To Asari Dokubo, Leading Nigeria Is Like Leading Militants, By Yusuf Ozi-Usman
Alhaji Mujahideen Asari Dokubo was and, indeed, is still the leader of one of the fierce Niger Delta Forces fighting against the government of Nigeria for the possession of the Niger Delta oil wealth. Obviously, he became the leader of this militant group from the point of view of the fact that he conceptualised it, formed it and even finances it. That is the long and short of it. And unfortunately, that is the myopic way in which Asari Dokubo views leadership, especially in the context of democracy, at the universal level.
This is where the danger, of having a half-literate person assailing a fast developing democratic ethos like Nigeria, lies. There is an obvious danger of having an already over-bloated egocentric being fixated on the nation’s march to greatness.
I began to respect Asari Dokubo, away from my former posture of askance, when on Tuesday this week, he twitted that the fact that President Goodluck Jonathan lost the March 28 election did not make any different from the way he has been and will be. My respect for him on this statement was not hinged on the surface meaning of his thought, but the implication that President Jonathan is a son of Nigeria who was democratically voted out in 2015 as, of course, he was democratically voted-in in 2011.
Asari Dokubo cannot deny the fact that almost all Nigerians welcome Jonathan with excitement and hope in 2011. That Nigerians in all regions, religions, ethnic divides and genders voted massively for him in 2011 without anybody raising a question as to what part of the country he came from. That was even when General Muhammadu Buhari, from the North, went down on his knees, begging his kits and kins to give him a chance.
In fact, Jonathan got more than the required 25 percent of the votes cast in Katsina state, the home base of General Buhari. He got more than 25 percent of the votes cast from nearly all the states in the North, and even beating Buhari on number of votes cast. Jonathan also thrashed Buhari in the South West; Buhari hardly got 25 percent of the votes cast in the South West region.
With the South East and South South block votes, Jonathan coasted home with resounding victory, democratically in 2011. No one from the North or South West talked then about conspiracy to rob Buhari of the victory that he didn’t have.
As a matter of fact, Buhari has been winning the election since he began to contest in 2003, but after every trial which was obviously short-changed by the then cohesive but marauding PDP, no one talked about conspiracy except his die-hard street supporters who, in 2011, took to the streets for what was clearly a robbery.
Yes, if the die-hard supporters of Jonathan had had cause to take to the streets after the announcement of the March 28 election, they would have been forgiven for the fact that they knew not what they were doing, but for Asari Dokubo, who is supposed to be fairly enlightened by virtue of being a militant leader to still be talking about conspiracy beats one’s imagination.
At any rate, what is conspiracy? Conspiracy is when two or more people meet at a point to plan evil against fellow human being or the society. And so when Asari Dokubo talked glibly about South West and North conspiring to rob President Jonathan of the second term victory in the March 28, in a democratic environment, he obviously was mixing up the ideals of democracy with militancy. For, in democratic leadership/election, it is not conceivable for people in the North to meet the people in the South West to plan on how to vote out Jonathan. As a matter of fact, even if such meeting took place, the act of voting is purely individualistic, such that no one can determine whom the next person voted for at any given time.
What happened on March 28 was the nation’s recourse to the true form of democracy. It was a situation in which bonafinde registered and accredited Nigerians voted freely for whom they thought, in the circumstance they found themselves, can serve them better.
Jonathan was given the mandate in 2011, he tried his best to correct the wrongs in the socio-economic and political systems, but in 2015, majority of Nigerians said, through their votes that his best was not enough. That is the beauty of democracy.
If after four years, General Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressives Congress (APC), who has just been given the same mandate performs below the expectations of majority of Nigerians, they will vote him out, irrespective of where he comes from.
It would amount to dishonesty to lean on the outdated regional campaign of calumny as basis for him and his fellow militants to go back to the Creeks – war against Nigerian government.
If Asari Dokubo wants to take his team of criminals back to the Creeks, he is free to do so. But, he should remember that he is not above the law of this country.
[myad]
How General Buhari’s Government Can Improve Power Supply, By Muyiwa Abiodun
Recall that the then Minister of Power under the Obasanjo government, the late Bola Ige, promised Nigerians that the challenges over power supply would become history within six months of his assumption of duty. At the end of the day, he could not deliver on his promise.
Former President Obasanjo, in a recent reaction, blamed Ige for ‘his’ failed promises and exonerated himself from the decision to solve the problem in the power industry in six months; Obasanjo eventually also found the power deficit difficult to overcome in his eight years in office.
Ige’s Promise was however naïve at best.
According to Obasanjo, “If you will remember, when I came back in 1999, my first Minister of Power was late Bola Ige. I won’t say Bola didn’t know what he was doing and he said publicly that he would fix the power problems in six months.
“After one year, Bola with his capacity couldn’t fathom what was wrong with power. It was riddled with corruption. Then we had no money, people have forgotten that in 1999/2000, the price of crude oil was $9 per barrel.” he said.
Obasanjo further expressed his disappointment in the late President Yar’Adua because, according to him, he failed to understand what to do at the right time.
In the reports presented before the House of Representatives in 2009, it was later established that Obasanjo had expended $3.08 billion on Power Generation.
So why didn’t Power generation improve? Well, actually it did.
Senator Ngige, in November 2012 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, was quoted as saying all the Power Plants Obasanjo built were located based on Political calculations and they were not close to transmission lines or Gas lines.
This has been shown not to be true, details as follows:
1) The Papalanto and Omotosho plants were located less than five kilometres to the existing Escravos – Lagos Gas Pipeline making the cost of connecting them to gas about $4m each.
2) The Geregu plant was located less than eight kilometres from the existing Pipeline that takes gas to the Ajaokuta Steel plant.
3) The AfamV Plant was located within the existing Afam Power Plant and therefore did not need any special pipe laying.
4) The distance of all the four power plants from existing major transmission lines is less than two kilometres making the cost of connection to the National Grid infinitesimal.
5) The turnkey costs of all the four power plants were less than $500 per megawatt which was verified by the Due Process Office to be globally very competitive. The benchmark price used for the NIPP projects which came up later was more than $1000 per megawatt.
6) All the four plants were completed within 24 months from contractors’ mobilisation, making them the fastest of deliveries in the history of Nigeria. AfamV was commissioned within 12 months!
7) A concessionary funding programme was negotiated with the Chinese Exim Bank for the Papalanto and Omotosho power plants through which Nigerian government paid only 35 per cent of their cost for the plants to be delivered. The balance of 65 per cent was supposed to be paid over a seven year period at six per cent interest rate and two years moratorium. The idea was that after paying 35 per cent and the plant was completed within two years, the income from generated power would be used to pay up the balance of 65 per cent without recourse to the Nigerian treasury!. Sounds like a plan doesn’t it?
The truth is that Power generation improved significantly under The Obasanjo government, between June 2000 and December 2002, our electricity generation capacity increased from 1425 to 4300 megawatts. Both the transmission and distribution subsections were strengthened such that peak load (delivered) for the first time in the history of Nigeria surpassed the 2400 megawatts maximum in 2002. The establishment of the Papalanto (335MW), Omotosho (335MW), Geregu (410MW), Afam V (276MW), Enron IPP(280MW) andKwale IPP (450MW) were added during the same period with the view of increasing the 4300MW generation capacity to about 6000MW. That was also the period when the Power Sector Reform Bill was crafted and submitted to the National Assembly to pave way for a more efficient deregulated power sector which we now have today.
The major reason why Nigeria has not achieved the 6,000mw goal is vandalism of gas pipelines. In this regard, the Buhari/Osinbajo government will have to tackle this gas pipeline vandalism problem head on.
There is no other way on the Long term.
Technically, Nigeria doesn’t have a Power Generation Problem per se; it has a gas distribution problem.
In this regard, the Lagos government and many private estates in Lagos have been able to identify the problem and switch to off grid captive power generation powered by Compressed Natural Gas /Diesel, enabling them enjoy 24hrs Electricity.
The Buhari/Osinbajo government will in the short term need to replicate this in industrial clusters, thereby freeing up more capacity for the grid. To do this, the power sector laws need to be relaxed as presently, only the licensed distribution companies are allowed to trade in power, Presently, such off grid power generating plants can only be used by the generating entity.
Once this is achieved, focus must be shift to improving the capacity of the grid. Presently the National grid can only transmit about 7200mw while analysts have said Nigeria needs at least 40,000mw to achieve stable electricity.
Muyiwa Abiodun is a Board Member of Energy savers Nigeria, he is a Utility engineer who has designed and built over 40mw of off grid Power.
[myad]