Imoke’s Devastating Bomb By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
A couple
of weeks ago, the Minister of Power and Steel, Mr. Liyel Imoke, decided
it was time to release to Nigerians the devastating news he had all this
while kept from them, namely, that the outgoing regime of President
Olusegun Obasanjo never had any intention of giving Nigerians
uninterrupted power supply. Mr. Imoke had declared to a stunned nation
that those yearning for reliable power supply in
What Imoke is saying is simple: majority of Nigerians who have already attained the age of fifty today, or forty and even thirty (you know the life expectancy here!), should simply give up any hope of ever experiencing in their lifetime what it means to have an uninterrupted power supply in their country. How cruel and heartless can a government be! Come on, Mr. Imoke, now that you have decided to tell us the truth (no mean feat, I must admit, since truth is such a very scarce commodity in the regime you serve in), why not go the whole hog, and give us all of it? Is it true then that the great promises and grandiose claims the Abuja regime had been making about its "achievements" in the power sector are all heaps and heaps of unimaginative lies? So, practically nothing was being done after all? And for a whole seven years? Leaving the sector to rot and decay unchecked? I am told that Imoke has denied the statement. They always do. The reports, we were told, did not state it the way he put it, even though those who interviewed him still have him on tape. But there is not much difference, any way, between what was credited to him, and what he is now claiming he actually said. But even if Imoke did not make the offensive statement, the truth still remains that we do not need his statement to know that the situation may even be worse than implied in the declaration. We all have eyes, and we daily see what is on ground. We feel the pain they circulate daily.
When I
began to raise the alarm that
A couple
of years ago, there were reports that this government had sunk some 2.5
billion dollars in the energy sector. Where is the impact of such a huge
investment? If we are now to wait till 2056 to have stable power in our
homes and offices, we should at least be able to see the little this
regime has recorded in the power sector these seven years. That is a
reasonable expectation, isn't it? When this regime came in and assessed
the situation in the power sector, it declared, perhaps, based on what
it met on ground, that within just a few months, energy problem will be
over in
Dear Mr.
Imoke, I suppose that you have a very efficient, giant, noiseless
generator in your house? I am sure you also have another one in your
office at the so-called Ministry of Power. So, how do you feel, as
Minister in-charge of Power in
Mr. Minister, you have just announced that a rickety, decaying, under-maintained and under-functioning transmission line that carries electricity from Alaoji through Aba and Onitsha has finally collapsed, further worsening the already very bad and horrible energy situation in states like Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Rivers and Cross River. Are you really surprised that it happened? Tell us the truth, Minister, have you not been expecting it? Well, congrats, for the promptness with which you conjured a very brilliant reason for the collapse, almost immediately it happened. That was vintage Nigerian minister of this era. You wasted no time in blaming it on heat emanating from fire on vandalised pipelines. Very smart, Minister! I have also heard that because of the upsurge in pipeline vandalisations in the recent past, your gas supply lines have been disrupted, and that is why we are experiencing uninterrupted blackout in the country!
That was
a good one, Mr. Minister. Except that my people also have a saying that
the dog's nose was already cold long before the harmattan arrived.
Before pipeline vandalisations became the nation's nightmare due to the
deepening anger in the land occasioned by unspeakable hardship unleashed
in the country as a result leadership failure and boundless corruption,
did we fare any better in power supply? Okay, only last Sunday, as I
dropped off a friend, after Sunday service, he told me that for more
than two month now, they have not had any light in their area. Also,
when later I called my colleague, Dan Amor, to find out how long you
have encumbered the ground as Power and Steel Minister, he informed me
that for more than two years now, a community called Egan, near Igando,
after Iba Estate in
This makes one wonder what really informs the decision of President Olusegun Obasanjo each time he is appointing ministers. When Prof Fabian Osuji fell as Education Minister following a bribe scandal, you, Mr. Minister, were asked, in addition to the Ministry of Power where you are quite aware you have failed woefully, to also oversee the Education Ministry. No wonder there is decay everywhere. No wonder you had the heart to throw this kind of bomb at this time. Well, at least, you told the truth. ************************************** Also….The Impact of NEPA/PHCN’s Blackouts On A Nigerian Child! ***************************************************************
Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
is a Columnist and Member, Editorial Board, Independent
Newspapers (www.independentng.com
),
__________________________________________________
|