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