Tag: boko haram

Our Girls’ are missing since April 15. They are the main symbol, no longer of themselves alone, but of the wider murderous Boko Haram terrorist tragedy with its thousands of executed victims and millions of refugees. Last week’s daylight sack of 700,000 population Mubi with huge casualties and the expulsion of the Armed Forces and the bomb in Gombe State motor park killing and injuring long-suffering Fellow Nigerians exemplify the will and power of Boko Haram. Where next? Abuja? The Armed Forces needs new strategic victories, intelligence and defence strategies.

Nigeria is groping with a pitiful 3-5,000Mw in spite of uninterrupted government boastful continuous political or military power since independence confirming a mass failure of understanding of the value of electric power. It is repugnant that a civilian government is only planning 10,000Mw by 2015 and 20,000Mw by 2020 of power when our population would have grown by 18 percent. Do you understand the ridiculousness of explaining to a Nigerian child that Nigeria after 50 years of lucrative oil trade still shamelessly has ONE TENTH OF THE ELECTRIC POWER of the evil anti-Black Apartheid South Africa which has 45,000Mw, WITH A QUARTER OF OUR POPULATION? Apartheid ‘kindly’ provided uninterrupted power supply. Why do Nigerians hate each other so much- ‘Nigerian Electricity Apartheid’?

Incomprehensibly, corrupt and incompetent Nigeria exports crude oil abroad only to re-import refined products due to ‘Serial Killers Of Nigeria’s Refineries’. Do not expect an electric power miracle to silence the deafening cacophony of Nigeria’s new ‘Talking Drum’ the generator. No other African country is as poor power-wise as Nigeria. Nigerians require 150,000Mw recommended by the World Bank and the United Nations as our right.

Indeed if all the money that the political and military class stole and steal were used for annual incremental electricity capacity building, we would not have ‘No Electric Power Always’ today and even Boko Haram may have never taken such hold. Instead of power plants which the Minister of Power happily boasts will take three years to plan, fabricate and build, why does Nigeria not provide ‘Emergency Power’ or do what it did with the cellphone – jump landline wahala and go into the future by making everywhere ‘power’-ful by going solar everywhere at once with a $5 billion Solar CBN Fund with low interest loans? Use what God has given us- the sun. There are solar efforts, recently a planned 3,000Mw plant in the South-east and solar-lit major roads. But we need a quantum leap in solar strategies.

If you do not believe that God has given us enough power from the sun and if you do not believe the power of Nigeria’s politicians to willingly and wickedly deprive you even of God’s gift, solar power, then please read these internet quotes found by ‘yahoooing’ or  Google-ing ‘France solar power Sahara farms. ‘Instead of looking at the Sahara desert as unusable wasteland, look at it as good as gold! Think… If 0.3% of this desert were covered in solar panels, African solar farms will power all of Europe by 2050.’  ‘One percent of the Sahara Desert covered in solar panels would power the entire world . . . The EU seeks to take 20% of their energy from renewable resources by 2020. The EU will lay cables across the Mediterranean, build solar power plants in the Sahara, and import energy from across the sea – financed by European companies…supported by the EU. The plan is to cover 6,500 square miles of the desert in photovoltaic systems and wind parks’.

And what will be the benefit to Africa of this EU ‘Sun for Europe’ initiative? Beyond the politics of Burkina Faso and the overdue exit of Blaise Campaore who killed Thomas Sankara 27 years ago, what strategies do the AU’s Energy Commission and the African Development Bank have to solarise Africa for Africans? Are they discussing with billionaires like Gates, Mo Ibrahim, Tata and Dangote? Are 100 African universities and businesses being funded for ‘Africa Goes Solar’ mega projects? Let it not be that ‘EU goes solar, Africa remains mumu inside darkness, O!’ Africa was never the Dark Continent. Africa always had the sun. All we need is a sun-someone with a ‘Presidential Solar Vision’ to light up the day and night with that sun.

Nigeria must go solar in all homes and businesses.  The federal government is training 700 solar engineers. Unhappily the training of 400 engineers under FERMA had little effect on potholes, so do not expect much solar power.

Nigeria expects a spiralling fall in naira value and an economic disaster unless we cut the excessive self-allocated political Salaries and Perks and salaries for life for National Assembly (NASS) officials which are a manifestation of a cross-party political greed. For example, consumptive Constitutional Projects are kicking off. Do not be deceived. Every kobo of the ridiculously high political party nomination form fees was got or will be recovered by stealing from the budget. Nigeria must cut these political budgetary items. And implement strategies to keep political parties away from the LGA, state and national budgets. For self-preservation, Nigeria must urgently cut the number of Special Advisers and their salaries. Make them and NASS and all state and LGA legislatures, all politics, part time. Nigeria cannot bear the financial assault of political Salaries and Perks and corruption–SAPing our budgets nationwide.  Politics must go PART TIME.