Government Does Not Wail

Government Does Not Wail

By

Ahmad Murtala

Power sector in Nigeria over decades has become a bone inside a neck, strangulating the economy and wedging every ascending SMEs. The sector that befriended several heads of states and presidents and yet unproductive—Nigerians were tensed towards the end of Jonathan led administration that privatized the sector which added to the loomed darkness that If Buhari was elected, perhaps he could clear the mess.

Every government is installed by the people to scratch the hitching spot at the center of their backs, on that same presumption the government advertised itself. The brazen lacuna is the 'political will'—despite having the clear image that the problem lies with the DisCos. Nigerians have been entrapped in the bogus privatization agreement in 2013, which the investors shared according to the geopolitical zones extracting from the darkness they sell. A problem identified is half solved, what then constitutes a complaint ?

One can count how many times the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari since assuming office the number of times he granted the press for presidential media chat since his second term in office. Of the records of his interviews, most of the questions thrown at him were hardly addressed. The beating around and incoherence to answer one topic for the other aggravates the anger the people have for the government over its three top manifestos. The same as expected, the question about the state of electricity in the country was thrown at him during the recent interview with the channels tv, the same wailing and blame game ensued on DisCos.

Every government where ever it based, is the first institution that is fed with a first-hand and genuine intelligence report, President in his words when asked his response affirms this assertion "let us try to understand the problem first, TCN is 100% government, but we inherited what they call DisCos almost divided the country almost to geopolitical zones what was the basis ?" President, perhaps does not have a defined entity called 'power' that is conferred on him—government does not wail but it acts. Evaluating the performance of the DisCos is what needs to be conducted if found less performing which is clear what it would be found, revoking the license should be the first option. 

In one of the session with Chimamamda Ngozi Adichie a renowned Nigerian writer with the former Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2021, Adichie asked Merkel about the status of the MoU with the Siemens company that was signed with Nigerian government to add to the national grid, she raised two concerns as the hindrances that subdue the kick start of the project which are funding and the need by the Nigerian government to use 50% local content. The long awaited muteness was revealed though at the detriment of Nigerians—if Siemens cannot execute the MoU the channel for other companies to step up should not be tight since we are at the receiving end.

Ever since Nigeria keyed into this agreement, she was running on the lose-win peddle,  injecting a huge amount of money, more than a trillion and a half over five years. What kept Nigeria from revoking the license given to the DisCos is the argument that its image would be dented before the other investors, that it would dry up the future possible investments and it would look like 'nationalization' alongside  the damages that the government would pay in return. This argument is tentative—If not the beneficiaries are political class, as the President cried, what would make an agreement lopsided at the detriment of the entire nation running at loss ?

Mambilla dam situated in the Taraba state of northeastern part of the country, has the potentiality of generating 4000 megawatts which will accrue to the national grid. Fortunately, it becomes a milking cow that political class make use of annually enriching themselves becoming billionaires overnight. The ministry also befriends several ministers of power—at the dawn of this administration, the president was rest assured that the work was going on without him supervising, which disrates the mark of leadership quality he has. At his second term, a reshuffle was made which brought in a new minister Engr Sale Mamman from the same state, only to disclose that all the pictures going round in social media were speculations, the locations was not cleared and no road access to the location, after some few months he was fired with his incompetency.

The centralized national grid like FAAC contributes to the setback of the power sector today. The interconnection between the stations which if one is faulty could affect the other part of the country, with almost every month the news of national grid collapsing taking front in newspaper pages—the old usage should be deracinated and allow each state to generate its own power via other means available. The gas reserve deposit should be tapped up for use in this regard and shun the hydroelectric means since it yielded no tangible result. 

Three options at hand: as the DisCos are divided into geopolitical zones, the licenses should be handed over to the governors of those states, or each state generating its own power decentralizing from the national grid or inviting foreign DisCos who have capital and the technical know-how to man major obstacle and the setback we see—but so long as these castrated, impotent, infertile and barren DisCos would remain spear headers of this sector, am afraid till Jesus Christ descend, Nigeria would not witness stable electricity.

The Call To Anarchy Inside Anarchy

The Call To Anarchy Inside Anarchy.  

By

Ahmad Murtala

The inferno of insecurity in the country especially in the North is quite alarming to all citizens concerned both within and the diaspora. The barbarism unleashed due to the haggard, ugly, effigy of slack of security witnessed by the peasants across NorthWest since the coming of this administration is calamitous, the kind of wretched mutilation this helpless housewives experienced cannot be quantified, after being raped and pour acid into their private part—imagine the trauma.

There has never been in history, an individual or group of people living under a sovereign state and that individual or people overpower the government of the land. But, Bello Turji a notorious self-acclaimed bandit leader and his allies Dogo Gide and the rest seem to establish an untouchable casual kingdom under Nigerian Government placing tax on the peasants, dethroning and enthroning traditional leaders as desired, how long can this last ?

As people become so straddled with the utterances of Aminu Bello Masari, the governor of Katsina state, calling for people to take arms in self-defense. "Everyone should stand and defend himself" he said as a response when he was asked by a BBCHausa correspondent on the solution and the way forward. Masari vented out his excoriating view concerning the unending tragedy that people face day-in-day-out. In the same video of 5 minutes 15 seconds, he continued expressing his stand as thus… 

"When they raid us, we should stand against them, if we die, we are martyrs—if they come and we run into hidden and; in the morning we sprout out abusing community leaders, governor or president; or block road in mass protest, this blockage will affect commuters who are going about their business and what is their fault, if you are truly a man when bandits come why going to hide?—this is why I said everyone should take arms, holding prayer firmly is also an arm…" this is clearly a campaign on fuelling the anarchy that we dived into and already battling with.

He continued, "we have a shortage of security personnel, Katsina state for instance, does not have three thousand policemen—assuming in our population, how many people each police is policing ? It's a crusade (jihadi) when you lose your life in this course—we do not subscribe to the idea of hunters going after them, rather vigilante group defending their territories where each knows his people and they know him. We are ready to support anyone who needs help and the police are ready to register the arms that people possess. A strict translation  virtually verbatim.

Four or Eight years tenure that has beclouded our leaders foresight, smoldering the security architecture inwardly that even after the tenure they would continue to have the same security cover up is hallucinating, because, once the handing over is done, they are strip off from the canopy. Leaders are known for taking the lead, like we see, Idris Deby of Chad in a warfront and recently Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia. The call to take arms confronting the bandits whenever they raid, if answered to, we anticipate to see Masari taking the lead in the vigilante regalia may be he would be the first to be shot at since there is a presidential order for anyone seeing with a gun to be gun down, by the federal army.

This isn't the first time a high ranking government official would express such a kind of belligerent utterance that clearly denotes a failed government. Gen Bashir Salihi Magashi, the defense minister, who is saddled with the coordination of security establishments across the country once said that people should defend themselves. Self-defense in itself, does not need to be told to any sane individual—it's inculcated already. However, in a conundrum of raiding helpless people who voted for a government on the platter of responsibility to secure their lives and property who faithfully rely that the elected government is capable of doing so—the ponder on their minds would always be such person who said so should resign since the task is beyond his capability, why then would they relax in government houses instigating people to defend themselves and gulping their hard-earned tax via salary paying to their coffers ?

Doffing off the responsibility placed on the shoulders of elected or appointed individuals by themselves hiding behind frivolous excuses such as inducing the populace to martyrdom on nonreligious course—this translates the weakness of the electorates. Yes, in Islam, there are many ways one can die as a martyr, this of course is among, does that warrant to putting responsibility aside and zipping up the 'security vote' meant to contain security threat unused to individual accounts while lives are wasting ? Democracy provides the avenue to protest in mass and vent out the anger to bring back a derailing leader to account. Why are they subverting any protest calling to order the leaders to hold their jobs firmly, is protest a threat to democracy ?

The shortage of security personnel to man the border and the Nigerian populace which each police is policing more than 300 people is foreboding. The prognostication was planted in the mind of every sane patriotic individual, that running the most black populous country on Earth with a paltry security personnel is just a time-bomb, the presage was foresighted before plunging. The need for every state to form its own security structure manning the state territory thereby, complementing the Federal police is something to be done in alacrity. It's illogical running the country on that delicate stance.

I begin to imagine the intricacy and the hemorrhage that is about to ensue in a society consisting of AK47 in every household, and a powdered gun or machete by every child confronting a bloody nonreligious war in a country that budgets billions of Naira on security, through the resources of the land. If that is the case, we should shut down all government establishments knowing that we fully embrace anarchy, if bandits eliminate us all they take over the country and vice versa. But we've seen some states that are more bloody like Abia conducting election stashing thirty thousand policemen—but as a C-in-C it's forbidden to utter such words and remain on the mantle. Vacate the seat first and express whatever stance you hold.