ON February 2 2017 I received two lamentations from Citizen Otunba Doyin Ogungbe on my Whatsapp. The social media is performing wonders in Nigeria and it has exposed Nigeria and Nigerians to the outside world. In the same vein more Nigerians are now abreast of news outside their shores and can see the nakedness of their so called leaders.
I have reproduced the lamentations for the benefit of those of our country men and women who for now rely only on newspapers and television and radio to access news.
Hear Otunba Doyin Ogungbe: This is really disturbing… Last night while surfing the net, I stumbled on some very shocking information. Do you know China generates about 5,682TW (Terawatts) of electricity. I’m pretty sure 99% of Nigerians don’t even know what a Terawatts is…
If I remember correctly, some time last year the Minister of Power said Nigeria has the potential of generating 12,000MW (Megawatts) but unfortunately we’ve only attained a maximum of 5,000MW in the history of a country of 180million people.
Now I decided to use a converter to see what China and other industrialized nations who operate within the Terawatts region will generate in Megawatts.
So let’s convert terawatts to megawatts; China. 5,682,000,000MW, USA. 4,324,000,000MW, India.1,368,000,000MW,
Japan. 995,000,000MW
UK. 338,000,000MW
Nigeria. 5,000MW
Seriously Nigerians, is this possible? Did I make a mistake in my conversion because I don’t want to believe this…
Are we cursed or what? With all the abundance in this country! What sort of people are we? Yet we rally round these politicians and so called clergy men and support blindly based on tribe or religion, when at the long run we’re the ones being screwed!
How can a nation of over 180million people depend on less than 5,000MW of power? How can we grow economically? Where will the development come from when we don’t have the capacity.
All we engage ourselves in are tribal/religious wars/killings daily, corrupt leaders in the public and private sectors looting the country’s wealth, lawlessness without fear of the law, broken down systems, schools, hospitals, basic infrastructure all collapsed. I can’t believe where we are as a nation. Its a shame really! We should be ashamed of ourselves as Nigerians. I wonder what other nations think about us.
What a waste!
Here is the second lamentation by Otunba Doyin Ogungbe:
On January 20, immediately after Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Obama family moved to a rented apartment after spending eight years at the White House. The Obamas don’t own a house till date. Also, Obama paid for groceries from toothpaste to toilet papers and dry cleaning from his own pocket. Even the family vacation was not free. Similarly, after the ceremony, Joe Biden, Obama’s deputy, carrying his own brief case, took the famous Amtrak Acela Express train to get back to his hometown Wilmington. Poor people! Aren’t they?
Incredible examples of personal integrity by two highest ranking office holders of the sole superpower; Biden held public office for 43 years following his first election to the Senate at 29. Nearly 35 years in the Senate and eight years as the Vice President yet he couldn’t afford to pay for the expensive cancer treatment of his son anymore. And who was the son? The Attorney General of his State of Delaware. He also had been an Iraq war veteran before becoming the Attorney General. But the cancer treatment ate up all his savings. Then came his father to the rescue. But even that was not enough. And just when he planned to offer his house for sale to mobilise funding for the son’s treatment, President Obama loaned him funds from his personal savings to prevent him from selling his home. Biden himself recounted this before a TV audience with tearful eyes. Unfortunately the son died but not after the father had given all his best.
Neither Obama nor Biden boast tonnes of money, multiple houses and fleet of cars, escorted by massive security after all these years at top posts. And with heads held high, they walk out of their official residences to rented homes and public transport. The less said the better about politicians in Asia and Africa!!
Having put Ogungbe’s lamentations before us all, it isn’t time Nigeria woke up to the realities of her shameful existence? We must continue to ask the same question over and over again: why is it that this damn place called Nigeria by Lugard cannot be fixed? What is wrong with the leaders and followers in this ugly contraption?
We know that the root cause of the woes of Nigeria was the wrong-headed Amalgamation of the North and South Protectorates fashioned in the image of Major Lugard’s Sudan which itself was modelled after Britain’s dubious political structure that made Wales and Scotland JUNIOR partners in the British Federation.
We know that unless and until the Amalgamation is reversed and the nationalities that were forced to live together in a Unitary government get their freedom back and equality and justice enthroned no progress can ever be made in this sick land.
It is therefore mandatory that those who love this land called Nigeria should quickly and urgently sit down together and find workable solution to the National Question. Until then NEPA shall continue to give us darkness, our taps shall continue to run dry, our education shall continue to regress, and the Fulani herdsmen shall continue their reign of terror and barbarism.
Until then Otunba Doyin Ogungbe shall continue to lament the plight of the hapless people living in Nigeria.
And Citizen Dr Babs Sagoe reacts:
Those countries with terrawatts decentralise their power system. I keep repeating, NOBODY, PMB included can fix Nigeria as is- central control of everything. What we need to do is for right thinking individuals to form a pressure group to push for fiscal federalism based on the present 6 zones or regions being completely independent to generate resources for their own survival. The Igbos will then have the opportunity to prove they are the best in everything as they now claim everywhere.
Senator Sani’s suggestion of a federation made up of present 6 zones with 6 regional assemblies, 1 national assembly, one president and 6 governors is the best option I have read so far, and should be the issue for the next election