My Response to The Buhari Power Sector Plans Video: Pat Akinbola PhD.
The entire video was revealing of the sinister agenda of the govt to undermine development in the South (the economic hub of the country) and indeed the west African sub-region, through an ill-conceived northernization agenda.
Delivered by an errand boy from the South-South (Ajuri Ngelale) in traditional garb in itself was an interesting irony. The energy and enthusiasm with which he was delivering his master's message was, in my view, pitiful, and at the same time amusing. Saro Wiwa et al. must have been turning in their graves.
A full appreciation and understanding of the video clip can only be made in the context of the date it was recorded. This is before the late Abba Kyari made his solo trip to Germany regarding this same mega-contract. This was before the CCECC shenanigans in Nigerian business dealings came to light.
Let’s now highlight some of what he spoke about and what he was silent about.
4He highlighted the rapid industrialization of the North as a national priority. Can u rapidly industrialize without education, in a region with the highest dropout and poverty rate in the world? How does a massive infrastructural project in the North, in the short to medium term, help save Nigeria from the downward spiral its currently on?
With the progressive collapse of security and the environmental devastation that is increasingly making the North less attractive from business investment, who benefits from this project as a priority for Nigeria now? Where do the resources to finance it come from? What about the payback plan?
He mentions PMB as a visionary who has suddenly come up with all these bright ideas about how to develop the power sector. How true is that? It's obvious that he didn't really understand what occurred in the privatization of PHCN in the 2000s. He spoke in ignorance and left out vital details for anyone who would really want to understand the issues that led to its ultimate failure. I ran a GIS company in Nigeria between 2003 and 2012 (before running out of the country) and became intimately familiar with the power sector in the course of my business activities.
He did not once mention the price tag associated with the project, or the security implications of a sole source delegation of our entire power sector infrastructure to SIEMENS, a single company (However reputable or well-referenced they maybe.)
What about environmental issues, and the global trend and policies towards green-friendly technologies? Not one word from him about that. Solar did not come up once, nor wind, ethanol or other alternative sources.
What about the huge costs and illegalities that occurred during the privatization effort itself, which resulted in the failure of the transition to the private sector? Any plans to recover some of these lost assets from PHCH sell-off? No mention of this by him.
1What about the local content component of the Siemens deal? How do we assure that our expertise through professionals and indigenous companies ground the infrastructural in our environment making it sustainable through proper maintenance etc? What about technology transfer and our teeming unemployed in and outside the country?
These are a handful of relevant issues, which bring me to the conclusion that the days of real reckoning are not far off for many of our leaders, who continue to take us all for a ride.
Pat Akinbola PhD.