₦airaland Forum

Why is it that only Presidents of Northern origin get
killed through assassination or poisoning? From Tafawa Balewa and Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardauna, to Gen Murtala Mohammed to Gen Sani Abatcha to Umaru Musa Yar'aduwa and now President Muhammadu Buhari. Yet no one is wailing?

The Southerner can acquire land in any part of the North to build house(s), Church and pursue normal (and abnormal) businesses without discrimination, the Northerner (Hausa Fulani) cannot do that in the South south.

In fact the Northerner dare not wear his kaftan dress and move freely in the major towns of the South south where as the Southerner wears his three-quarter, skirt or tight dress and move freely in any part of the North. Is the North too docile or too tolerant? Isn't tolerance the major ingredient of Unity?

Now another eminent assassination in the way, on one of the most astute and most disciplined son of the North (observers close to state house murmur gas poisoning), just like Yar'adua, the Presidency is quiet about it.

Umaru Yar'adua's dredging project to extend water ways to the Northern part of the country has been abandoned, no one is wailing. Clamp down on land borders of the North from OBJ's time through GEJ to even PMB era, with negative antecedents on economic activities of the North (which would have created additional jobs in the Customs anyway), the clamp down is still sustained, no one is wailing.

Oil is going extinct as the world's major revenue earner, the rich mineral resources of the North is not being explored, no one is wailing.

The former capital, Lagos, and major cities of the then regional government, including the doom-spelling Oil investments and Oil infrastructure, were all built with agric proceeds, Cocoa, Ground nut & Cotton - Ground nut and Cotton from the North, nobody wailed, no one agitated for derivation or sovereignty then.

Police, Army, DSS, Air Force plan to storm Ovre-Abraka Forest, herdsmen’s hqtrs
Give us information on activities of herdsmen, police boss begs citizens

COMMISSIONER of Police, Delta State, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim, has urged Deltans not to lose sleep over attacks by supposed herdsmen, as operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau, SIB, of the Delta Command and Department of State Services, DSS, have launched covert operations to discover the real perpetrators, their hideouts and modus-operandi, preparatory to a full-scale pronged..

Ibrahim, who spoke to NDV in an interview at Asaba, revealed that the Police, DSS, Army and Air force were at present strategizing on how to raid Ovre-Abraka forest, otherwise known as ‘Sambisa forest’ in Ethiope East Local Government Area, said to be the ‘operational headquarters’ of the lawless herdsmen in the state.

He pleaded with Deltans to give information to the Police on the activities of criminals, whether herdsmen or not in their areas, saying the Police were on top of the situation, but without information, they would not all the needful. His words: “Like I told you earlier on, we are in synergy with sister agencies that have the wherewithal, the Air force for instance, which will carry out air surveillance, our State Intelligence Bureau, SIB and Department of State Services, DSS are going under cover, so it is only when we have that information that you expect us to react.”

Explaining why the Police have not combed Ovre-Abraka forest since villagers raised alarm over the activities of helicopter dropping supplies for herdsmen in the hideaway, he said: “One, if these people are armed, we have to know their fire power, we have to know their location(s), you understand me. We are already strategizing with all the security agencies, the army, air force and DSS, we are just waiting for our men to return with the information that we need, and then, definitely, we will do something about it.

“There are also other interests in that place (Abarka), which are compounding the already bad situation. And unless and until we address all at the same time, it will also be a problem. I mean the boundary problem between Edo and Delta states has to be addressed because once in a while, infiltrators come in disguise create mayhem and it is attributed to herdsmen. So it has to be tackled holistically, I told you about Presco company, which is not helping matters. At times, we have information that they brought in military and police to come and make arrest, creating tension in an already tensed situation, just like this one that they did last week, so I believe that by the time we have full information about that place, we will do something about it.”

Excerpts:

By Emma Amaize & Festus Ahon

THERE is a widespread impression in Delta that the Police are treating herdsmen with kid gloves. What gloves are you using?

Well, I am not a boxer. That was on a lighter note, I understand what you are talking about. The issue of herdsmen is a national problem; it is not peculiar to Delta State. The country has found itself in a situation where we are contending with a lot of problems from herdsmen, I am sure you must have heard that in Zamfara State, recently, over 132 people were killed by herdsmen, not to talk about other states that have the same challenges.

So, what I am saying in effect is that we have the herdsmen problem in Delta State, but our situation is not overwhelming. We have been able to curtail the situation as far as I know because if you look at it critically, we have handled a lot of these problems through town hall meetings and dialogue. We have been appealing to their sensibilities, to the communities and we are trying to let them understand that there is sanctity in human life; nobody has the right to the life of another person because of one reason or the other.

Picture not as bad as painted

I am talking to both parties now; that is the herdsmen and the communities. We have had one or two skirmishes but like I said earlier on, it is not as overwhelming as the picture is being painted. In Ossissa community, for instance, we have had two or three instances where there are problems, but most of the victims are the Fulanis themselves. I remembered two young children were beheaded and their headless bodies were buried, then the most recent one, a 63-year-old person was killed and a boy of about seven years is still missing. So, that is Ossissa for you.

In Kwale and other places, it is the same story, so what I am trying to say in effect is that we have tried our best to ensure that the situation does not degenerate like other states such as Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, etc. So, we should be credited for what we have done so far and we are not relenting, as the picture is being painted. The people of Ndokwa East, Ndokwa West and Ukwuani areas are disturbed that police are not reacting promptly when there are attacks and killings by herdsmen in their communities. But when they touch their cows, police get angry and arrest them…

That is very far from the truth because one, the Police is not everywhere; the Police are not magicians, we only work on information and intelligence. If you get us informed that there is a problem, I bet you that our response time should not be more than 20 minutes and I assure that, that is our operational standard. And in those areas, I have reinforced that place, if you go through that route, you will see that I have reinforced that place with Armoured Personnel Carriers, Eagle Net vehicles, Operation Dragon and Safer Highways patrol vehicles. On that axis alone, we have close to 11. So, if any report gets to our people, they will call the control room and we have a standby unit here, they will quickly respond.

5 days in Ossissa bush

I remembered when there was a skirmish in that place, I deployed well over 200 policemen to Ossissa alone and I was there myself, we went into the bushes for about five days after which we recovered that old man that was buried in a shallow grave. We spent five days in that bush and we made sure that we evacuated close to 5,000 cattle from that Ossissa bush alone with about 20 to 30 of the herdsmen. We evacuated them out of that place because the tension was getting so terrible.

So we had to move them out of that place and escorted them to the borders of Kogi state from where they left Delta. We did that for fear of reprisal because if we had allowed those people to still remain, where that old man was slaughtered to death, there was the tendency that they would mobilize their people from other states and come there and there would have been a problem. So, anybody who tells you that the Police do not respond as quickly as expected, I think he is being unfair to us.

What are you doing to evacuate the over 2,000 herdsmen that have taken over Ovre Abraka from the area?

That is a very big problem because we do not have the information about that place. I am telling you before God and man, information about that place is very scanty.

Information and intelligence

We only have the information that somebody has seen Fulani herdsmen with guns; we do not have full information. Unless and until you have good intelligence, it will be foolhardy for you to react sometimes. I am sure you remember what happened to our people at Ohorhor community, where our policemen were attacked.

We have just exhumed one of the dead bodies, yesterday (last Monday). The other one got drowned. The Area Commander escaped death by whiskers, I am sure you know about it. So, we must have credible information so that we do not enter a culdesac and that Ovre Abraka you are talking about is a very vast forest.

Secondly, we need information and intelligence about that place. Thirdly, and even more importantly, is the issue of the dispute between Edo and Delta States. I had to speak with members of the community that were arrested in Edo State yesterday (last Monday). About 12 of them with vigilante members, they were taken to Edo State, I had to intervene and secure their release based on the fact that they were seen in their farmland that was said to be in dispute.

I just spoke with their monarch, Air -Vice Marshal Lucky Arharire (retd.) before you came in and he was thanking me for that. So, it compounds the problem.

Poser

However, the puzzle is: Are most of the killings there really perpetrated by herdsmen or somebody else? Like the man who was said to have been slaughtered the other time, not the most recent one, the one before this one. The man went into his farmland and saw people harvesting his crops, he reacted and they killed him. But it is attributed to herdsmen, even this one, they are saying it is the activities of herdsmen, but I can bet you that investigation is on, I would not want to jeopardize the course of the investigation but I heard a different story about the whole thing.

So, on the issue of Ovre Abraka, let us be careful and I have to add too that the Presco Oil Company is not helping matters because they are the ones compounding the already bad situation in that place. Let us be realistic and truthful about it. That Ovre Abraka axis let us be sure that they are herdsmen or not before we can say something about it – that is my take on it.

Why has the police not struck yet?

I have told you, before you react, there must be credible information, otherwise you can fall into ambush, which is what we are concerned about, so we want members of the public to cooperate with us. Delta is an agrarian state, majority of the people are farmers and if they do not go to farm, they will not eat, so we should be able to protect the lives of these farmers no matter what it takes.

But what is important is that they are the ones who go to the farmlands, if they see any unusual movement, they should get us informed. I have not hidden my numbers, it is in the public domain. If I switch off my phone for five minutes and switch it on again, you will hear a lot of complaints – ‘Commissioner, I called you, your phone was switched off.’ So I do not dare switch off my phone; members of the public should cooperate with us. I assure you, we are going to bring this situation to its logical conclusion.

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, at Ughelli, last week, narrowed most kidnappings in the state to members of the Hausa, Fulani stock, and they are suspected herdsmen, though in connivance with some locals. What are your own findings?

Well, he may have his own statistics with due respect, but you see my own take in this matter is that crime has no nationality; it does not have boundary or tribe, religion or whatever you are. talking about.

Summary of the statistics

Yes, a lot of these herdsmen and people of Hausa extraction have been found to be involved in these heinous crimes. I have records to show that almost everybody that you know is involved in this whole thing. Whether it is an indigene or a non-indigene, they are all involved in this thing. I have close to 112 kidnappers in my custody as at today and the summary of the statistics shows otherwise.

In Delta State, we have 80, Anambra 9, Adamawa 8, Taraba 3, Niger 3, Imo 2, Edo 1, Bayelsa 1, Rivers 1, Akwa Ibom 1, Enugu 1, Sokoto 2, Plateau 1 and Kaduna 1. So it does not have any bound, it depends on what he is being furnished with. So I would not want to contradict him but he has his own reasons for saying that, but the statistics that I have is what I am talking about.

You are an advocate of grazing reserves in the state. But the governor does not believe in it, which to him is the stand of Deltans and the Speaker re-echoed that whe he spoke the mind of Deltans. How do you convince them otherwise?

Well, I do not know where you got your information from about my advocacy; I know as Commissioner in Delta, I am an advocate of peace and tranquillity in the state. You see it is already part of public discourse, the issue of grazing or no grazing. I am sure you have been reading about the Minister talking about it, but my belief is that even during the colonial days, there used to be what are called the cattle routes, not grazing land because these people are migrating from one point of the country to the other.

Following the cattle routes

In fact, in the West Africa sub-region, there are those cattle routes. It was demarcated even during colonial days. That is my take. These people should only follow the cattle routes. If they follow these cattle routes, those that might have done the demarcation knew that they will not infiltrate into people’s farmland that is my take.

If these routes are no more in existence, there are beacons I think, they have beacons. Let us demarcate these routes once more so that these people will be forced, enforcement can be made so that they follow these routes and all these.

There is also a worrisome trend that even when herdsmen attack and kill police officers, the authorities are not also moved to react correspondingly. Why?

I have just told you that we lost two of our men and the Area Commander was attacked. They were not attacked in the comfort of their houses. As I am talking to you now, we are exchanging intelligence even with the soldiers and the Air Force, who we expect are going to do air surveillance and give us information. Even the soldiers will not just move without raking. I am sure you know that, which is why I am talking about intelligence.

We don’t have information

Members of the public will not give us intelligence, but they expect you to perform magic. I want to place it on records and challenge you, how many persons have come to tell me about herdsmen from that axis? None till tomorrow, even the Ossissa axis. Nobody has ever come to tell me this is the information we have about herdsmen.

IAMDUTCHBRAH:
Does Akpabio go there for treatment?Doesn't he run abroad for medical treatement

IAMDUTCHBRAH:
Where are average Nigerians supposed to go for medical treatment. APC are fraudulent and should be kicked out of power.

Vote Kowa Party for change.

Adamu, however, stressed the need for beneficiaries to take ownership of all water projects towards a sustainable agriculture development, stressing that government alone could not provide and protect such projects.

He urged beneficiaries of the irrigation schemes to do more and protect the facilities, adding that the era of free services was over.

The Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu on Monday in Abuja decried the level of decay in water and irrigation projects across the country.

Adamu said that the Federal Government would, however, ensure the completion of the abandoned projects rather than embark on new ones.

“Honestly, I am very sad. What has emerged from these trips is that our fore fathers, the founding fathers of the Ministry of Water Resources and Agriculture have done a tremendous amount of work for this country, which succeeding generations have allowed to waste and have done little.

“Not only have they not improved on it, they have allowed the whole thing to deteriorate.

“A lot of the infrastructure that we visited were built in the 70s and early 80s at that time if you imagine the amount of money that were spent on infrastructure and the kind of support they were providing to people.

“And you see how desolate we found them, it’s quite appalling, but all is not lost, the infrastructure is there.

“All we need to do is to change our attitude and to try to see how we can invest more money and accord them the priority that they deserve.

“Thankfully, this government has identified the need to give priority to agriculture, and therefore, it’s an opportunity to revive them, expand them and rehabilitate them.”

He said the Federal Government was committed to expanding irrigation farming, adding that its target was to have no less than 500,000 hectares of irrigated agriculture by 2030.

Adamu, who cited the Kano River Irrigation scheme, said although it may be one of the largest in the country, one third of the irrigation facility was not cultivated in the dry season.

“This is all because of a simple rehabilitation of the canal for the water to get there. It is not because there is no water, it is simply mismanagement.”

He said that the World Bank-supported Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) programme would promote food security and all year farming.

Adamu, however, stressed the need for beneficiaries to take ownership of all water projects towards a sustainable agriculture development, stressing that government alone could not provide and protect such projects.

He urged beneficiaries of the irrigation schemes to do more and protect the facilities, adding that the era of free services was over.

“One of the problems is that beneficiaries always think that this is a government thing, so they don’t feel that they have a responsibility to maintain them.”

mapet:
Careful how you react to one liners......as you obviously missed my point

agabusta:
That is the lie. The CAPMI has not been stopped. It was just Ikeja that didn't go into it.

You can visit the NERC site for more info.

By Dele Sobowale

Failures are divided into two classes; those who thought and never did and those who did and never thought.”

John C. Salak, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ p 54)

ON May 29, 2017, the Buhari administration will be two years old; that means it would have reached the half-way mark of its four-year tenure. Nigerians should, right now, disregard those crack-pots talking about second term. The focus should be on mid-term assessment. Plainly asked it comes down to: What has been achieved in the two years under Buhari? Put another way: “Are we better off now than in 2015?

Before proceeding however, let me share the thoughts of a Professor of Communications, in the US in 1970. According to him, any organization, public or private can be judged by how much of its report announces positive achievements and how much is devoted to explaining failures. Spokes persons for the Buhari administration have spent the better part of the last two years explaining failures – usually by blaming them on the Jonathan administration. There have been few instances where they announced good results. In fact, the successes have been so few that they can be summarized in one paragraph. The failures have been overwhelming.

Unfortunate as it might be, the place to start is with the President – or more precisely, his health. Years ago, the Brazilian coach of the Green Eagles, Otto Gloria, was putting those called up through their physicals which started from running laps round the field. Suddenly, he noticed the Captain slowing down. Gloria called him and made a declaration which is pertinent here. “Captain finish, team finish”. As we approach the half-way mark this year, the “Captain” of the Nigerian economy is not quite finished but he is certainly not leading the team as vigorously as he should.

One very vital aspect of management of human and other resources is sadly missing. The weekly Top Management meeting is one duty no Chief Executive Officer, CEO, wants to miss except for the most important reasons. Certainly, none would ever contemplate missing three in a row. There is a simple reason. The weekly meeting is the opportunity provided to ensure that all sections and departments of the organization are moving in the same direction and not working at cross purposes. The weekly meeting becomes more important as the organization gets bigger. In most countries, Nigeria included, the largest organization is the Federal government; the CEO is the President or Prime Minister. A CEO who is indisposed runs an organization whose effectiveness is impaired – perhaps dangerously because power abhors a vacuum. Power tussles arise whenever the CEO is absent.

Chief Bisi Akande, former Interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, made the same point recently. He said: “The health of the leader is intricately intertwined with the health of the nation. It is more so in a delicately fragile union of nations called Nigeria." Obviously, if the health of the President or CEO is a metric for assessing the state of the economy, Nigeria’s economy is on a sick bed. And, nobody knows exactly when it will be discharged.

However, the Nigerian economy started showing signs of distress long before Buhari departed for treatment in London. The APC government came into office without an economic blueprint which would serve as a guide for managing the economy. The APC Manifesto which was full of Politicians’ promises cannot be regarded as an economic plan by any professional economist. It contained no specific statements about fiscal or monetary policies to be introduced, why and when. It certainly had no statements of objectives in terms of GDP growth expected, millions of jobs to be created and in which sectors. “Captain” Buhari stepped into the Nigerian ship of state without a compass or any discernible destination. In a way, the nation’s economy is on auto-pilot, running along on its own. That explains why shares’ prices on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, have not reflected Buhari’s absence. His presence was never felt.

Nothing demonstrates the lack of preparedness for leadership better than the Economic Recovery Growth Programme, ERGP, recently launched twice – once by Osinbajo and again by Buhari. ERGP was almost one year and nine months too late. Every candidate running for President anywhere in the world today must present an economic programme to voters. And, they will hold him to it once elected. Buhari presented no economic programme – partly because Nigerians were too stupid to ask him – so he has nothing to work with.

The economic programme invariably selects the people to be appointed to top positions to manage the economy – except the Governor of the Central Bank who has a definite term to run. The person who eventually becomes the Minister of Finance or Economic Planning must have been one of the advisers during the campaign. They designed the programme which the candidate presented to the people; so they are best positioned to implement it. None of the members of Buhari’s Economic Management Team, EMT, was his adviser during the campaign – not even Osinbajo until very late. All the Ministers were handed empty portfolios on economic programme on November 2015. The bag remains empty till today. There is no direction to the economy. Even the Made-In-Nigeria campaign is more of a gimmick than a policy. Violations of it carry no penalties.

Fortunately, failure was not total. Next week, we start from the heights, with the success stories; then go down…

Desyner:
Abracadaba Logic. They are enjoying the estimated billing. The man lied like 10 times.

Thus, a man who is unmetered, his bill cannot be 30 percent more than the metered one.

Customers are very vocal in their complaints that Ikeja Electric has refused to give them meters and instead they are given estimated bills. What is your comment on this?

Well, I think it is noteworthy to correct the language often used that we refused to give customers meters. Nobody is refusing to give customers meters. First of all these meters are not available. Let me make this clear, it is in our interest to give out meters, especially pre-paid meters. Like your mobile telephone, you recharge and vend. It costs the DISCOs money to produce and deliver a bill.

At the point of privatisation, there were plans made. And as a matter of fact that was one of the criteria giving to the DISCOs. The reality of the situation is that at that point, we had N160 to N190 to a dollar, but towards the end of last year, we were torching over N500 to a dollar. Meters are not manufactured here in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, what they do is that they import the component and assemble them here. They are often exposed to the foreign exchange fluctuations.

Over the last three to four years, no DISCO has been able to purchase meters as planned because of the foreign exchange challenge. We buy from Nigerian manufacturers who simply buy the product outside. Our revenue is in Naira, and if I set aside a million naira in 2013 to buy 10,000 meters, that amount cannot buy up to 5000 meters in this current FOREX regime. In a nutshell that is what has happened.

Some of your customers also complain that they pay for meters

Nobody has paid for meters post privatisation. In Ikeja Electric, we install meters and people don’t pay for them. In early 2013, we had operated on credit advance payment for metering implementation (CAPMI) which we pay back with interest to customers. In Ikeja Electric, we didn’t start it immediately because we needed to understand the system.

The process is that when you pay, the meters should be installed within 45 days. Of course customers paid for them and they were not given meters and they complained to Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC and the Minister who later cancelled the scheme.

Metering shortage

I personally feel the CAPMI scheme is a positive one because today I get calls from some customers who tell me that they are ready to pay and all I needed to do was to install. We declined because we are under a regulator that stopped us from doing so.

This metering shortage is such that, where we are, we cannot stick to one method and say the DISCOs should provide the meters. Of course, that is what should happen in an ideal situation, but we cannot afford it and we don’t have the money to close the metering gap between now and 2020. We have to come up with different ways to close the metering gap.

The key thing is that the customers should not be exploited. We are appealing to the government to support us and monitor us in any way we fall short.

As I said, we are in a recession; we have to think of ways of getting these things done. As we are aware, the topic of metering is a very emotional subject for Nigerians. All we want as Nigerians is that box in our house. Metering starts from the distribution perspective, where you get the power, because you get the power from transmission.

We metered feeders and transformers. What we started doing in Ikeja Electric was to meter all our feeders and from there to our transformers. The reason being that you can account for the energy that comes in.

What we have done is to make sure that those distribution transformers are metered so that if I give an estimated bill it is reasonable. For most Nigerians, it is not the estimated bill that is the problem, but the ‘crazy bill’. Estimation is still going on and even NERC accepts that fact and there is a methodology for estimation.

Thus, a man who is unmetered, his bill cannot be 30 percent more than the metered one. So, we go to the unmetered public and say to them, if we meter you and your bill is more than what you deem reasonable, having compared with other people that share the same transformer with you, come and talk to us about it. That’s only possible because we are metering transformers. We will still make sure individual customers are metered and we are here to provide solutions to people’s problem.

Is that why you refuse patronising Nigerian meter manufacturers, because they had complained of not been patronised by the DISCOs

I can’t speak for the other DISCOs. However, Majority of our feeder meters are sourced locally. As a matter of fact, we are talking with local manufacturers to give us meters. I say this with all honesty. The objective is to have reliable, functional meters. I would rather patronise my compatriots than go elsewhere. If the meters are available at reasonable cost, it is only in my interest to buy the meters from a Nigerian manufacturer/assembler/vendor.

Availability of the service

The vendors would not manufacture except there is an order, in other to avoid risk. It takes time to put the meter together. Nonetheless, we have no policy against purchasing from Nigerian vendors. We have them on our network.

You have always talked about power theft, knowing very well that some staff of DISCOs are involved on this, what are you doing about it?

It is a systemic issue. Many Nigerians share the idea that power is a social service and should not be paid for, especially when it is not readily available. In my opinion, there are three main challenges; availability, measurement and payment of the service.

If power is available for at least 20 hours daily, the noise about no meter will decline. The first problem we must tackle is the availability of the service. If the service is there, people will be willing to pay. However, when the service is grossly unavailable and the bill appear as an overcharge, people will jump at an opportunity to get the service at no cost. That is how it has been for a long time. So, what should we do about it?

First off, we remind people that it is illegal and there are laws governing this. Thus, when one or two persons are caught, they should be used as an example to send a clear message to the general public. This also depicts transparency of the DISCOs to the public. For example, for Ikeja Electric, if there has been no power for more than 24 hours, a text message will be sent informing you of the power outage and when it would be restored. That’s transparency. This also applies to people who are unmetered and are unhappy with their bill. They can always come to us to review the bill. Candidly, I believe that for as long as the DISCOs are transparent, acknowledge the challenges and proffer solutions to the problems, people will considerably reduce energy theft. Nonetheless, the law is the law. If one is caught stealing power or beating up a staff, the person will be arrested and we would publicise it as the consequences of their actions.

Is the government playing its role to help salvage the crisis in the power sector?

Yes they are. The government’s role in this partnership is regulation and facilitation. We also hear of funds that are pumped into the industry. This is just to ease or reduce the liquidity crisis within the power sector. Yes, the government is actually playing their role. We are actually fortunate to have a Minister in the person of Babatunde Fashola, that understands the challenges and is supportive. When DISCOs and GENCOs fall short in performance, he readily reprimands us.

The Ministry of Power is aware of the realities and it encourages us to look for alternative means, bearing in mind that the customers are at the end of the value chain. You must be seen to deliver quality service. The role of the government is to support and regulate with laws.

Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, blames DISCOs for rejecting power. How do you react to this?

Remember I said the demand of power is high. Does it make sense for somebody to give me the power and I will reject? We must be careful because TCN, DISCOs, GENCOs, do not matter to the ordinary man. What they care about is that there is power. In a situation where I cannot distribute to communities I cannot collect money from, I cannot collect such power and TCN could interpret it as rejecting loads. We are working together now, to understand the challenges and TCN understands that. Now for technical reasons, it may not be possible for them to put it here and there, because the system is not as flexible at that. But because we are talking more there is more transparency in what we are doing and the blame game is going down.

Jetleeee:
Are all these being done with state funds or it's a PPP thing?

One thing I am thinking of doing is constructing an 18-hole golf course in Yankari Games Reserve and we are setting up a spa based on the Wiki warm spring which is a very rare gift from God. This spring maintains a constant temperature of 31.2degree Celsius come rain come shine and it is clear that the water is medicinal.

In Bauchi, we have the Zarada Hotel, with structures that by the time insurgency is over, you have a structure and it is good. What remains would be to turn it into a three to five-star hotel. So we have a potential five star hotel, with 200 rooms and all the other facilities like swimming pool, tennis court, meeting halls and the rest.

On plans for the Green House Project

Right now, Israelis are easily the best people in orthodox farming method in the world because they took a desert and turned it into green. There are so many things that go with the ones we discovered. I have a world renowned Israeli consultant right now working with my Ministry of Agriculture.

akintom:
You obviously didn't read the intro to the poster.

akintom:
what's misleading?