By Rotimi Fasan
AS the Jonathan administration winds down its activities and gradually goes into the ages, one thing Nigerians cannot balk doing is giving their assessment of the administration. One area that must get Nigerians debating in their assessment of the Goodluck Jonathan government is the power sector, particularly the issue of power generation and distribution. As far as this sector is concerned, the Jonathan administration has performed far less than it promised. We need not go into quoting statistics that only members of the administration believe to know this.
Nothing registers government failure in this regard than the evidence of darkness in which Nigerians are presently enveloped. Power cut has become ever more rampant, especially in the last few weeks since the elections were concluded. It is as if government has gone to sleep, and is only waiting for May 29 when a new administration comes into office. The present administration, to invert a line of reasoning made famous by General Ibrahim Babangida, may be in government but it is surely not in power. It is
shutting down on both itself and Nigeria as it neither acts nor gives the feeling that it is in power.
May 29 appears too long for the president and his team to leave. This government has lost both the battle and the war in the power sector. The government simply does not ‘give a damn’ what Nigerians think or feel about this lost battle. Nigerians could, if they so wish, jump into the lagoon if they cannot endure the thick darkness that is the visible achievement of the government. This is contrary to what we all witnessed not too long ago.
In the weeks leading up to the March 28 presidential election, electricity supply was so stable that one could have concluded that the Jonathan administration had finally got what was wrong with the sector right. It had finally surpassed itself. Or at least that was what it looked like. Not the least because the Administration was, at the time in question, actually taking great strides in its fight against insurgents in the north. It was taking on the insurgents headlong, seemingly wrapping up in just six weeks what it had failed to do in six full years. It was, therefore, easy to believe that the near-constant supply of power in the few weeks before the presidential election was evidence that improved power supply was becoming a way of life, something that had definitely come to stay with us.
This was the case in my part of the country and some other parts that I have made random enquiries about. The round-the-clock coverage of the elections in the mass media was followed by as many Nigerians as had the time to sit down to it, all thanks to the power distribution companies (?).
But events have since given the lie to the idea that regular supply of power can now be taken for granted. This much is now clear: the constancy in the supply of power was a ruse, a clear attempt at deceiving Nigerians and selling them on the idea that the Jonathan administration was truly and effectively transforming Nigeria. By ensuring relative stability in power supply for a number of weeks at a time in the months of March, President Jonathan and the men and women in his government were deliberately setting up Nigerians to be duped.
Theirs was a vote-getting strategy that underlined the calculating and duplicitous ways of an administration that was no longer capable of objective self-assessment. The Jonathan government had become good at being idle, better at claiming non-existent achievements and best at blaming its failures on past administrations. Outside the foregoing the only option left for it in the weeks before the election was to try to deceive the people.
It is true that many of the identifiable failures of this administration are traceable to previous administrations. Unstable power was an issue the Obasanjo administration promised to eradicate, tried to tackle but failed to conquer. Yet Obasanjo began the process of transforming the behemoth that was the Power Holding Company into the several companies that are now collectively known as the distribution companies or discos.
Umar Yar’Adu did his bit before dropping the baton that Jonathan picked. The process of transforming the power sector or building on past efforts did not start with any of the administration before Jonathan’s. It would not end with them. Which means they too could have heaped the blame for their failures on previous governments and/or regimes before theirs. But they were not stuck on past failures. This is to say that in failing to live up to Nigerians’ expectations of the power sector, the Jonathan government must take full responsibility.
The power situation has degenerated even further in the weeks since President Jonathan lost the 2015 election. Darkness has become more pronounced across the country, with many living with electricity for less than five hours in several days.
This was not what Goodluck Jonathan promised, even as the elections drew closer and closer. Indeed, as each day brought Nigerians closer to the election day, so did President Jonathan’s promises increased. Many times during his campaign, I wondered how the president hoped to redeem his many made-for-the-moment promises that were different from his promises to turn the power sector around. In addition to these promises, there were talks of cutting down the tariff on electricity during the election season. But in the weeks since the presidential polls were won and lost, the talk has changed and Nigerians are now being told that the promised cut in electricity tariffs will not apply to all Nigerians. What does this say of this administration?
No matter the statistics reeled out by Jonathan’s ministers and hangers-on (they’ve all been silent since March 28) on his stellar performance as president, what is obvious from his performance sheet as far as the power sector is concerned is a big F for failure. He cannot run away from this. Which is another way of saying that the in-coming Mohammadu Buhari administration, has its job cut out for it in one prominent sector of the country. As many Nigerians by now know, no meaningful development can be achieved without a stable and effective power sector.
All talks about industrialization, manufacturing and mass employment of qualified Nigerians will only be possible when Nigeria overcomes its challenges in the energy sector. This is a fact that a Buhari administration must not only keep in the realm of electoral promise. It must be willing and determined to help Nigeria give up its unenviable position as, perhaps, the world’s number one importer of generators. As for Jonathan, he has failed to ‘turn stone into bread’ in the power sector. This is his report sheet.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/scorecard-for-jonathan-administration/#sthash.Ozu6DPwa.dpuf
AS the Jonathan administration winds down its activities and gradually goes into the ages, one thing Nigerians cannot balk doing is giving their assessment of the administration. One area that must get Nigerians debating in their assessment of the Goodluck Jonathan government is the power sector, particularly the issue of power generation and distribution. As far as this sector is concerned, the Jonathan administration has performed far less than it promised. We need not go into quoting statistics that only members of the administration believe to know this.
Nothing registers government failure in this regard than the evidence of darkness in which Nigerians are presently enveloped. Power cut has become ever more rampant, especially in the last few weeks since the elections were concluded. It is as if government has gone to sleep, and is only waiting for May 29 when a new administration comes into office. The present administration, to invert a line of reasoning made famous by General Ibrahim Babangida, may be in government but it is surely not in power. It is
Prsident Jonathan
May 29 appears too long for the president and his team to leave. This government has lost both the battle and the war in the power sector. The government simply does not ‘give a damn’ what Nigerians think or feel about this lost battle. Nigerians could, if they so wish, jump into the lagoon if they cannot endure the thick darkness that is the visible achievement of the government. This is contrary to what we all witnessed not too long ago.
In the weeks leading up to the March 28 presidential election, electricity supply was so stable that one could have concluded that the Jonathan administration had finally got what was wrong with the sector right. It had finally surpassed itself. Or at least that was what it looked like. Not the least because the Administration was, at the time in question, actually taking great strides in its fight against insurgents in the north. It was taking on the insurgents headlong, seemingly wrapping up in just six weeks what it had failed to do in six full years. It was, therefore, easy to believe that the near-constant supply of power in the few weeks before the presidential election was evidence that improved power supply was becoming a way of life, something that had definitely come to stay with us.
This was the case in my part of the country and some other parts that I have made random enquiries about. The round-the-clock coverage of the elections in the mass media was followed by as many Nigerians as had the time to sit down to it, all thanks to the power distribution companies (?).
But events have since given the lie to the idea that regular supply of power can now be taken for granted. This much is now clear: the constancy in the supply of power was a ruse, a clear attempt at deceiving Nigerians and selling them on the idea that the Jonathan administration was truly and effectively transforming Nigeria. By ensuring relative stability in power supply for a number of weeks at a time in the months of March, President Jonathan and the men and women in his government were deliberately setting up Nigerians to be duped.
Theirs was a vote-getting strategy that underlined the calculating and duplicitous ways of an administration that was no longer capable of objective self-assessment. The Jonathan government had become good at being idle, better at claiming non-existent achievements and best at blaming its failures on past administrations. Outside the foregoing the only option left for it in the weeks before the election was to try to deceive the people.
It is true that many of the identifiable failures of this administration are traceable to previous administrations. Unstable power was an issue the Obasanjo administration promised to eradicate, tried to tackle but failed to conquer. Yet Obasanjo began the process of transforming the behemoth that was the Power Holding Company into the several companies that are now collectively known as the distribution companies or discos.
Umar Yar’Adu did his bit before dropping the baton that Jonathan picked. The process of transforming the power sector or building on past efforts did not start with any of the administration before Jonathan’s. It would not end with them. Which means they too could have heaped the blame for their failures on previous governments and/or regimes before theirs. But they were not stuck on past failures. This is to say that in failing to live up to Nigerians’ expectations of the power sector, the Jonathan government must take full responsibility.
The power situation has degenerated even further in the weeks since President Jonathan lost the 2015 election. Darkness has become more pronounced across the country, with many living with electricity for less than five hours in several days.
This was not what Goodluck Jonathan promised, even as the elections drew closer and closer. Indeed, as each day brought Nigerians closer to the election day, so did President Jonathan’s promises increased. Many times during his campaign, I wondered how the president hoped to redeem his many made-for-the-moment promises that were different from his promises to turn the power sector around. In addition to these promises, there were talks of cutting down the tariff on electricity during the election season. But in the weeks since the presidential polls were won and lost, the talk has changed and Nigerians are now being told that the promised cut in electricity tariffs will not apply to all Nigerians. What does this say of this administration?
No matter the statistics reeled out by Jonathan’s ministers and hangers-on (they’ve all been silent since March 28) on his stellar performance as president, what is obvious from his performance sheet as far as the power sector is concerned is a big F for failure. He cannot run away from this. Which is another way of saying that the in-coming Mohammadu Buhari administration, has its job cut out for it in one prominent sector of the country. As many Nigerians by now know, no meaningful development can be achieved without a stable and effective power sector.
All talks about industrialization, manufacturing and mass employment of qualified Nigerians will only be possible when Nigeria overcomes its challenges in the energy sector. This is a fact that a Buhari administration must not only keep in the realm of electoral promise. It must be willing and determined to help Nigeria give up its unenviable position as, perhaps, the world’s number one importer of generators. As for Jonathan, he has failed to ‘turn stone into bread’ in the power sector. This is his report sheet.
- See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/scorecard-for-jonathan-administration/#sthash.Ozu6DPwa.dpuf
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