WHEN the Lord Jesus Christ was taken to Mount Calvary to be crucified for an offence he never committed, it was a zero sum game for him. This is because he needed the passage of death in evil men’s hands so as to fulfill the righteousness of immorality through resurrection of the third day of his death.
Invariably, Calvary for Christ and subsequently Christendom is a metaphor for triumph of good over evil. In contradistinction, some Nigerians are today taking the country to another different Calvary of sorts which won’t bring any cheer to anyone. This apocalyptic journey began long ago. However, my focus is on the happening of 2014 as a window into my pronouncement.
January 2014
The Federal Government gave June 2014 deadline for new investors in power to stabilize supply. Well, once again, the government demonstrated, by such directives that it likes Orwellian double speak. Imagine, the federal government is in charge of power distribution generation and transmission while the third leg of our insincere, Obtuse privatization of the power sector is in the hands of DISCOS. If therefore the federal government does not generate and transmit power, what will the DISCOS distribute? Yes, tell me, if the federal government is only supplying the nation with a meager 3,500 mega watts to DISCOS in the country, how DISCOS can meet the demand for power of consumers.
I no know book-oo.
Also, remember the late No.1 highlife maestro Cardinal Jim Rex Lawson from kalabari in Rivers State. In one of his lyrics, he said:
I knows how to speech English but I never goes scholarship.
Therefore, I am giving the floor to Mr. Curtis Nwajei, the Zonal Assistant General Manager (Corporate Affairs) of BEDC with headquarters in Benin City. In a phone-in call to WAKA Programme of EBS, Benin on December 25, 2014 he gave a lie to the federal government’s pronouncements on power supply in Nigeria. Let’s hear Curtis Nwajei: “BEDC is in charge of distributing the electricity we get from the federal government. At present, we need 900 mega watts for our customers in the five states we service. Unfortunately, we only get 300 mega watts of electricity from the generating and transmission agencies under the control of the federal government.
Curtis Nwajei is not done yet. He carried on: “Nigeria needs about 107,000 mega watts daily to meet her demand for power. This translates to about 1000 mega watts for every one million Nigerians. We are far from achieving this target.
The tragic-comedy in the whole electricity supply conundrum is that the federal government promised that power generation will hit the 5000 mega watts mark by December 2014. Today, it is merely in the neighbourhood of 3,500 mega watts. So, who is fooling who?
Meanwhile, the federal government is doing collabo with DISCOS to steal N750 fixed charge monthly from electricity consumers who live in homes that are literally in darkness at most times. Occasionally, when the light even comes on, you can blow it off with your mouth. Too bad!! Madmen and destitutes now “live” in our roadside transformers. Why? No light!!!
Also in January 2014, sunlight shone on the brewing controversy surrounding our missing oil money at a time as corruption. Our president is rewriting the Oxford Dictionary which defines “stealing” as corruption. In 2013, the former CBN boss, Mallam Sanusi Lamido – now, the Emir of Kano – told us 49.8 billion dollars of our oily groundnut menu had been eaten by greedy federal government giant and Liliputian rats in the presidency as well as ministries, departments and agencies.
The Presidency denied before the owl shrieked thrice that no money was missing from the NNPC Account. But, come January 2014, NNPC admitted that, indeed, some money had “disappeared” from this account. The agency announced that the money, which stood at 10.8 billion dollars, was spent on oil subsidy payment to marketers. Only a few Nigerians believed them. The devil can never speak truth. Who is the devil? It is government. Hardly do citizen believe the serial liar called government in our “new” Nigeria.
Furthermore, in January 2014, former minister of health, Prof. Oyebuchi Chukwu, revealed that Nigerians spend N75 billion on medical trips abroad every year. He made this revelation during an occasion in Benin City, Edo State. Nigerians flee overseas for treatment because we lack the wellness facilities, culture and personnel here in Nigeria. Before overzealous patriots shout me down, let me drop this sample observation bomb to prove my point. On November 26, 2014, a pregnant woman in distress arrived at a certain public hospital in our country at 8.am. No Doctor was on duty. Everywhere was filled with filth.
The toilets are the headquarters of all the flies and germs in the South-South region of Nigeria. At this hospital, only a nurse attends to 30 patients in a ward!! There is no backup power generating plant in the hospital.
When doctors and their other medical colleagues are on duty, they are very rude and unaccommodating to patients……….At 10:30 am, workers began to arrive in this sick public hospital. The pregnant woman is still there in pain. No doctor, nurse or midwife is attending to her. They ignore her and instead assemble for morning devotion after which they remember she is there, now in near coma.
Similar incidents like this play out in the country. That is why people who can afford it run abroad for medicare. But here is a food for thought. If only our health facilities work, we will not be losing a whooping N75 billion to other country in the guise of medical tourism. But no one is interested in this logic. We are a nation with cursed leaders at all levels of government. Don’t single out any one.
February 2014
Dokubo Asari Mujaheed, an ex-militant leader from Niger Delta, threatened: “If Jonathan is not allowed to do a second term, Nigeria would be made ungovernable….The North should forget the 2015 Presidency.” On February 4, 2014, the Directorate of Secret Service invited him for questioning. Or, could it be de-briefing? I ask you this question because he was set free not long after his arrest. Indeed, as George Orwell told us in ANIMAL FARM, a satire, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
More bizarre stories during this month, Firstly, the Bishop of Enugu Anglican Diocese, Rt. Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, alleged that SURE-P is a disaster in Enugu State. He informed Daily Sun of February 6, 2014, that the state loses N10 million monthly through the use of 1000 fake names on the SURE-P list. Despite his benumbing accusation, the state government kept mum on the issue. That is how to be a Nigerian, Mr. Corruption personified.
