Isuofia, Anambra State in 1966, and the West African School Certificate (WASC) with Grade I Distinction in 1973 from Queen of the Rosary Secondary School, Nsukka, Nigeria.

All through her career from school days up till the professional level, there have been traces of exceptional leadership characters, many of which were eventually seen by a larger population of Nigerians when she became the DG of NAFDAC in April 2001. For Dora Akuyili, everything she found herself doing was more than the ROLE, but about the GOAL to achieve.

She was Nigeria’s Honourable Minister of Information and Communications until December 16, 2010, when she resigned to further actualise her ambition of becoming the Senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly. She is an internationally renowned Pharmacist, Pharmacologist, Erudite Scholar, Seasoned Administrator, and a visionary leader. She has gained international recognition and won hundreds of awards for her work in pharmacology, public health and human rights.

That being said, one would have thought her brilliance and impressive leadership lifestyle would flicker with the pressure from workplace. Instead, Akunyili prepared herself for the administrative position at NAFDAC by her four years stretch as Zonal Secretary of Petroleum Special Trust Fund (PTF), coordinating all projects in the five south-eastern states of Nigeria (Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States). Recall that while serving at PTF under President Muhammadu Buhari, she took ill and was given a scary diagnosis in a medical facility in Nigeria which necessitated her going to the United Kingdom for treatment.

For Peace In South-East, South-South

By Wale Sokunbi

Nigeria has, for some weeks now, been reeling under protests by Niger Delta militants and pro-Biafra groups demanding self-determination and a number of other things from the Federal Government. Hardly any day has passed in recent weeks without gory reports on the bombings of oil pipelines, destruction of other critical oil facilities and killings of protesters, that are capable of distracting the government from the very serious challenges confronting the nation.

(*pix: vanguard)

With the incessant protests and destruction of oil facilities, the impression that is being created is that some of our compatriots are tired of the continuing existence of Nigeria as one country and would prefer to opt out of the Nigerian arrangement. The response of the security agencies to this unfortunate scenario is only succeeding in further hardening the agitators. Scores of protesters were reportedly killed by soldiers in Onitsha, Anambra State, during the celebration of the 49th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of Biafra by the late Chief Odumegwu Ojukwu, on May 30, while the military also laid siege to the Gbaramatu hometown of one of the leading Niger Delta militants. The government’s response to this situation has not stopped the Niger Delta militants from continuing with their bombing campaigns and threatening the Federal Government and the entire country.

Whatever the problem is, one thing that is clear is that the best way for the militants to achieve their objectives is not by destroying whatever is left of the country. They will do much better to channel their grievances against the state through their recognised leaders and National Assembly members to the appropriate quarters so that they can be addressed and resolved.  The problems that are currently blowing against the soul of Nigeria are such that can topple the nation’s ship of state, if not immediately and properly addressed.  As things stand, the nation’s economy is walking a tightrope on account of the fall in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The delay in the passage of the 2016 Budget has thrown the economy into a bind. Power supply is getting more epileptic, while inflation has gone through the roof. The pump price of petrol has almost doubled.

Scarcity Of Truth, Fatal In Governance

By Sly Edaghese  

It is fatal in governance when the citizens begin to perceive or see their President as lying through his teeth. The earlier President Muhammadu Buhari knows this the better for him. It is increasingly becoming the hallmark of the President and his administration to say one thing today and the next day you hear them reversing it or even denying it. This is referred to as a flip-flop. Flip flop is very harmful in politics, especially when it becomes pervasive, as we are seeing it happening in this administration. It started with the padding of the budget the President passed on to the National Assembly for debate.

*President Buhari and Lai Mohammed 

The document was inflated and stuffed with all sorts of unimaginable provisions by some unknown elements. As the President was saying that the budget proposal he sent to the National Assembly had been tampered with or padded with sand, so to say, the Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed, who seems unable to differentiate his propaganda work as APC National Publicity Secretary from his present portfolio as Nigeria’s Minister of Information, was saying another thing, that the budget remained as it’s submitted; that no one padded it. Later the budget was declared missing from the National Assembly. Who took away the budget, no one knew. Again, before you knew it, we heard the budget was not missing!

Then most recently, Buhari set a date, May 29, the Democracy Day, that he would be publishing the names of those who had looted the nation dry along with the amount of what each of them looted and what have so far been recovered from them. The day came and nothing of such or near to that was heard from the President in his national broadcast! Rather, as it were, the president developed cold feet and began to speak to the nation in “tongues”. Not a single name of looter was disclosed nor the amount of what was looted or recovered. It was only just two or three days ago the government published some amounts it claimed to have recovered from the looters, without stating the names of such looters. Yet another display of a master class in lying was when the President gave a notice the other day, first, that he was coming to visit Lagos State. Lagos made elaborate preparations to receive Mr. President.

At the eleventh hour, a change was made, the President would be represented by his deputy, because of his “tight schedule.” An online social media disclosed that the President not coming personally to visit Lagos was due to his ill-health: an ear tumour or so.  The presidency rose stoutly, as if the President was a superhuman who could not be touched by infirmity, to fault the claim of the online social media. To prove that the president was sound and healthy, they began to show him on TV the next day or so welcoming a visiting governor to his office. Next was the President’s planned visit to Port Harcourt.

Dora Nkem Akunyili: A Tribute

By Francis Agbo

Exactly two years ago, precisely on June 7th 2014, a day after my birthday, in far- away India, the cold hands of cancer snatched my second mother, former NAFDAC DG and Minister of Information and Communications, Professor Dora Nkem Akunyili, OFR.  She was 59. For me, she was a mother of the motherless, activist in government, a courageous turn-around expert, uncommon anti -fake drug czar, anti-corruption crusader, a disciplinarian, a compassionate public servant and a devout Christian of catholic faith!

*Dora Akunyili

Going by what I know about her medical history, particularly her proactive regular medical check- ups abroad, it was difficult for me to accept her passing.  Even after I had joined her husband, siblings, and her former governor, Mr. Peter Obi, to deposit her remains at the National Hospital mortuary, Abuja, it was difficult to grapple with the irredeemable reality of her death. I continued to wallow in this state of disbelief even after she was laid to rest on August 28, 2014 in her Agulu country home, (Anambra State). 

I waited in vain for a miracle.  I had thought that one day, I would see her. Two years down the line, when her early morning calls ceased coming, I accepted the reality of her death. Indeed, I now know I can only see Dora in the hereafter because there is life after death! I joined Dora on the 6th of January 2009 as one of her media aides. Before I got to her office on the eight floor of Radio House, Garki, Abuja, she was already on her table treating files and dishing out instructions to staff of the Federal Ministry of Information and Communications.

I had thought that she would be struggling to fully settle down to work having been sworn in as minister in December 2008. But I saw a confident and passionate woman who took charge of her responsibility as if she had held the portfolio for years!  She had commissioned a media guru and a well-respected editor to hunt for a Special Assistant that would manage her image. Though I had been interviewed and selected for the job by the consultant and my CV sent to her, Dora still went ahead to interview me.

She then congratulated me after our interaction and allotted an office to me that same day. I was lodged in Chida International hotel, Utako until I was given a place in Wuse 2 both in Abuja. One thing that struck me on the 6th of January was that apart from me, many journalists were recommended by her kinsmen and friends in the media industry to work with her even for free. And those who couldn’t pass the Dora test left unhappy because many professionals especially journalists wanted to manage Prof. Akunyili to among other things, tap from her media savvy and fountain of knowledge.

She was very close to her aides and staff of the ministry; she even called us by our first names. She called me Francis my son. In spite of her busy schedules, she kept tab with our birthdays and congratulated us on our birthdays, in some cases, bought gifts for us. It was also on record that as minister, she personally wrote letters to senior journalists and correspondents covering the ministry on their birthdays. The letters were also followed by birthday gifts. This superb public relations sense, passion for Nigeria, uncommon courage, brilliance, industry, syllogism and patriotism endeared her to Nigerians and made her the reporters delight any day.

Power Generation As The Investors’ Nightmare

By Adeyinka Giwa

The four-unit Gas powered Electricity generating Egbin Power Plant in June 2012 was in a state of disrepair and neglect, and lacking in overhaul maintenance for decades. The plant managed to epileptically produce a paltry 400 Megawatts of its installed capacity of 1,320 Megawatts, at its best performance. Fast forward to May 2016. The units in the new vibrant Egbin Power Plant are overhauled and upgraded producing, when gas is sufficiently available, at its full production capacity of 1,320 Megawatts. The workers appear ready to drive this project to the next level: The investor’s plan to double the plant’s production in the first five years of taking over.

Since November 2013 when Sahara Power, a subsidiary of Sahara Group bought 70 per cent stake in Egbin Thermal power plant, the vast complex has come back to life and the plant, after a comprehensive overhaul which cost the new investors some $388 million, has resumed production, at full capacity barring no disruption to gas supply.

With the 1, 320 MW of electricity, Egbin currently produces one quarter of Nigeria’s total power capacity. Today, new facilities and structures have been put in place by Sahara Power, in collaboration with their technical partners, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO). Egbin now boasts of skilled manpower, world class professionals and in general, a well-motivated workforce. That is why Kola Adesina, chairman, Egbin Power Plc. can beat his chest and assert that “since we acquired the assets, our passion has been to embark on constant upgrades in technology and investment in human capital to ensure we light up Nigeria.”

But beneath the giant strides so far achieved by the Egbin Power Station, lies a huge challenge. The power station currently suffers shortage of natural gas. The situation is worsened by renewed militancy in the creeks of the Niger Delta region, where oil and gas pipelines are being blown up on regular basis. This is a more compelling reason why the Federal Government must get its acts right in ensuring that peace returns to the region.

The company is at present grappling with economic woes occasioned by difficulties in accessing foreign exchange. At the time of the acquisition of the assets by the new investors, the exchange rate was N198 to the dollar. Having raised capital from banks, the investors are now faced with the harsh reality of paying back in time of economic down turn. Indeed, as a result of the harsh economic situation, liquidity problem has also set in, making it increasingly difficult for the company to finance its capital intensive operations.