Why are we daft on power?
Everybody is talking about the need for Nigeria to return back to Agricultural business, but how much of such business can we do now, without 24/7 electricity supply, especially to our agrarian communities?
How could we preserve our fruits and crops, and dairy products in the farms, before they are transported to the markets? We need electricity to process and keep them fresh, especially when we are talking of mass production for revenue generation. Otherwise, much of the products will become perished before they get to the market. Such electricity supply should be at an economically viable cost.
I keep wondering why it has been difficult for us to have 24/7 electricity supply in Nigeria. Are we that daft? Even if Nigeria is a thick jungle, that has never used electricity before, it should not be that difficult to put one in place! I am always stumped, anytime I think of OBJ spending multi-billion naira on the power project without any result to show for it. Yet Obasanjo Farm has 24/7 electricity supply!
I know of one state in America, among numerous examples, that has coal which can last them for 800 years at the rate they are firing it to generate electricity. And electricity in this state is as cheap as $5 to $10 per month for a three bedroom flat (depending on usage – summer versus winter). Yet, we don’t know how much coal reserve we have in Nigeria, not to talk of how to utilize it. And coal remains one of the cheapest sources of electricity in the world, especially now that we have clean coal technology, with other supplementary usage. The US generates 45% of her electricity from coal, and this will remain so for many years to come, even with the campaign by environmentalists against the usage of coal and other fossil fuel.
Yet when you tell Nigerian government about how to solve problems like this, you only get discouraging answers (if you even get one, after many attempts to get their attention through emails, phone calls and text messages). They are too busy doing NOTHING!
One is constrained to ask if our politicians are that foolish. But then the likes of late legendary Awo were thinkers, and they were aggressively pursuing common good, tapping inputs from various experts! How come we are now in this mess? Could we say God gave us the likes of Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello, Zik in short supply? The other time, one Babatunde Raji Fasola, whom we thought is a little bit different, came out to suggest a process of extorting his people, to raise fund for the power investors! Who has bewitched us as a country?
The few good ones among our leaders need to be more aggressive in their thoughts and actions. And they must push the limits to achieve success for common good. Some of us will keep alerting them to how things are done better in other society. And we are ready to leave our comfort zone to help out our fatherland, for there is nothing nobler than that! Some people paid the price for a more orderly society we enjoy here!
But then, those at the helms of affair need to wake up from their slumber! Only Nigerians can truly help Nigeria. Someone needs to tell Pa Buhari to think inwardly too, enough of one-way traffic outward thinking, seeking help only from outsiders! Also, it is good to fight corruption. Indeed, the singular act of fighting corruption is an encouragement for some of us to be ready to assist our country. But, fighting corruption alone is not enough! Other areas of national rescue mission must NOT be left unattended.
Olarinre Salako, PhD, is a Research Geophysicist at the Energy and Environmental Research Center, North Dakota, USA. He has made several efforts to get the attention of Nigerian Government to what could be done to solve power generation problem in Nigeria, but without luck yet.
………Taunting the Oba
I have read a lot to taunting remarks on the social media against a monarch who lost his cool during the last elections and became so un-royal by cursing an entire ethnic group in his domain that they would all end in the lagoon if they failed to vote for his governorship candidate. The monarch then came under savage attacks for his verbal diarrhea to the point that the party he was fighting had to technically disown him to stave off the backlash.
The monarch had his candidate elected as governor but lately his state came under vicious attack from another ethnic group living in large number in the state. Many of his people were killed with their property destroyed by the aggressors but the Oba kept mute and could not call on the lagoon to swallow the killers of his people up.
This is why the Oba has now become the object of kinds of delirious jests. He has become a butt of practical joke all over for his silence over the killing of his people. So sad!
