₦airaland Forum

The North can be a solid country if you guys work hard to build it up. He is right, you can be prosperous without oil. But you'll need to change your culture entirely, value education and school, stop oppressing your women and forcing them to get married early.

But all of this will require HARD work. It isn't as easy as just stealing money from the south that doesn't belong to you.

Odunnu:
This is one reason why I gave the church my heart,and remain heartless.
No heart for no man to toy with

That made me sad. Not all Nigerian men are bad, not even most of us. Just use reason and common sense; don't let emotions get the best of you.

And if Nigerian men don't work out, plenty of other types! No reason to be heartless.

SapeleGuy:
Prof Barth Nnaji, nah wah for your reasoning.

” the headquarters of corruption is with electricity distribution sector because you cannot have a transformer easily. For instance, the distribution companies in the last five years have not been audited. So by privatising them, you wipe out corruption there."  

Does this mean corruption does not exist in the private sector? Privatisation does not guarantee efficiency or eliminate corruption. It merely allows the big boys and girls to own what should benefit everybody. Please refer to Halliburton & Siemens.

Can Prof tell us why $3.3 billion that was supposed to have been spent on power projects have yielded no results? Or why Ghana produces more electricity than Nigeria. By the way Electricity is NOT privatised in Ghana.

Were these junior workers he is now blaming responsible for awarding contracts to unregistered companies? or perhaps they were responsible for advancing 100% of funds for projects that were not even started.

Prof should stop insulting the intelligence of this nation. As for anybody standing in the way of government reforms we all know say that nah big lie, govt should deploy JTF and drive them to another country.

We have seen the devasting effects of one A S S (Acquired Sanusi Syndrome) in the banking sector, a repeat must be avoided in the power sector.

You raise a good point. But I think the banking industry is a bit different. There are lots of games you can create to steal money or do risky things with the monies deposited at your bank. Power distribution on the other hand is more like selling a commodity.

Here is an analogy: Suppose the federal gov't was the sole provider of meat in Nigeria, they would hand out contracts for it too. And whoever wins the contract would give them dog and turtle meat rather than actual beef. He will pay off whoever awards the contract, and then there is nothing we can do about it, we'd all be forced to eat substandard meat.

But fortunately, the gov't is NOT in charge of meat. In fact, meat is sold by private businesses, the Fulani cattle herders. There is no contract to be cheated, and absolutely no way for corruption to occur. If some unscrupulous herder were known to sell meat from sick cows, eventually people would stop buying meat from him. There is nobody he can bribe to continue to pay him for substandard meat he is delivering.

Moreover, he has a VERY strong incentive to continue to deliver meat. If he doesn't, then he doesn't get paid! If it were a gov't contract for meat, he would be paid regardless of whether he delivers or not.

This is why privatization is the way to go for the power industry, in my opinion. The new owner of your local power company has a strong incentive to make sure power runs, otherwise he doesn't get paid, and his investment becomes worth much less.

Now, the only real issue with privatization is that some people might grab these assets at too-low prices. I want to see the power companies sold off to private investors, but at fair prices, not sweetheart ones. This is what happened in Russia when they privatized the banks and oil and gas industries. The best assets of the country were sold off to private businessman at supercheap prices. Of course, once these businessmen stepped in and fixed the businesses and reduced obvious inefficiencies, they became billionaires.

To be honest, I'm less concerned about that happening in Nigeria. . . if any private individual can successfully fix power in this country, I almost do not mind if he is sold the PHCN for below-market value.

Gbawe:
Is it not amazing how we thrash around vigorously yet never seem to move forward? Many Nigerians , even when very bright, continue to show amnesic ignorance of why things never worked well in our past as a nation with the way  they offer the same pathetically lame excuses even when the solution to our problems is[b] very obvious[/b].

Did the Yar Adua regime not make this same noise ? Did our former President and his hirelings not waste Nigeria's time and money telling us that the most powerful office in the land is at the mercy of various cabals who frustrate the agitations of Nigerians for adequate electricity, good roads , sufficient healthcare , etc , etc .

When will it become obvious to Nigerians that we don't need a Rocket Scientist as our President? When will we learn that , for now , we only need , as President, a[b] very resolute[/b] man/woman totally commited to ensuring that those who are corrupt and self-serving are not included in the search for solutions to Nigeria's[b] many[/b] woes ? What derailed the NIPP scheme under OBJ if not corruption? Ask Obasanjo today why the NIPP scheme failed to deliver even one megawatt and he will state the common excuse : "it is the work of those who do not want progress for Nigeria". Yet our former President will omit to mention that , in testimony to corruption and self-servitude,  his own daughter and cronies , despite knowing nada about power generation , won lucrative NIPP contracts !!!!!!!!

Does Nnaji not realise that miracles cannot be achieved by a government that will get in bed with corruption yet pretend it can bring the change Nigerians desire? Have we not had enough of weak and compromised Presidents who , even as they have the most powerful office in the land , continue to pretend they are powerless to improve the lot of Nigerians? Nigerians must understand that we need , above everything else , an ultra-tough and unflinchingly brave President who will know that no cabal is greater than his office enough to cower his commitment to delivering a better future for Nigerians.

In general I agree with your sentiment. But the way Nigeria is run makes no sense. Why is EVERYTHING done by the federal gov't? That is just a recipe for disaster. Everywhere in the world, gov't bearacracies are less efficient at doing their jobs than the private industry equivalent. Airlines in the US used to be gov't owned, they got privatized and the industry got stronger. AT&T was a giant quasi-governmental national communications monopoly, got broken up and privatized, and literally all parties (both the different components of AT&T, the investors, and consumers of telecom services) are better off.

Asking the question, "Why is the gov't not running this business properly?" is almost the wrong question to ask. The gov't shouldn't even be in the business of providing most of the services it provides. If you turn power over to a private business, will the business owner give out bad contracts that don't get filled? No, he will not, because the money is coming directly out of his pocket, not some nebulous government account.

This in a nutshell is the problem with Nigeria. People spend money that doesn't belong to them. If you are spending your own money, will you overpay for pounded yam? No, you look for the best price on high quality pounded yam you can find. You don't buy low quality pounded yam at terrible prices just to line the pockets of your friend who is the low quality pounded yam salesman.
There is no man on the face of the earth who knowingly lets his own hard-earned money be stolen or sabotaged. However, once you start spending money on the behalf of other people, corruption becomes easy. Let's reduce the temptation by privatizing as much as possible, imo.

How does the saying go? A fool and his (in this case, her) money are easily parted. Crimes like this, it is hard for me to feel sorry for the victim. A little bit of common sense goes a long way.

ogagusps3:
Even though Ghana has stable electricity, we still produce more energy than them. So it would be impossible 4 them to supply us energy.

No, they could sell us excess power if our grids are connected. Any little bit helps, buying electricity from them means less power outages.

But probably we just need to build more generators; the gap between supply and demand will be quite enormous even if we buy from them.

Jakumo:
Open hunting season all the time. If you love to shoot big bore rifles like I do, then you are in luck with Nigeria's non-existent hunting regulations. You can take to the forest or savanna, and blow chit up to your heart's content, PROVIDED THAT you save some choice meat cuts to hand out at police checkpoints along the road home.

Impunity : Legality is entirely subjective and open to individual interpretation in Nigeria. Carry enough cash to bribe the cops, and you can pretty much get away with anything short of capital murder.

Never been hunting before. That sounds pretty interesting. I'm not sure the impunity stuff is good, a lawless land imo is a terrible place.

Also, what would be the quickest way to increase the generation of electricity? Are we connected to the Ghanaian grid, is it possible to purchase electricity from them?

Any insight/comments from someone in the industry who understands the technical issues deeply would be very welcome.

The federal gov't should never have been in the business of distributing power anyway. Should have been privatized a long time ago. If it is in private hands, the owner will do everything in his power to ensure that there is always light. Otherwise it costs him money, makes his customers unhappy.

Problem with everything being run by a central gov't is that there is no accountability. Oh well, hopefully they'll get it right sometime soon. Fix the power supply so we can move back to Nigeria and start businesses there.

It would help if the Northern elites would stop oppressing their people, man. How can your own people live in poverty and can you feel content to steal billions and not use it help their brothers? It is insane to me. At least take the stolen money and do something useful with it. Invest in businesses in the north to create jobs in your lands. Instead, they steal money and go spend it to fuel economies in Europe, Canada or the US. It is almost perverse, while we Yoruba outside of Nigeria send money home every month, instead the Northern elite ship money from Nigeria elsewhere.

Selfish and sad.