BY JAYE GASKIA
Why do some
nations lag behind other nations? Why inspite of the immense human and natural
resource potential does our country Nigeria, continue to lag behind? Why have
we not fulfilled the promise of independence? Why are we nowhere near realising
even half of the potential of this tremendously endowed Nation?
What manner
of administratively inept and congenitally light fingered ruling class have we
been saddled with as a people?
Let us take
some examples; In the early 1960s, in the immediate aftermath of ‘flag
independence’, Nigeria established, about the same time as Brazil, a Defense
Industrial Corporation, now more than 50 years on, the Brazilian Corporation
now manufactures Military tanks, aircrafts and other military hardware!
And the
Nigerian counterpart? The Kaduna based DIC is famous [or perhaps notorious]
only for the fact that it is now a manufacturer of furniture!
Again from
about the same period, Malaysia came to Nigeria, the world’s then leading
producer and exporter of palm produce, to gain insight into this success story,
and take palm seedlings to replicate the Nigerian success in Malaysia. Fast
forward to the 21st century; Malaysia is now not only the world’s
leading producer of palm produce, but a major player in the global market for
products derived from palm oil, and palm kernel, including biodiesel. In
Nigeria on the other hand, not only do we import palm oil, we also depend more
than 80% on imported refined fuel, even though we are one of the top 7 largest
producers of crude oil.
Let us look
at power generation;
The mainstay of any modern economy. By the beginning of
the 4th Republic in 1999, the country was generating less than
3,000MW of electricity; and going by the projections of the vision 2020:20,
Nigeria needs to be generating, distributing and transmitting not less than
35,000MW by the year 2020 in order to become one of the 20 largest economies in
the world.
Nevertheless,
inspite of this vision, regardless of the nearly $50bn investment in the sector
since 1999, notwithstanding the privatization of the sector, and several Power
and electricity road maps later; as of April 2014, according to the
presentation of the Minister of power to the National Conference committee on
Energy, here is the grim statistics – “Current Transmission capacity – 6,870MW;
Current Distribution capacity – 7,325MW; Technical Loss Rate – 12%; Current
Installed Generation Capacity – 9,920MW; Current Available Generation Capacity
– 6,000MW; but Alas, Current Peak Generation Capacity – 3,962MW.
Several
questions should of necessity agitate our minds from this unimaginable
scenario. What is responsible for the huge discrepancies between installed
generation capacity [at more than 9,000MW], the available generation capacity
[at 6,000MW], and the peak (actual) generation capacity [at just below
4,000MW]? How can we be comfortable with losing nearly 4,000MW between installed
and available generation capacity; and losing a further 2,000MW between
available, and actual peak generation capacity?
To compound an already
disgustingly bad situation, why do we always witness system failures, including
total system failures whenever we are close to generating and distributing
4,000MW of electricity, even though the installed transmission capacity is
6,870MWs?
What manner of ruling elite worth its economic, much less its
political salt can live comfortably with such gross inefficiency? How come
after spending [some will say wasting] nearly $50bn on transforming the sector,
the sector stills require more than $35bn worth of new investment after
privatization to minimally improve generation, distribution, and transmission
of electricity for a mere 10,000MW peak generation? And more significantly, why
inspite of this odious testimony to filth, have no heads rolled? Why haven’t
there been investigations, arrests, prosecutions, sackings/dismissals, and
judicial punishments meted out to convicted culprits?
Let us move
on to other areas. How can any right thinking and or rational human being
explain a situation where we are at one and the same time, one of the world’s
largest producer and ex[porter of crude oil, as well as being one of its largest
importer of refined petroleum products? What manner of gluttonous greed is
responsible for this monumental anomaly?
As a result
of the grand ineptitude, and crass banditry of our treasury looting ruling
elite we have become one of the most unequal countries in the world. The
world’s 26th largest economy, Africa’s largest economy, is also home
to the world’s third largest population/concentration of poor peoples.
Furthermore, contrary to Section 16 of the 1999 constitution as amended, a mere
10% of the country’s wealthiest citizens own more than 40% of the nation’s
wealth, while the bottom 20% own a mere 4% of National wealth.
To make
matters worse, The world’s 25th richest man, and Africa’s richest
man, as well as Africa’s richest woman and the richest black woman are both
Nigerians, in a country with 112 Million people [705 of its population] living
in poverty; in a country with nearly 30% general unemployment, and where 54%
[NBS – 2012]/80% [CBN – 2014] of youths between 15 and 35 years are unemployed [that
is more than half, or just about four-fifth of 70 million youths]!
Add to this
the fact that Nigeria, according to official figures from the Housing Ministry
suffers 18 million housing deficit; that is nearly 90 million people [at the
average household size of 5] living in subhuman conditions or homeless, again
contrary to Section 16, Chapter 2 of the 1999 constitution amended.
The end
result of these greed compounded ineptitude of the thieving ruling class has
been the current extremely high levels of insecurity and violent crime across
the country. So much so that according the latest report on The situation of
internal displacement and the condition of the internally displaced worldwide;
Nigeria now has an internally displaced population of 3.3 Million People.
This figure
of 3.3 million internally displaced Nigerians as a result mainly of conflict,
is the 3rd largest population of internally displaced persons
globally, after Syria and Colombia, both of which are countries with long
running civil wars. What is more, Nigeria, along with four other countries [all
of which are experiencing civil wars] account for 63% of the global total
number of internally displaced persons. The other four, civil war ravaged
countries, are Syria, Colombia, DRC, and Sudan.
So this is
the very grim picture of our brutish existence 54 years after independence, a
collectively damning scorecard of our pillaging and light fingered ruling class
after 100 years of amalgamation, and on the eve of another general election!
We can draw
only one rational, logical and humane conclusion from this nightmarish
scenario; this ruling class has not only collectively failed us, it is also
historically incapable of leading us out of the doldrums, and away from the
edge of darkness towards which it has inexorably led us.
This is why
we must make the upcoming elections all through 2014 and 2015 issue based
elections.
This is why we must aggressively interrogate not only the
candidates, but also their parties; and more significantly, this is why we must
in taking our destiny into our own hands, create, establish, and nurture our
own independent political platform, which alone can enable us make the
historically necessary transition from ‘Protest To Power’.
Follow me on Twitter:
@jayegaskia & [DPSR]protesttopower; Interact with me on FaceBook: Jaye
Gaskia & Take Back Nigeria
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