The Nigerian House Of Darkness
By Reuben Abati
INCESSANT and inadequate power supply is a major bane of the development process in Nigeria. Its effect can be seen in the frustrations that have been expressed by the manufacturing sector and the citation of the country's power and energy crisis as one of the factors responsible for the flight of some companies from Nigeria (Dunlop, Michelin), away to more conducive neighbouring countries (Ghana, Republic of Benin), and also the low capacity utilisation in that sector. With companies having to rely on the use of diesel and petrol-guzzling generating sets, usually for 24 hours non-stop, and almost for the entire year, the cost of production is driven up to unsustainable levels. Worse is the effect on social life and national security: the average Nigerian is accustomed to darkness and the generating set, so many lives have been lost to generator-related acccidents, the entire economy is powered by generator noise and fumes, creating a helpless environmental crisis. Under the cover of darkness, sundry criminal activities are carried out. Doing business in Nigeria, any business at all, including artisanal engagements requiring the use of electricity is difficult and expensive. These are the facts.
But nothing rankles and inflicts despair more than the spirit-downing disclosure, this week, by Nigeria's Minister of Power, Dr Remi Babalola, that it is no longer possible for the Federal Government to fulfil its promise of delivering a minimum of 6, 000 megawatts of electricity by December this year. The intial projection was that this will rise to 10, 000 megawatts by December 2010. The promise was made by President Yar'ēdua himself earlier in the year, and he was most emphatic, even in the face of criticisms that the promise was obviously not based on any rigorous assessment of deliverables and non-deliverables or benchmarks, since 6,000 megawatts would not descend from nowhere as an act of God, and that the announcement of 6,000 megawatts was at best representative of government's disrepect for statistics.
In April when The Guardian newspaper interviewed the President, one of his major statements was that he would do anything that is possible, including a declaration of a state of emergency to ensure that the target of 6, 000 megawatts is met. The President sounded as if he knew what he was saying. He had before then set up at least two panels to look into the power sector. He had promised to declare a state of emergency. There had been probes of the power projects under Obasanjo, and EFCC interrogation of many officials. Finding a solution to the country's energy crisis is also part of the seven-point agenda.
When a President makes a promise, it should be possible to have faith and confidence in his promise. What the Minister of Power has just told Nigerians is that the President's promise was a lie. But we are confronted with something much worse: too many government officials from the President to the lowest-ranking officer with access to a microphone have since cultivated the habit of speaking for the mere sake of saying something. How did President Yar'ēdua arrive at 6, 000 mega watts? When is he going to declare the long-awaited state of emergency in the power sector? And how original would that be considering that Nigeria is already in a state of emergency of sorts? What are we dealing with? Nigerian leaders present sudden brain waves as state policy, no careful thinking through, no proper look at the records is attempted. They just talk and make promises. It is a loud confirmation of the crisis of human capacity at the highest levels.
The Minister of Power was briefing the House of Representatives Committee on Power on the state of affairs in the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and the power stations. He told the lawmakers that with the rate of pipeline vandalism, "t may be pretty difficult to achieve" the target of 6, 000 megawatts. This certainly is not an original excuse. Pipeline vandalism predated the Yar'ēdua administration. It predated all the promises made by President Yar'Adua in his seven-point agenda and at other fora. We have been told again and again that the problem with power supply is to be traced to the saboteurs in the power sector. It is not government's duty to give excuses for non-performance. The primary task of government is to solve problems. President Yar'ēdua was aware of the challenge of pipeline vandalism across the country when he promised to deliver regular electricity by December, 2009. So what has he done about it? What efforts is he making to protect gas pipelines, most of which are not even in the Niger Delta? The announcement of a 6, 000 megawatts target should have been preceded by a strategy for securing the gas pipelines.
Babalola's second excuse: there is a shortage of gas in all the power stations, but he proposes the use of Low Poor Fuel Oil (LPFO) as alternative to gas. He tells us: "Nigerians are undermining the PHCN's efforts towards realising the 6000 megawatts, it is just a target. In Adamawa and Gombe states, the rate of vandalisation of gas pipelines is alarming. This has eroded the supply of gas to many power stations and it is beyond our control. There is the need to go back to the drawing board and review what we need to do to generate the required power needed." The drawing board? I see. Two years ago, President Yar'ēdua told us that all the available gas had been committed for sale by the previous administration, and that there was no enough gas to run the power stations. Now, Babalola says the problem is that of gas pipeline vandalism. Their confusion certainly calls for a return to the drawing table. They may also need the negotiating table and probably consider declaring amnesty for all gas pipeline vandals (?). It is infuriating that gas is such a huge problem in a country that holds the record for gas flaring in the world. Much of the gas in this country is wasted.
Running pipelines from the Niger Delta to power plants in Papalanto, Greregu, Alaoji and Omotosho, for the purpose of power generation, thousands of miles away increases risk, why not generate the power at source, turn the gas that is flared into sources of power, and distribute to the rest of the country? Definitely, a re-thinking of the power sector is required, and the present situation is unacceptable.
Arriving Lagos at night on any day, by air, the traveller is confronted with the nightmare of the inadequacy of power supply in Nigeria. What you see below is a city in darkness. Nigeria's commercial nerve centre and industrial city runs on the power of generators. Where I live in the city, we have not had power supply for up to 24 hours since January when you add up all the units on the pay-as-you-go meter. In other places, people who are using the old meter still have PHCN officials knocking on their doors to demand payment for services not rendered. It used to be the case that Nigerians experienced better power supply during the rainy season, but it has been raining heavily and yet the hydro plant at Kainji is of no use. The promise of 6, 000 mega watts was meant to address the people's anguish and give them something to hope for. The Minister of Power has dashed our hopes and we who live in darkness, whose refrigerators have become antiques, whose houses are littered with different generating sets, imported from China, Japan, and Korea, whose days are incomplete without a trip to the fuel station to buy petrol and diesel in jerry cans should be sad.
Living in this country is a continuing test of human endurance. The unending darkness returns us effectively to the stone age. Realising just how important electricity is in a post-modern age that is powered by automated technology and ICT, and how the quality of life is increasingly technology-determined, successive Nigerian governments since the return to democratic rule in 1999, have talked about ensuring adequate power supply, to jump-start the national economy. But they merely deceive us. Under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, so much money was spent on power generation, distribution and marketing. Indeed, the Obasanjo administration promised to generate 10, 000 megawatts of electricity by 2007.
The whole thing ended up as a huge scam and scandal. The report of a panel set up by the House of Representatives to investigate the crisis in the power sector became so politicised in typical Nigerian fashion, with name-calling and recriminations and with little interest shown in the probe by the Federal Executive. Nothing was eventually made out of a probe that engaged the attention of the much-abused Nigerian people who, unable to enjoy regular electricity, at least wanted all the public funds that had been used to be properly accounted for, and sanctions to be meted out to those who may have mismanaged the people's resources. If demoractic rule was meant to solve the people's problems, the electricity problem was one of such that needed to be solved. Ten years later, the situation gets curiouser still, and the cost much higher, and the corruption in the sector worse than before.
President Yar'ēdua insults us when the same week that Babalola ruined our December, he told us through egbon Ojo Maduekwe, that we should wait and judge him after his tenure. The Foreign Affairs Minister said: "We will not join hands with those critics, the government will not be distracted by the daily torrent of abuses thrown at its doorsteps by those who do not even know the names of their local government areas. They are intellectual hit men, seen to pull down every administration and are too lazy to fight for power. In the course of time, the outcome of our seven-point agenda will vindicate us." President Obasanjo said precisely the same thing about Nigerians, pipeline vandals and intellectual hit men and see where he has left us. Can Yar'ēdua and his hit men please convert all of these many words that continue to tumble out of their mouths into megawatts of electricity and give us light in this country? Then, they can judge us.
Atta Mills's Attack On Nigeria
Comparisons between Nigeria and Ghana are not likely to end in the foreseeable future. Ghana is the other big country next door, and with its oil find, better organsied elections, and increasing international goodwill, it is knocking the lid off Nigeria's claim to importance and superiority. But when the Ghanaian President, John Atta Mills begins to take easy potshots at Nigeria, it is like rubbing salt into our festering wound, and Nigerian leaders who are used to just talking, should study the message and its implications.
About a month ago, John Atta Mills was in Nigeria and he had publicly invited companies in Nigeria to relocate to Ghana with the promise that his government is willing to give free land and tax holdays. (Many companies, both Nigerian and foreign companies based in Nigeria, like Obama, are heading towards Ghana). This week, Professor Mills reportedly told the Voice of America Radio (VOA), that Ghana is mindful of Nigeria's bad exmaple in the management of its oil and gas resources. Serves us right. Nigeria is indeed a bad example. And President Mills has every reason to remind his country men of Nigeria's bad example. Ghana's newly-found oil and gas is likely to fetch it as much as one billion US dollars by January 2010. Oil has brought to Ghana its own national cake. The politicians are already making claims to the cake. National discourse in Ghana is becoming oily. Oil boom brought Nigeria to the present sorry pass. So, Atta Mills is right to caution his compatriots. He does not want Ghana, now the beautiful bride of the Western World, to have its own equivalent of the Niger Delta of Nigeria and its crisis. He does not want the Ghanaian government to become so lazy, it would depend solely on oil revenue. He does not want it said in the future that Ghana once had gold mines and cocoa but that these other resources were abandoned when easy money began to arrive from the extractive industry. He does not want Ghana to end up like Nigeria, which is reduced to a mere rent collector from its own oil fields becasue it lacks the local capacity to manage its own resources. So, Atta Mills is right.
But let no one think that the President of Ghana dislikes Nigeria and its ways. He may not admire our governance style, but he admires our spirit-filled way of life. Atta Mills is a good friend of Pastor Temitope Joshua of the controversial Synagogue Church of All Nations in Okota, Lagos. When Atta Mills won the election in Ghana, his first port of call was Pastor Joshua's church, his spiritual doctor who had reportedly predicted that he would still be President and that he should run for the Presidency once more.
Atta Mills visited Joshua first before he returned later to see the Nigerian President. He was following in the footsteps of Omar Bongo of Gabon and Frederick Chiluba of Zambia. Atta Mills certainly does not joke with his spiritual doctor and those who attend the Joshua church confirm that the Ghanaian President has given testimony in open church in Lagos, about how he owes his Presidency to his spiritual doctor's support. He may be critical of our political leaders and their ways, but Atta Mills certainly likes our spiritualists and futurologists who with an intent gaze at the crystal ball can rig the votes, metaphysically, in favour of their client!
Is-haq Akintola's Silly Comment
Ishaq Akintola writes a column for the Nigerian Compass titled Dawah and he runs a Muslim Rights Centre under whose platform he has made some interesting contributions to the Nigerian conversation. But his Friday, July 17 column titled "Put Arabic back on Naira notes" is irresponsible. He deplores the removal of Arabic inscriptions from the new national currency (N5, N10, N20, N50) by the Obasanjo administration in 2007, and argues that "it was a provocative, politically naive and parochial step".
He asks: "The question is what is wrong if Arabic is on the Naira? Is English not there? The Arabic on the Naira symbolizes the existence of Muslims in the country while the English on the Naira represents the Christian population. To remove the Arabic unceremoniously is to tell the Muslims that they do not belong." He wants the Arabic inscriptions restored. Wrong. Absolutely wrong and mischievous.
The English langauge is certainly not synonymous with Christianity. It is spoken, for example, in Pakistan, Malaysia, India etc. But it is Nigeria's official language owing to our colonial history. Nigeria has no state religion. But Akintola insists that the step is "designed to implement a Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) agenda". The introduction of Northern Nigerian and Muslim-Arabic emblems and symbols into the paraphenalia of Nigerian nationhood (the coat of arms, the national flag, the emblem of the Nigerian army) was part of the Northern and Islamic hegemonisation project of the military elite. Reversing those violations of the national spirit is in order. And Dr. Akintola's threat that certain "measures will be explored at the appropriate time if the Yar'ēdua-Sanusi duo fails to reprint those denominations with their traditional Arabic graphics" is what I call silly... Salam Alaykum.
