Nigeria’s NEPA (PHCN) is the most useless organization in Africa

April 11, 2012June 18, 2012 / Adeola / 19 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

The national power provider in Nigeria popularly called NEPA is probably the most useless government company or organization in Africa, if not in the world.

Power supply is almost absent despite billions of dollars earmarked for this company annually. The problem with NEPA has been treated in several essays here.

https://aderinola.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/if-nepa-goes-on-strike

https://aderinola.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/everybody-is-on-strike-in-nigeria

Power supply in Nigeria is worse than a nightmare.

Every Nigerian family/household now has a generator. The size, numbers and quality of your generation is even a revelation of your economic strength. Therefore generators have names and one popular one is “I pass my neighbor”. I pass my neighbor is one the smallest generators you can buy and if your neighbor doesn’t have any, definitely you are richer than him/her.

What is even worse is that you will pay monthly for electricity bills whether you have used it or not. NEPA is a government agency in Nigeria that is duping the people of billions of naira across the country everyday.

USELESS NEPA AND USELESS GOVERNMENT PROMISING END TO BLACKOUT IN 1986

Sometimes you can have electricity for 2 or 3 days only in a month, yet your bill will be on the rise. NEPA forces you to pay anyway. The option is that NEPA can “cut” your light so that you are deprived of resting your generator for those (2 or 3 days) of interrupted power supply.

NEPA is one of the biggest woes in Nigeria. Among other national calamities in Nigeria NEPA is a clear revelation of the total absence of intelligence among the evil ruling class.

Some countries in the world have had uninterrupted power supplies for hundreds of years and Nigeria cannot boast of 24 hours of uninterrupted power. Nigerian rulers are fools to the core.

What would have been more rewarding than to set a one-agenda program of ensuring that power is steady in Nigeria? Since 1999 rogues, thieves and looters have paraded the landscape of Nigeria.
They are all thieves.

Before 1999 it was the same story but things got worse under civilian looters. There is no sense in Nigerian politics and policy.
On what will the economy rest? What is the backbone of technology, science, innovations, growth and development if not constant power supply?

Several companies both big and small run on own power generations.
Those who cannot do have left Nigeria and others have packed up totally. Nigeria has about 5 to 6 generations of unemployed graduates and unemployment generally will be on the rise in the absence of power.

There are no genuine commitments from any Nigerian government to make power constant. A serious / an embarrassed government will almost invariably shed other agenda or program to ensure that power supply is constant at all cost, at any cost. Not Nigeria where fools are in power all the time. It’s a shame, a disgrace beyond human comprehension.

The kind of power supply in Nigeria does not correlate with the fact that people pay bills for electricity. By now the government of Jonathan should be so ashamed to even ask people to continue to pay NEPA bills.

The way things are in Nigeria, people should not be paying for electricity until it is constant and assuring. That much the government owed the people.

I cannot believe that NEPA and the government of Nigeria especially is still asking people to pay for what is rarely available. It is robbery and very characteristic of the Nigerian government populated by thugs and thieves from the presidency to the last man in the local council area.

In my opinion this is a great scandal and it qualifies NEPA to be the worst government agency in the world today.

How Governor Danbaba Suntai’s convoy killed one of my best friends, Kokobili Edward

February 5, 2012February 5, 2012 / Adeola / 2 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

I wept uncontrollably. I wept when the news got to me that one of my best friends Kokobili Edward had been killed by the convoy of Governor Danbaba Danfulani Suntai of Taraba State.

My Friend Kokobili Edward

The sad incidence occurred along the International Airport Road in Abuja on Monday the 23rd of January 2012.

The last time I saw Eddy alive was around the 27th or 28th of December 2010 when I visited Nigeria. We attended the Festac Grammar School alumni meeting together on the 26th and he invited me and my family to his house at 512 Road in Festac Town.

Even in December 2006 Eddy and I had a swell time together during my visit to Lagos that year. We were together for the entire 2 weeks that I spent in Nigeria and I remember how he drove me to the Murtala International Airport on the night of my departure.

I have several fond memories of Eddy. From the time we had together at Festac Grammar School (1984-1989) until 2010 I cannot recall a day that Eddy was angry or off beat. He was always smiling and very friendly. His laughter was infective and everyone recalls of his good deeds and happy moods.

My late friend Kokobili Edward, killed by the driver of the Taraba State Governor

Eddy was planning to get married this month-February 2012. So he had travelled to Abuja the fateful weekend of week 3 to start his wedding plans. His fiancée, the love of his life, lives in Abuja and he had travelled on Friday the 20th to fulfill the first of the marriage rituals-the Introduction ceremony.

It was a successful ceremony that Saturday and Eddy was in high spirit that weekend. He was able to gather together friends and families in Abuja for the introduction ceremony. He skipped the burden of transporting people from Lagos for the Abuja ceremony.

On his last day on earth Eddy was in a hurry to get back to Lagos and to return to work. He was obviously looking forward to sharing the good news about of the successful introduction ceremony with his other family members in Lagos. He never made it.

According to an eyewitness account, there was heavy traffic on the International Airport Road and the threat caused by the Boko Haram incursions into Abuja was an additional problem. The check points made travelling to the airport cumbersome and the movement of vehicular traffic was slower than normal.

In any case Eddy disembarked from the taxi and was negotiating with an okada rider when he was crushed to death by the car belonging to the Taraba state governor. Eddy had his back to the main traffic so he stood no chance when the overspeeding car went on the pedestrian path. He was killed on the spot.

Eddy became a victim of both the insecurity in Nigeria and the recklessness of government agencies.

The alumni association, friends of Eddy and the Kokobilis are asking question and looking for justice.

Governor Danbaba was already at the airport. Why was his driver in such an extreme haste to pick him up? Why did the reckless driver decide to drive along the pedestrian path? Was that a regular procedure for the governor’s convoy-that is-to drive at high speed and along pedestrian paths? Did the driver ignore a red traffic light which could have spared Eddy’s life?

What is the governor of Taraba State doing to ensure that the families of Eddy Kokobili are comforted in their sorrow? Who will console us-his friends and other acquaintances?

Is Mr. Danbaba planning to visit the family in Festac Town Lagos to express his condolence and sympathy over the recklessness of his official driver? Will this governor pay a personal condolence visit to Eddy’s fiancée and her family in Abuja to express his regret over the irreparable loss?

In general how many more lives are we going to destroy as a result of the carelessness and recklessness of government officials?

The office of Governor Danbaba Suntai or its representatives may have accepted guilt in this case but they must go beyond that. They must demonstrate that they really have human feelings and that the loss is unwarranted and highly regrettable.

They must participate in the burial ceremony and give the Kokobilis the utmost support that they need at this time. By taking adequate responsibilities for this sad loss the Taraba State governor can ensure that a healing process is initiated among the friends and families of Edward Kokobili. We loved him so much and we can’t believe he’s gone forever.

The reckless driver who drove the SUV Nissan that killed Eddy was reportedly arrested by the police. It would be useful to ascertain the mental condition of the driver. The investigation should cover whether he was driving under the influence. More importantly, he should be prosecuted without delay to serve as a deterrent for other reckless drivers in Nigeria.

Edward Kokobili lived a good life. Like the rest of us he struggled to make it in life. He was determined to succeed and he was still on his way up before he met his untimely death. He was the head of a company called Feed Addictives, Agrochemicals & Veterinary Products, Vitacem Nigeria Ltd.

Eddy was a graduate of the University of Benin and an active member of both the Festac Grammar School Alumni Projects Management Group and Festac Grammar School Old Students Association Klass ‘89.

Edward Kokobili will be missed by his brothers, families and friends.

Who will comfort us in our sorrow?

Eddy, you won’t be there the next time I’ll be on 512 Road. I will miss you. Sun re o..!

The War on Fuel Subsidy: Isn’t It Time for Jonathan To Get Out of the Way?

December 23, 2011 / Adeola / 2 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

By removing subsidy Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Iweala are trying to save N1 000 000 000 000 but together with others before them they have all stolen more than N60 800 000 000 000. Is it not wiser to try to recover the stolen monies by fighting corruption TOTALLY? So much for Iweala’s Havard Education and IMF employment.

If Jonathan and PDP remain in 2012, I won’t recover from the shock..!

Nigerians should resist by any/all possible means the proposed removal of the subsidy on petroleum products.

If the pump price of petrol hits N140/per liter Nigerians have a duty and the obligation to make the country ungovernable for Mr. Jonathan. Since Nigerians insisted in April 2011 that they voted for Jonathan and not the PDP, then a moral obligation here is to ensure that they remove the evil they accidentally or stupidly voted for.

At that time, Nigerians should demand for the sack of Ngozi Iweala. This is the same woman who in connivance with Obasanjo ensured that Abacha’s loots disappeared into thin air. Now she is the champion for the removal of subsidy.

No Nigerian politician or Minister will be affected by this policy because they steal and loot as they like. Instead it the people who are already poor that will become poorer. More than 90m Nigerians live from hand-to-mouth, mostly on less than 2 dollars / day.

Already since many years now, many civil servants don’t go to work daily because of insecurity and the cost of transportation. With the removal of subsidy the cost of transportation will be one of the highest in the world on some of the world’s worst roads!

When the cost of transportation increases, the cost of food will increase and hunger will become more rampant. A spiral effect will ensure and the cost of housing increases. In a country where unemployment is a way of life, crime will increase and insecurity will reach an unprecedented height.

And the thieves in Aso rock and other government houses will continue to merry and loot. This is probably the last chance for the Nigerian revolution!

It is time for the people to seize their regions and stop this homage to Abuja. For the government that has always denied the people an open referendum for how to lead their lives, there will probably be no better opportunity for self-determination than now.

Jonathan as a typical corrupt Nigerian politician has refused to confront the hydra-headed problem which itself is corruption. If you are corrupt or you have skeletons in you cupboards, then it is clear you cannot fight corruption.

The same goes for Mrs. Iweala and the zeal with which she is pursuing this evil agenda.

Otherwise all the corrupt people in NNPC should have been prosecuted by now. All the corruption around the Nigerian oil should have been tackled by now. Jonathan came to power in April 2011 and it is business as usual.

Instead of rolling out a blue print for Agriculture and how our mineral sources (including Uranium) will be used in 2012, Mr. Jonathan and Mrs Iweala are reading out riots acts. Jonathan stated that he is ready to confront the demonstrations that will follow.

It appears that N921.9 billion for “war” in the 2012 budget was not only for BOKO HARAM war. Part of it will be used to fight the people and kill the voters if possible. The evil in PDP will be manifested more than ever before in 2012.

Iweala and Jonathan want to save N1 Trillion. I challenged both to them to prosecute all the corrupt politicians in Nigeria, they will emerge with more than N60 Trillion.

They can start with the USD12 billion that Babangida cannot account for. They can then proceed to the N16 billion that melted away under Obasanjo while pretending to be fixing the power problem.

Even Abacha’s loot should be retraced and Iweala can tell us what exactly happened to the recovered loot. What she must not say this time is the lie she told a few years ago: that the money was used to execute projects that pre-dated the recovered loot.

In several ways and through several avenues, Nigeria can recover billions of dollars of stolen funds that will make the proposed removal of fuel subsidy a useless adventure.

In that sense Nigeria needs strong men who can take actions and prosecute thieves and loots. We are tired of weak men and weak women like Mr. Jonathan and Mrs. Iweala.

Nigerians have only one major obligation in 2012, to end the PDP Regime in any way they can as a way forward..!

I agree with Reuben Abati: It is Time to Stone Those in Power

November 14, 2011January 1, 2012 / Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

In 2009 Reuben Abati recommended that it will soon be time to start stoning the economists in the corridor of power in Abuja. In 2011 I strongly recommend that everyone in the corridor of power and all those who are called stakeholders who have supported the removal of the subsidy on oil and oil products should be stoned.

Goodluck Jonathan has pinned the reactions of Nigerians to the proposed removal of subsidy on those who want to throw him out of office. I say that he fired the first rounds of shots on his legs. If this will mark the beginning of the end for his insensitive regime, let the occupation starts.

I want to ask the same questions that Reuben Abati asked in 2009: How? Where is this subsidy that government talks about? How was it disbursed?

Reuben Abati wrote in that headline that Nigerians will soon be trekking. Sadly enough Nigerians have actually been trekking before 2009. I remembered trekking from festac town to CMUL during the 2001/2002 fuel scarcity. I had obligations that couldn’t wait.

In 2011 Nigerians are not only willing to trek, they appear ready to march down the Jonathan government that has come to be characterized by weakness in all its ramifications.

From one generation to another, the Nigerian government presents a constant image of a permanent aggregation of dubious elements. In my personal opinion I have concluded that no amount of additional suggestions or written essays can solve Nigeria’s problems.

Are there problems facing Nigerians that the solutions have not been proffered here in the Nigerian Village Square or elsewhere where Nigerians display their intellectual capabilities? Do we have problems in Nigeria that we have no discussed about openly? What has happened to their implementations?

I believe so much in the solution proffered by Reuben Abati. Even so because when it is carried out it will consume people like him. I like such solutions that will not spare the hypocrites, the pretenders, the sycophant and the famously corrupt people in government, many of whom have recently been rewarded by meaningless national awards over several years.

I can’t imagine how people receive national awards in one of the most corrupt countries in the world. How does it feel to receive national awards in a country with one of the highest child and maternal mortalities in Africa? How does it feel to receive awards in a country where electricity is almost absent? How does it feel to receive national awards in a country where public education is almost grounded?

If Nigerians obey Abati’s call by simply rising up and stoning the people in the corridor of power, I am convinced that the revolution we long sought will start. It might be ultimate the clean-up we have waited from since 1960.
It is sad how things have turned out for the ordinary Nigerians. On a poverty wage of USD 113/ month, a Nigerian is expected to pay his rent, bills, and sundries. There is no greater miracle on planet earth than a Nigerian living on N18 000 per month.

In a country where more than 20% of the population is unemployed, I have found it hard to find a greater tragedy against the back drop of the immense natural resources and potential human resources.

If there is any country in Africa where the government should be giving relief packages to her citizens after 50 years of misrule and leadership failure, that country is Nigeria.

In a twist of test of resiliency the ordinary masses will be insulted further. For failing the build or maintain functional refineries, for failing to fight or curb systemic corruption, for failing to deliver on the so-called dividends of democracy, the insensitive Nigerian government now headed by Goodluck Jonathan will make Nigerians suffer even more.

Rather than relief package the economic team of Goodluck Jonathan, his executive council and the so-called stakeholders will deliver loads of additional burden onto Nigeria.

The arguments are hinged on the famous textbook concepts rather than the realities on the ground. There are no arguments that the Jonathan government has put forward that is different from what Obasanjo and late Yar Adua proposed. In all the previous partial or total removal of subsidies that have been used to increase the pump price of petroleum products, there has never been a corresponding increase in the quality of lives of the Nigerian people.

There is absolutely no reason to believe or trust the Jonathan government. It represents the PDP government that has held sway since 1999. The PDP is the largest aggregation of corrupt people in Africa. Under the PDP the quality of life has declined sharply at the same time that the cost of it has continued to increase unhindered.

This, as Jonathan feared in his recent utterances that the opposition wants to bring down his government, must be the last test of resiliency for Nigerians. Any attempt to increase the burden of Nigerians should be met with the highest possible resistance. The opposition that I see is the over 90m Nigerians living below the poverty level.

The argument that the state governors are in support of the removal of fuel subsidy does not hold water. Which governors? We know they want more money from the 52% that the federal government has been looting for several years because they are all the same birds. Why should what the governor wants be a benchmark for what the people want?

Why do the extremely rich but corrupt people in the corridor of power think that they know what is good for the suffering masses? When will the voices of the people start to matter democratically, if truly we are under a democracy?

I think it is sad and disappointing that Jonathan think that only the people in the middle class who have 4-5 jeeps will be affected by the subsidy removal. A lot of middle class Nigerians are even still struggling to maintain their statuses and to continue to pursue a happy life.

The dynamics of the Nigerian economy certainly reveals that the masses are the end-receivers of failed policies. When the subsidy is removed there is no doubt that the cost of transportation that is already exorbitant will increase further and the prices of dietary and other consumable products will follow the same curve.

We cannot live in denial and allow those who are shielded from the reality of everyday existence since they got to the corrupt corridor of power speak for us any longer. Reuben Abati and the other advisers cannot speak for the masses. Nigeria has not improved since this administration started wasting our time. Policies or parameters that neither put food on the table nor increase the quality/standard of living are abstract and worthless.

The practical situation in Nigeria today is worse and even more deplorable compared to 2004. Someone, an ordinary Nigerian who knows where the shoes hurt, wrote today that Nigerians should be ready to turn sand to food. In all sincerity he was not joking and he didn’t think we should laugh about his comment. People are suffering.
Nigerians need relief packages and they should be brought forward now.

If this virtual subsidy on oil products is removed and Nigerians remain resilient, it means our collective “suffering and smiling” will continue. It also means that People Deceiving People Party and the team of political and economic looters who are blind to the reality of a daily Nigerian life have succeeded again. Our glory is not yet come and that is so sad and disheartening.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Nigeria: Before the Strike Over Poverty Wage

July 13, 2011 / Adeola / 1 Comment

Adeola Aderounmu

Warning strike actions will start across Nigeria on July 20 2011 over the non-implementation of the minimum wage of N18 000. I call this wage poverty wage anyway.

The state governments are saying that they cannot pay the amount as they don’t have that kind of economic resources.

Before the 2011 presidential elections even the NLC went to show support for the election of Jonathan. When Jonathan told them that he had approved N18 000 as their minimum poverty wage, they did not ask him how it will be implemented. They had a stupid meeting with Jonathan I would say. They were too myopic at that time.

The thing is: they can strike forever. The money that the state will use for the payment of the minimum wage is with Jonathan and the federal government.

More than 50% of Nigeria’s wealth is concentrated at the federal level, yet it was Jonathan who signed the minimum wage without initiating processes that will reduce the amount of money at the centre.

Jonathan and NLC are dreamers, I guess.

What is the federal government of Nigeria doing with more than 50% of Nigeria’s wealth?

I know.

Jonathan, his lazy ministers, his idle assistants and the jokers in the National Assembly and House of Representatives are sharing the money daily. These funny crooks who called themselves politicians are taking home more than 25% of the country’s wealth.

The rest of us, more than 160m can go to hell with the remaining 75% that is used to service re-current expenditures.
N18 000?

What can that buy? Still the state government cannot afford to pay it!

Can Jonathan and David Mark live on N18 000? Funny people.

I heard that Italy has a big debt. Do you know how much it is? 1.2 billion euros.

In Nigeria only Dimeji Bankole stole more than that as the speaker of the House of Assembly. This means that he can even pay off the debt of another country including Italy.

Nigerian politicians have no clues. They are interested in looting and they continue to succeed. The people praise them for their ill-gotten wealth and this encourage more and more people to go into politics just to steal.

The minimum wage should not be a problem. If states were formed based on their viability, then N18 000 should not be a problem. But states were created in Nigeria so that they could receive stipends from the oil sales. That is a tragedy on its own. A group of people sit idle all month, wait for money from the federal government and then share or loot the money as the case may be.

The local governments wait upon the state government for the same reason.

So in Nigeria’s politics, it is about money sharing.

They do nothing to promote the state of infrastructure or to develop the service and manufacturing industry. The economy is almost mono-economy surviving mainly on the sales of crude oil. We even import finished oil products. What a country..!

Nigeria needs to be restructured. More than ever before I want the re-emergence of regional governments where the regions would have more control over their resources and economic development.

All the powers concentrated at the centre should be decentralized and all the money going to the federal government that is not doing anything and that is also very far from the people should be taken away and given the regions.

But these things won’t work if corruption remains a way of life. Almost all Nigerian politicians are thieves. So it has been difficult to have both reforms and positive changes.

That makes the struggle for the minimum wage a minor struggle because the system is wrong and bad. It is very annoying actually.

NLC has not used its powers in the right way. It should actually be initiating a revolution that will sweep all these looters into jail or exile.

Nigeria and some countries in West Africa need their own revolutions.

Otherwise these looting, stealing, corruption, laziness in government and the diseases and poverty that continue to spread like wild fire will remain forever in West/ sub-Saharan Africa.

Good luck with your useless misinformed strike NLC. When you are ready, you will revolt once and for all.