Tag: cheer

• Still a long way to stable power supply and cheap cooking gas

In a country typically torn between the camps of those who see things as either half full or half empty, there are lessons to take from the Half Yearly Review of the Economy (January – June 2023) by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN). Whereas the high point of that review is that daily electricity supply on the average increased marginally from 10.6 hours per day in the last half of 2022 to 11.3 hours per day in 2023, the modest improvement, which is a mere 42 minutes on the average, is said to have translated to a decline in total expenditure on alternative energy by 21.1 per cent during the period. In other words, MAN members spent N16.23 billion less in the first six months of the current year than it did in the preceding six months. 

On the flip side, MAN would equally note that the average number of outages per day, rather than reduce, actually increased marginally from 4.4 times in the first half of 2022 to 4.7 times in the first half of the year. 

For the domestic users of cooking gas, theirs is however a different kettle of fish. The cost of cooking gas has since hit the roofs. From N750/kg earlier in the year, the cost of the product has since hit an all-time high of N1,000/kg. The reasons, according to reports, have to do with such factors like the weak naira, limited bulk storage and other associated logistical issues.

The two developments, somewhat dissimilar, at least on the surface, exemplify not just the Nigerian paradox of failed dreams and aspirations but the leadership challenge that the nation has been mired in.

MAN is right to put it as it is. However, at a daily power supply average of less than 12 hours, what the trend starkly suggests is not just the long road still ahead in the nation’s quest to have a stable regime of electricity supply but the potential gains that a sustained improvement in the electricity sector can bring to the economy as a whole. 

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In the circumstance, few would of course agree that there is anything to cheer. Most would probably recall that the ground-breaking legislation – the Power Sector Act – was passed into law some 18 years ago. The law is supposed to have paved the way for a new governance system and private sector-led investment in the power sector. Yes, we had the much-hyped unbundling of the old entity – the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria (PHCN) – that produced a group of anaemic operators, including the Federal Government-owned transmission company. That structure, rather than deliver on their mandates, has produced more headaches for Nigerians than they could ever have imagined.  With the so-called investors possessing neither the cash nor the expertise to turn the fortunes of the sector around, the sector has been stumbling from one crisis to another. As a result, billions of dollars taxpayers’ money continue to be poured into the sector, not only to provide stabilisation but to prevent a total collapse of the sector. Little wonder the current debates as to whether things have changed in any fundamental sense. 

The story of the gas sector is only slightly different. For a leading gas producer, it is of course shameful that the government has, for whatever reasons, failed over the years to avail the enabling environment for gas development and to facilitate the development of the requisite infrastructure for domestic gas utilisation. The result is the current situation in which the country currently relies on gas importation for domestic use. And to imagine that the country in December 2022 alone actually flared as much as 10.027 billion Standard Cubic Feet (SCF) of gas. 

The Bola Tinubu administration has its work cut out in the two sectors. The country has dwelt on this trajectory for far too long; it is time to turn the tide. While bold and imaginative thinking are required, more however would depend on the administration’s single-minded resolve to reverse the current wasteful and unproductive course. Surely, it can be done. 

•Hurrah! The Nigerian North East is getting progressively more secure

The Yoruba dub the Eid-el-Kabir, with its feast of slaughtered ram, “Ileya” (Time to go home).  It is the big feast, where Muslim faithful leave their places of abode and work to go feasting and partying in their home towns.

That much was replicated, in much of the North East, the vortex of Boko Haram savagery, this last Eid-el-Kabir.

But unlike the age-old South West folk that tagged this voluntary  economic cycle of travelling out to work and returning home to mark Sallah, these North East folk had an enforced trauma — refugees from Boko Haram cruelty.

For no less than four years, refugees fled Konduga, Gwoza, Mafa, Ngala and other communities, never to return, because of Boko Haram terror. They either, at the zenith of the terror, were killed, maimed or captured by Boko Haram cells; or after, were involuntary residents of numerous internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps, with their own share of human sufferings, no thanks to inadequate facilities and provisions for these displaced citizens.

But all that is changing — gradually. For starters, indigenes and residents that fled the quad of Konduga, Gwoza, Mafa and Ngala were resettled in their former homesteads, less than two weeks ago.

In Konduga alone, a reported 3, 500 returned. Though the number of returnees to the other three communities was unavailable, the returnees were so excited they paraded the streets, drumming and dancing!

That, from news reports, was the spirit that pervaded the Sallah celebrations in Konduga, with Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima, seizing the occasion to pray at the Konduga eid grounds, with two senators, Abubakar Kyari (Borno North) and Baba Kaka Garbai (Borno Central), under the Imam Idiani of Konduga, Alhaji Goni Hassan.

Governor Shettima deserves praise for worshipping with the Konduga Muslims. The empathy with the local folks would go a long way to boost confidence. If the governor can worship with our people at home, those still having  doubts about returning could be telling themselves, then the place must be safe!

Besides, the governor’s public endorsement of progressive peace and security, among the folk in a fierce Boko Haram hunting ground not too long ago, is a high boost for the war against terror.

On this score, the Buhari Presidency also deserves praise. It may well be the bounden duty of any state worth its name to secure its territory. But under President Goodluck Jonathan, even that rudimentary chore didn’t sound so routine!

But now that the Buhari administration is winning the war against terror, thanks to the gallant men and women of the armed forces, it is time it put even more efforts to winning the peace.

Winning the peace of terror starts with giving the returnees of Konduga, Gwoza, Mafe and Ngala all the support to settle down and do legitimate business to fend for themselves. The expected help entails physical infrastructure in reconstructing roads and ruined houses, social infrastructure in rebuilding schools and hospitals and ensuring they are operative and functional, in no time. Since the communities are basically agrarian, agricultural extension support services might not be a bad idea.

All these would go a long way in helping these highly traumatised people to start life all over again, fending for themselves, as any respectable adult would.

Still, these resettled communities are only the beginning of what appears a long resettlement programme, which the Federal Government, in concert with the North East state governments, should handle with dispatch and clinical efficiency.

The IDP camps, aside from the initial euphoria of playing host to former Boko Haram captives, have not exactly been a success story. The humanitarian crises there have been gory enough to qualify as peace-time equivalent of the Boko Haram horror.

So, the way to go is fasten the resettlement process so that the displaced can go back to their homes. That means the governments should expedite action on infrastructure renewal, so that these infrastructure, physical and social, can adequately support the incoming population. These should be urgently done.

Still, eternal vigilance, they say, is the price of liberty. That means the security agencies should be keenly alert, securing the resettled communities, as they come on stream.

We cannot just afford the panic of a freak but devastating Boko Haram attack on these over-traumatised people again.

•Nigerian-American girl, Chiney Ogwumike, is best American women college basketball player

Though this Nigerian dream is subsumed under the American, it remains Nigerian all the same and it is remarkable in its power and glory. Nigerian-American, Miss Chinenye (Chiney) Ogwumike, is the top overall draft in 2014 for the Women National Basket Association (WNBA). What this means is that she is the best college player graduating to the huge and lucrative National Basketball Association (NBA) professional league. She was picked by the Connecticut Sun team. This feat is the second in the Ogwumike family in what seems like a genetic trait; just two years ago, her sister, Nneka, was also the overall top WNBA draft (2012).

The 22- year- old schooled at Cypress Fairbanks High School in Cypress, Texas from where she started her exploits in the ball game. She was named a WBCA and McDonald’s All-American. She participated in the High School All-America Game, where she scored 24 points and earned the Most Valuable Player (MVP) honours for her team.

Excelling both in academics and sports, she chose Stanford University over Connecticut and Notre Dame to join up with her sister. Many Stanford basketball records fell under the sheer power and prowess of the 6 foot 3 inches power forward. As at January 2014, Cheney (as she is known in America) holds the record for most rebounds in the history Stanford women Basketball. She was in the USA Basketball Under-18 team that participated in the 2010 FIBA Americas U18 Championship for Women. She started in all five games and as leading scorer and leading rebounder, she helped the USA team capture the gold medal.

Players would naturally progress from the Under-18 to Under-19 but Chiney bucked that trend. She played so well as a U-18 that she was promoted to the US World University Games team for the 2011 World University Games held in Shenzhen, China. She was in the US team with her sister, Nneka. Chiney led her team in shooting percentage and helped it win all six games and earn the gold medal at the tournament.

Between 2011 and 2014, Chiney has won over a dozen awards including Freshman Player of the Year, 2011; Player of the Year, 2013 and 2014. She was also in the ESPNW First All-American Team of the Year, 2014 and the USBW All-American Team, 2014 and the prestigious John R. Wooden Award, 2014. Now that she has joined the elite league of top-rated basketball players in America, the NBA at the top, it is hope that she would continue with her winning streak and dominate at the highest level too.

Chiney and her sister Nneka before her are clear testimonies that Nigerians are full of potentials waiting to explode. Though the conduct and practice of the game is at best haphazard, like most other things, yet Nigerians exfoliate and excel whenever the condition and environment are right. Recall Akeem Olajuwon in the 80s and 90s who dominated the NBA and numerous other less prominent players in that pre-eminent American pastime. In the just ended collegiate season, two other Nigerian girls were in line for drafting.

The exploits of Nigerians in all spheres of human endeavour across the world is a reminder of what might have been and of course what would be should we show a bit of dexterity and commonsense in managing our affairs. With a modicum of good leadership and a revamp of our institutions, Nigeria is like a latent volcano of human potentials waiting to erupt and reverberate across the world. Can the feat of the Ogwumike sisters trigger our revival?