60 days to 6,000 megawatts

In just under 60 days, the ultimatum given by the Federal Government to itself on power will expire. The big deal over which so much noise has been made is to ramp up electricity generation to 6,000MW capacity by the end of 2009.

Already, a crack in credibility is evident, and no Nigerian should be surprised if the government reneges on its promise.

Standing on weak knees, the “Minister for Propaganda” has been making vacillating comments recently, implying that the desired capacity might not materialise – if gas was not supplied. But why should gas not be supplied?

Is it not the duty of government to ensure that this is the case? Or is gas to be imported from outside, not piped from Nigerian soil in Bonny Island? Parents do not promise their children fried yam for dinner only to announce that sorry there is no groundnut oil in the kitchen.

One American diplomat had described Nigeria as the poorest oil-rich country in the world. The former Ghanaian president, John Kuffour, chipped in with a comment that Ghana would use its freshly-discovered oil wealth much better than Nigeria.

These statements hurt the Nigerian ego, but the truth is always bitter. Energy capacity is the aggregate result of how a nation uses and manages its environmental resources – particularly water, minerals and forests. Nigeria has a very poor record in this perspective.

Perhaps, we cannot in all fairness blame the present administration for the sins of our heroes past. However, a focused, fast and determined sprinter can make up for a poor baton change. That is not happening. Team Nigeria simply has no will to compete, no stomach for a fight.

Dining with corrupt elements

Rather than find energetic solutions to the proper management of natural resources, the government is distracted by frequent diarrhoea from endless wining and dining with corrupt elements, praise singers, and charlatans.

Nigeria looks very much like the week before the fall of the Roman Empire, with the exception that Rome made remarkable achievements and Nigeria has nothing to show for being a nation.

To further annoy the frustrated citizenry, there is the tasteless frivolity of a red herring project that purports to re-brand Nigeria, as though the nation were a restaurant.

What climate change is teaching the whole world is that there’s no time to waste in decentralising energy supply, in searching for alternative sources, and in striving for efficiency. Thermal power, with its high demand on fossil fuels, and therefore a high contribution to global warming, should not be Nigeria’s only option for a source of energy.

Nigeria seems to be marking time, hoping that the rest of the world will renew its romance with oil, which will not happen.

It is only 10 years to the year 2020, in which Nigeria vows to be one of the top-20 economies in the world. How this somewhat quixotic adventure will be accomplished with even 6,000 megawatts remains to be seen.