By Jaye Gaskia
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Jaye Gaskia
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Why do some nations
lag behind other nations? Why, in spite 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, in spite
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 in spite 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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