THE NEPA/PHCN TRAP: ARE WE FALLEN?

A Nigerian friend and I had an engaging conversation about the challenges of living in the UK after school and in the course of that discussion touched on the efficiency which we have so easily associated living in Europe and the United States with. As expected we bemoaned the huge wealth we had as a nation and regretted the waste that we have been made to endure. One of the highlights of our chat was the ever increasing challenges of living in Nigeria either as a literate or an illiterate citizen, man or woman, boy or girl. I rewound our conversation on my head as we parted ways that evening and realised that there exists an unintended deadening of our national senses. How do I mean? I realise that most of the time we have group conversations, electricity supply and its mathematics dominates our conversations? We are either comparing ourselves with Ghana, the new bride of ECOWAS or with countries that have hosted us in other personal pursuits. We are most times inundated with talk about how many of our parents may pass on to the great beyond without ever witnessing steady supply of electricity for most of their lifetimes or with the sacrifices of having to run generators and its many troubles. Electricity seems to be our only problem and in that thinking lies a most malignant fallacy, an unimpeded trumping of our virtual reality and a rerouting of thinking appropriate for our people and our nation.

I have been engaged in discussions regarding the seven point agenda of the current administration and I am amazed to note that in continuation of the deadening process, we have also resigned ourselves to the possible and very likely failure of the current administration in achieving anything close to seven points. “Seven points!?”, I am asked and usually told, “just let him deliver one and we are fine”. One point for a nation whose budget runs into billions of dollars? One point for a country where a serving government official was “rumoured” to have spent a whopping $1Million on a private social event in 2009? One point for a country that has the highest number of international students of African origin in the United States and the United Kingdom? Friends, are we okay with just one point from the largest oil exporter on the African continent? One point – that is it. Nigerians are content with the current administration providing basic electricity on a constant basis to their homes and businesses. That is unfortunately the sorry state of Nigerians expectations. It is a sordid reminder of the pain of failed political processes and promises, irresponsible politicians and leaders known only for huge embezzlement of entrusted national wealth, unwittingly giving licence to the likes of Sony Corporation and their friends who have turned Nigeria and her people to the whipping boy for global multimedia representation of corruption. This situation to me, is the reprehensible lessening of the standards of legitimate question asking and demand making that the electorate have on the elected – Nigerian style.

To ask for seven points now seems like a dream, a wish in the dark alleys of a nonexistent realm. We are an innovative people and every Nigerian generation has a gift to the world in the persons of Wole Soyinka, Ali Mazrui, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Chinamanda Adichie, Etannibi Alemika, Chinua Achebe, Philip Emegwali, Obi Ezekwesili, Chioma Ajunwa and many others but asking for seven points from our leadership appears a tall order. Today what we complain about is the near lack of electricity supply to homes, offices and businesses. The emphasis is justifiable considering the huge role power plays in the world today. I am however disturbed that we are losing a huge battle when we are overly distracted by one huge national problem and hope that by the time that solutions have been articulated and executed for that, other national problems will come tumbling down like the famed walls of Jericho. The centrepiece of this writing is to correct that erroneous perception. Quite admittedly a lot of our social problems may be half solved if we had constant electricity supply, we may however be so overwhelmed by these others that have been unduly relegated that the comforts presented by constant electricity supply may be short lived and almost immediately dwarfed by equally basic but absent or nearly dead infrastructure. When the scales are finally out of our eyes, we may then wake up to our future reality. A lot of talk has gone into discussing the problems and citizens have voiced complaints more than they could ever do in a lifetime. Governments have also expended huge resources in a bid to solve this problem but there is a danger inherent in all these activities.

Has anyone driven round the city of Abuja recently? Abuja, our supposed national Beverley Hills is fast becoming a headache for drivers on weekdays. Make an attempt to drive through the Ahmadu Bello strip for instance in the afternoons and see how long it takes to drive to Wuse 2. A trip of 10 minutes on the average may take longer than twice that time today. More enthusiastic Nigerians are moving to the “land flowing with Naira” and many foreign NGOs and corporate organisations are fast taking up space in this beautiful city. Despite increasing viable and admirable changes that the Fashola administration is introducing to Lagos, Abuja is fast winning over thousands of youths tired with the Lagos hustle and bustle and desire the tranquil life that Abuja offers. This may be healthy for national integration on the on the one hand but stretching for the young and budding city of Abuja on the other. Had our governments understood the need to adopt holistic approaches to problem solving, they would by now be thinking about not only road expansions but alternative means of transportation. Can Abuja for instance have a rail system beyond political jingle making and fraudulent contract signings to actual construction of rail lines or even building tubes like there is in London? Can we have short haul flights in and out of Abuja? Can we have alternatives to the impressive-but-fast-choked up roads of Abuja? Are there planners who are today making projections about the impending explosion of population of people in Abuja for instance and proposing workable solutions on how to deal with these?

Transportation around the world today is a precursor of business. I do not intend to discuss here the roles of a sound transportation system in national development but I would love to highlight that development of communities is hinged on physical access. Accessibility itself is a direct function of the transportation subsystem so it makes commonsense again to link a sound transportation system with social development. There is however an evil that the lack of reliable energy to our homes is costing our dear nation. It is distorting our sense of planning and our sense of a national future. It is sapping our energies and our creativity as a people. We are myopic now in even our own legitimate demands of those whom we have “elected” into political office. We have been made beggars of that which we are naturally endowed with. All we think of and dread as Nigerians living abroad most of the time is the “NEPA/PHCN challenge”. We have truncated our sense of innovation and have restricted vibrant discourse to how and what is to be gained from constant supply of electricity. We have inadvertently belittled our sense of national intellectualism and our collective drive for the unique branding of the Nigerian ethos. What we so desire is “light” and I feel ashamed a lot of times at this reductionist mentality.

Therein lies that evil. We are concerned about NEPA (a reductionist attitude) but not disturbed about the transportation system because we have been overly distracted. Have we questioned the state of our national health institutions? Are we thinking about alternative sources of energy and developing environment friendly solutions to the dangers of global warming? Are we giving room for the grooming of innovation and ideas that Nigerians are known for? Are we questioning the thrusts of our foreign policies and consolidating our place on the continent? Are our local industries generating employment and contributing to national growth? How about our sports which is still the strongest social uniting factor in Nigeria? Are we honing in on our advantages or tearing them down? Are we sufficiently mobilised for credible electioneering? Can Ghanaians now come to Nigeria to adore our vast tourist havens? Do you have credit lines available for even mobile phones? Do our legislators understand basic issues of national development?

I am afraid that by the time we are able to generate, distribute and transmit the required electricity to our homes, we would have been overwhelmed by other issues of national importance and there again begin another fire brigade approach to solving the next problem in line. That probably explains why ASUU strikes seem so normal. Friends and readers, any ASUU strike is a drawback and indicative of a very sick system. We have so many problems but we must not be so subsumed in them that we treat with levity others which should be treated with urgency. Our education suffers but because we want light we don’t cry about the state of our tertiary institutions until there is a rot that will now require a surgery that will cost us more than it would if we adopted a holistic approach to solving national problems. Look around you, there is a systematic degradation of our health services, transportation, education, communication and many more. We need light we agree but we must also not lose sense of the fact that becoming permissive to corrosive neglect of other aspects of our national lives is doing ourselves in and limiting. That too, must be resisted.


'Wole Aguda

"UP NEPA!"

"Up NEPA!". Does anybody recall that refrain? In the 1980s in Nigeria, it was an experience of exhilaration, joy and youthful excitement that signalled the restoration of electric power to homes. Then, it was a near automatic come- back-home call...sometimes stronger than the voice of my mother calling to me to return home from play. That shout echoed in homes and streets across Nigeria and for those who had television sets, they came on seconds afterwards. It used to be such a gesture worth celebrating from NEPA (we used to think) who were the the national mainstream electricity suppliers. At a point in my imagination, it seemed as though soap operas such as "Behind the Clouds", "Ripples", " Checkmate" and the likes were more interesting to watch if NEPA had just restored light. The experience of being without electricity (a sense of deprivation) and its eventual availability seemed to add colour and even more excitement to the prospects of watching TV. But why so?

There is an old saying that "You don't know what you have until you lose it" and that seemed to explain Nigerian's attitudes to the experience of enjoying electricity supply. You had to immediately bring out clothes for ironing in order to be decently dressed either to school or to work for the week. I recall how in secondary school, in my mother's 'cottage' then, we used to form queues for ironing clothes because you could never tell when NEPA would do the needful. Back to the question of why NEPA used to be a tonic for more enjoyment of watching TV, we used to hope that the timing of the restoration of electricity would be such that favoured our personal preferences for TV programming. So for my father who was an ardent follower of Nigeria's popular NTA News at 9pm, affirmative action from NEPA would be when electricity is restored between 8.30 pm and 9 pm as there was assurance that he would be able to watch and listen to the news without fear of a disruption. That would mean a loss of 30 minutes on our best soap operas if they held on Thursdays for "Checkmate" "Ripples" on Fridays, or on Tuesdays for "Behind the Clouds". It was a game of luck, NEPA could strike at any hour and their return was nearly as unknown as the second coming of Christ. When electricity was therefore restored, it was usually a matter of joy unspeakable.

Today the shouts of "Up NEPA" are gone. Now not necessarily because of a name change from NEPA to PHCN but because the experience has wearied the voices of millions of Nigerians whose voices have become tired from decades of screaming. Shouting is an energy sapping experience and sometimes the "Up NEPA" chorus used to be accompanied with some dancing. I'm not sure I did not do a Michael Jackson dance at least once to a NEPA favour! The long expectations of Nigerians of having electricity restored to their homes have left them mentally desolate and unwilling to prolong the tenure of pain and loss that NEPA has dealt them and their families psychologically. Nigerians have waited for years believing and hoping that one day we will be given what is a birthright in less endowed nations of the world but no, our corrupt leadership would have nothing of that. So rather than die in self pity, Nigerians have resorted to self help (the undertone of successfully living in Nigeria in the 21st century) and are today governments in their own homes. Nigerians buy their water and generate the water supply themselves. Electricity is provided by generators which you fuel from hard earned income. You create the fun and excitement which leadership has deprived a vast majority of Nigerians. Our youth resorted to the now infamous 'Yahoo Yahoo' exit route (by the way you need guts and brains to do that) while parents looked for other means of getting the life that seemed to pass them by without much help. NEPA realised this and went for broke. Generators became our own NEPA, which functioning depended heavily on the strength of our pockets.

It was only in the first five years of my life I recall I did not pay attention to the existence of NEPA, I have lived to adulthood and about to start a family of my own and dread the fact that my kids will come into a Nigeria grappling with finding her voice to shout "Up NEPA". We have had waste upon waste, governments have been just avenues for looting, state governors dip hands into states treasuries, ministers were reckless with funds, ordinary citizens soon realised they were not in the picture of development and started their own survival tactics. Militancy is a response to our leadership challenges.
I reiterate my call to the youths of today, we have been victims of irresponsible elders let us not do same to generations we will bear. Children that will come from us should not have these values translated to them for any reason. The future is what we make of teaching our young ones today. Our orientations are been formed, when we have opportunity please let us do right and teach our own children the values that our preceding generations abandoned. These are the values that place service about self enrichment, the greater good of all against narrow minded egotistic behaviour. Let us hope that we will in our time have the privilege to shout a final "Up NEPA" and never have to worry about when electricity will be taken away from us again.

God bless you and keep believing in the Nigeria of our future.

'Wole Aguda

THE ASUU STRIKE AND YOUR ROLE (culled from the Facebook "NIGERIANS UNITE AGAINST ELECTORAL FRAUD IN 2011 ELECTIONS" forum's page.)

It is particularly not the happiest of times for Nigerians especially Nigerian youths who have to contend with the recklessness of unaccountable leadership. With all due respect to President Umar Yar'Adua and the leadership of ASUU, the place of education seems to be of no priority to both the Federal Government and to ASUU as well or else why should the ongoing strike action by university lecturers linger since June 2009? If the FG insist that ASUU returns to the classrooms before negotiations can continue, ASUU may well just do that and watch to see if the FG keep to their own side of the bargain. This may be common sense to many but the reality of the Nigerian experience is that if ASUU returns to the classroom, government will likely renege on their promises and employ political ways out of a problem that will again rear its ugly head hence ASUU's painful insistence.

The mistrust between ASUU and the FG is unfortunately at the expense of students who are forced to stay home without electricity to even monitor developments. This is a call to all students in this forum that while the two elephants fight, get engaged with some work, vocation or new learning. Take the opportunity to add value to yourself or your community. Learn a new language, develop new ideas by just imagining them, improve your computer skills or study the history of industrial disputes in Nigeria. You never can tell how these things play out. You may watch movies for recreational purposes but be careful what you watch. Give to your church or mosque service that is not necessarily monetary.

It may be useful to just improve your spelling skills at this time rather than the overdependence on Microsoft Word for spelling corrections. Learn spellings such as committee, hierarchy, superintendent, diarrhoea, macabre, etc that we normally gloss over.

This is an appeal to members of this forum too who have thriving businesses to look around your neighbourhood and reach out to one of these students. Not everything is about money so you could just reach out to impart knowledge, share experience or articulate redefinitions of the Nigerian state. The bottom line is that you remember this stay-at-home with some meaningful purpose attached to it. This will affect the call up for national service for some (I waited for three batches to pass before mine due to needless squabbles) but then there is always a gold lining to even clouds!

While we await a paradigm shift in governance in Nigeria, let us remain hopeful. Let us remain positive. Let us trust God and work with our hearts, hands and minds for a greater nation, one that defies the evils of educational instability, infrastructural lack, financial corruption, immoral social coexistence and shallow mindedness.

Remember to invite your friends to the forum. Many of us have done that already and I would like to specifically thank Adeoye Tope Jacob, Wallace Imoudu, Morenike Omidiji, Aina Ayinbode, Ene Odeh, Chike Nweke amongst many others. It is simple, you just go to the forum page and select 'invite friends to join'. The process is easier from there.

Remember your vote counts. Demand credible elections wherever you are.

'Wole Aguda

GLENN BECK (FOX NEWS) ON NIGERIA AND SCAMS

Many of my friends have questioned my judgment especially with regards to my seeming ‘fixation’ with Fox News. Who would think a staunch supporter of Barack Obama, America’s first black president like me would have his TV permanently tuned to Fox News - a pro Republican news network owned by American billionaire, Rupert Murdoch and who are non apologetic about the scathing and sometimes overly demeaning remarks they make about liberal democrats and the administration of President Barack Obama. Bill O’Reilly hosts a show which I have to wake up or stay up for till 1am because I like the ‘balance’ he adduces and associates his program with. Bill O’Reilly however does not refer to Obama as president Obama. He simply calls him Obama in the manner an African father chides a transgressing son. I have been engaged in heated debates with friends on the propriety or otherwise of my interest in Fox News and I am quick to argue that the best way to make your point to an opponent is to understand his mindset. This enables you to understand his thinking as the knowledge of his thinking arms you with knowledge to pre-empt his actions. I have however found it difficult enjoying viewership in the presence of these friends of mine of late because they are convinced that when you associate with too much negativity, you are likely to come off rubbing off negativity on others.

Many times I have watched interesting arguments about America's place today. I have witnessed how divided Americans themselves have been and realise that the art of criticising government is still in its rudimentary stages in Nigeria my home country, not because there are no critiques but because there is no appreciation of its constructive nature and no gallant admittance. The freedom of expression that the American media enjoys, when placed side by side what obtains in most African countries is enormous. Many guys in Fox would have been locked and the owners made to suffer government induced bankruptcy. The space has therefore thrown up the highly varied shades of public opinion that America and Americans are known for.

I have watched several episodes of “The One Thing” hosted by Glenn Beck, author of “Common Sense” and “An Inconvenient Book” and a bright man with capability to view and debate issues in many dimensions, rational or irrational, sensible or otherwise. I must concede that I doubt that he can be beaten on any competition on sarcasm. Glenn Beck is exceedingly gifted in that art and I am convinced he has bred a fortune on that. Among the far right, he must be a darling, a last born of sorts and an adorable TV personality. I personally enjoy watching Glenn and have invited a couple of friends to watch his show. However, his recurring and deliberate attempts at overstretching hard truths and his penchant for drowning cynicism are disturbing.

“Cash for Clunkers”, an initiative of the Obama administration was directed towards creating jobs and enabling Americans buy and own new cars. The program after a few days was overwhelmed by demand but I began to notice a very disturbing angle of news reportage when Fox News reported the program as a failure and that the administration couldn’t even sustain a program as such. The guys however failed to highlight the huge success that a program as popular as that was. The “Cash for Clunkers” program ran into shortage of funds which necessitated a further injection of $2 billion dollars to enable it run for some more time. The program was criticised in what most times were glossy misrepresentations. It is a common sight on Fox News to see such criticism of the Obama administration but that was trying too hard! I cannot even attempt to delve into the hue and cries of the proposed Healthcare Reforms because it is an American issue of which I am not one but the malignant personalisation of the debates especially when so many attacks are thrown at the President is most disgusting. On President Obama’s birthday, Glenn Beck shared a red cake and pasted a star (symbolic of China) on it to bolster his propaganda of the socialist theme they tag the Obama administration with. It was the same day he glamorised an anonymous poster depicting the American President as a Joker (a TV characterisation most unworthy of such association as president Obama) and added to earlier depictions of Obama a smoker and as Houdini the escapist amongst many other uncharitable insinuations.

On the 6^th of April 2009 edition of his program, Glenn Beck while bemoaning the ‘apparent ignorance’ of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) who maintained that the Health care plan of the Obama administration offered more gains to the American people, likened them to a naive American who falls for the tricks of a Nigerian scammer. In his attempt, Glenn states that the scammer who employs familial royal relationship as bait to the American, and whose skills are underscored and in hand, asks the American to send $10,000 and his bank account number to earn $10,000,000. This is where I beg for the break. Did Glenn Beck have to mention a sovereign national existence as Nigeria in driving home a message about a stupid relation? Without making excuses for the Nigerian who sends scam emails, history has shown that the greedy are usually the most conned - Glenn’s folks who from the stars expect to make $10Million from nothing. Glenn Beck may want to determine for himself how many Nigerians get conned by Nigerians? We recognise that hardwork is the impetus for success and although we have been given names in the worlds of the likes of Glenn Beck, we are not as pathetically corrupt as his imagination brews. On his shows, he reveals the sleaze of American economic and political players and highlights the huge difficulties that nationhood places even on American citizens.

He needs to understand that the people of Nigeria are a resilient dogged lot. They are hardworking, smart and ingenious and have survived onslaughts of crass nepotism and armies of colonial imperialism. Despite the huge challenges of being Nigerian and the arduous responsibility possession of the Green Passport (an environmentally friendly one without carbon emissions!) presents on Nigeria travellers, our good heartedness cannot be dwarfed by the reckless behaviour of an insignificant few. We have come too far as one nation to be branded a nation of scammers as Glenn Beck suggested in his poignantly distasteful analogy monitored on his show. It is a disdainful and a regrettable damage he’s done to what in my opinion was an international audience. I have lost interest in that show only to the extent that he makes a disproportionate allusion and association of Nigeria with scam that some greedy people are wont to fall for. I cannot begin to recount acts of selflessness that Nigerians are known for and our globally acclaimed friendly attitude. Nigerian students are proving their worth in academic walls around the world and in noble endeavours that border on moral rectitude even though many like Glenn Beck would want to think otherwise.

The message is this, Nigeria has a population of close to 200 million people, Glenn Beck should refrain from attempting to dress us in rags. Nigerians are honourable people and deserving of global respect. Though we face our normal challenges as most ‘developed’ nations in the world today have at some time in the past, we vehemently maintain our resolve to reject a colouration unfitting of our national pigmentation. We are survivalists on the path to national restoration. It is a matter of time but the Nigerian people and the Nigerian nation are a decent lot, not scammers. Glenn Beck, je k'ori pe, before we give you a roll call.

Religious Harmony and the Violence in Nigeria

Many of us are quite aware of on going incidents of violence in Nigeria our beloved country. It borders on differences of perspective in terms of the acceptability or otherwise of a form or origin of education as we have it today in contemporary Nigeria. It is a disturbing development because on such instances of spontaneous and unchecked behaviour, losses are what we count, never gains. Lives have been lost, albeit innocent lives in what could have been avoidable clashes and disruptions to everyday, normal living.

A closer examination of the executors of the killings will reveal that those responsible for the maiming and killing are merely pawns. They do not particularly have a stake in the outcome of the war that they wage. And for those who are familiar with the strategies that the game of chess is most known for, pawns are what you sacrifice to protect a back row of officials, Kings and the Queen. The Queen is never sacrificed for a pawn. The pawns do the killings in Nigeria and naturally get killed as well - a balance some may say, but the loss of innocent lives is most reprehensible, condemnable and putting it mildly, an elongation of deliberate wickedness by men in our society.

Unfortunately whether by direct or indirect persuasion, we have played a role in the past or at present in the unfolding drama. We have been lackadaisical and adopted a regrettable "siddon look" approach that has today left us to nearly nothing for our commonwealth. The killings in the Northern part of Nigeria friends, are an end result of poverty. Poverty debases the fundamental good that men should be disposed to and colours by the cheapest of means, their thinking. While I worked in Nigeria, no Bishop or any "Man of God" no matter his place in society would and could come to me to tell me to take up arms or a knife to make a ritual of another man and I would budge. It is an impossibility because I understand that such actions breed a disturbing personal sense of negativity and are clearly of no human value. I am sure the same applies to my 720 friends on Facebook. Will a man give you a knife or gun to kill another man and you gladly oblige such a most indecent request like it was done a few days back?

However, when a man is sunken in the worst forms of impoverishment, engages in animalistic labour to get one meal a day, the prospects of two meals in a day to such a person is a bright one not to talk of food for a week. When a man gets a proposition that seems to 'advance' him, he considers it and most likely takes it. If you take time to investigate what was on offer to the killers in Maiduguri, Jigawa, Bauchi and other affected states, you may discover that the inducements to kill may not be more than N500, forget about whether the purpose of the action is a noble one or not. Someone is tethering on the verge of physical collapse and you snap him a crispy note to kill, you may be surprised with what you get.

And let us not make the mistake of thinking that it's Muslims that have the problem. No. My neighbours in Abuja are staunch Muslims and have been a major blessing to my family. We love ourselves and against what many may want me to think, that man will not use a knife on me under earlier circumstances of disturbances in Nigeria. The problem is poverty. Poverty of the pocket and poverty of the mind. Lack and wants, the same that drives beautiful daughters of God into prostitution is responsible. And can the Nigerian state offer us not better than we have?

Back to why I push a bit of the blame on us, we have let men of evil will hold sway for way too long. We have become accustomed to seeing things done corruptly. We have grown up shouting 'NEPA' upon restoration of basic electricity supply such that it is a celebration of sorts to 'have light'. We see it as a luxury to live in areas where 'light is constant' - what is a given and what should be a given in Nigeria considering our resources. We have watched as politicians continually use and dump us. We are looking for 'opportunities' to make our own from the system forgetting that the 'killers' never picture or ever share in your dreams. They do not look forward to the future like we do. We get our visas out of the country when we need it but they die without the Nigerian passport! We are concerned about how that 'uncle' may help and neglect long standing chances to build a nation made of tough fabric and a tough spirit.

Nigeria is weak, you can strenghten it by demanding that things be done appropriately. The journey starts with you - that is the truth! Demand credible elections.


'Wole Aguda