₦airaland Forum

Best joke today.

That's a CLASSIC not a LUXURY.

What

Omg

Good

#wakawakapresident. Safe journey, buy me plantain chips when you dey come back.

Reading

Ok

Wtf

^^^^
They are owing me.

Ok

Freeze spoke well.

Are the excuses given by the president man cogent enough to warrant his world tour.

Lalsticlala mynd44

With the urgent task of resettling the more than two million refugees, mostly women and children on his mind, and at hand, the more urgent one of rebuilding damaged infrastructure such as roads, bridges,clinics, schools as a requirement for their return to their communities, President Buhari leaves for the middle-east on a wee tour of three friendly countries.

Why Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar?

Prsident Buhari is on schedule to attend the “Africa 2016: Business for Africa, Egypt and the world” from the 20th – 21st of February in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt.

The organizers say the primary objective of the Forum is to accelerate private sector engagement and investment within Africa. It is also to help develop new ties and partnerships, and to highlight the African opportunity. This meeting is seen as the African international business forum to attend for those concerned with doing serious business in Africa, “the world’s last investment frontier.Indeed, Africa 2016 will provide the platform needed for public and private sector to network, discuss, and further advance African business.”

My interlocutors suggest that Egypt used to be one the closest countries to Nigeria on the continent. The region had been ignored by the previous government.

This visit marks the first substantive engagement between the two African Giants.The President’s visit should hopefully build on the ashes of the old relationship and pave the way for transformed ties.

Why would the President not send a delegate, say a Minister to represent him?

In today’s compacted, globalist world diplomacy has become more personal. Leaders everywhere are on the move.

Just a few days ago, our President was with the British Prime Minister David Cameron who hosted a meeting on Syria.

The next day, while the three dozen or so foreign leaders he called to this meeting were still in the United Kingdom, Cameron left for Poland and thereafter, Germany.

In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited 29 countries on five continents.

Leaders are on the move because they don’t have the luxury of time in dealing with matters of importance at most of the times. A minister can meet foreign leaders on behalf of his nation, but his final answer would say, at best, “You will hear from us after I make my report.”

The President of a country is the final authority on any issue in international relations. A presidential visit is the highest track of diplomacy. Nothing can be more authoritative than hearing from the Head of State.

Equally important is the need for Nigeria to assert her relevance in global affairs.

We all recall with nostalgia the days of General Murtala Ramat Mohammed as the military Head of State.

Murtala made Nigeria to be heard and known all over the world as a no-nonsense, progressive, principled and confident nation and this paid off very well for both the citizens and the state. This held on until the decline set in some years after his demise.

The country has started well under President Muhammadu Buhari.

What does Nigeria seek to gain in the Middle-East?

The first thing on President Buhari’s engagement in Egypt is possibly the issue of security. Terrorism is a serious issue for Egypt and it has become an urgent issue for Nigeria, to be dealt with before it gets even bigger. Egypt is perpetually a crisis state, if one can describe them as such. This has given them decades of hands-on experience dealing with extremism and terrorism. The President will talk to them on counter-terrorism.

As is becoming increasingly clear, the problem of terrorism is cross border and its solutions must equally be cross border. It requires cooperation with other countries.

Right now Nigeria’s priorities, and they must necessarily be so, are internal and basically, a tripod of three issues as identified by President Buhari’s election campaign: security, economy and corruption . Of these three broad objectives, we must realize what Nigeria’s priorities are in the area of security. In a broader sense, this country needs peace and stability. Without these, there cannot be investment and development. Although as many will argue, these priorities are domestic, it is not difficult to see that there is an external impact or impetus to be dealt with the help and support of other nations.

Egypt has equally got a relatively developed military-industrial complex.

Not long ago, President Buhari bemoaned the situation in which Nigeria bought nearly every item on its inventory list of weapons and ammunition. This is a very awkward situation, posing a real threat to the security and defence of Nigeria.

In the light of this, he has been thinking in terms of upgrading the facilities at the Defence Industries Corporation, DIC in Kaduna, to move the country in the direction of self-sufficiency in personal weapons and other basic armaments.

There is also significant room for improvement of infrastructure and trade between the two states.

Let us talk about Nigeria-Saudi Arabian relationship and hopefully, provide a context to the visit to the Kingdom. Recently, the President had a high level visit to the United Arab Emirates. The visit was a thumping success, in the course of which he covered a broad range of issues. The reconstruction of infrastructure and the resettlement of internally displaced persons in the North-East was one of the topics. Assuming all things are equal, the one big difference that the Saudis will make is that their government, less constrained by shortage of resources would unleash a massive infrastructure plan for the damaged parts of the North-Eastern Nigeria. That by itself will make a significant difference to the lives of the more than two million homeless Nigerians, sixty to seventy percent of whom are women and children.

Given the large Muslim population of Nigeria, warranting the second largest delegation to the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, Nigeria has had a significant but hardly accomplished beneficial relations with the Saudi Kingdom.

Beside the many Nigerians who go on pilgrimage to the country, we share a lot with them in the fact that we have our economies dominated by oil.

When they meet, President Buhari will make the Saudis to see the problems of the world oil market from the point of view of Nigeria.

As Iran begins its march back to normalcy following the lifting of economic sanctions related to its nuclear program imposed by the US, EU and the UN, the volatile world oil market has taken a turn for the worse on fear of increased supplies. This has come with severe consequences for countries like Nigeria and Venezuela. Saudi and Russian competition for the domination of the market has in part been blamed for the collapse of the World oil market.

These big producers must understand the current situation of countries like Nigeria if any action will be taken to restrain a further fall of the oil market.

Many in our diplomatic strategy section see this as a low-hanging fruit which we failed to pluck due to our own fault.

While the President is a strong believer in home-grown solutions to our domestic problems, he is not one to ignore a helping hand voluntarily offered by willing, friendly states.

He recognizes that we are a country of youth, considering that 60-65 percent of our population is formed by them.

As he keeps saying, the joblessness of the youth is the next most volatile threat to the nation after Boko Haram. Our young people need jobs. The government is already overstretched and our private sector cannot be burdened more than necessary so we need foreign companies to come in to create the job opportunities.

In addition, the country is in need of investments in agriculture, power, solid minerals and other infrastructure. We don’t have the money to do all these in view of the fall of oil prices.

While it is a fact that a lot of countries spend enormous amounts in charitable giving, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE rise above many others. The North-East must be put on their radar.The President has been keen always to draw the attention of the world to the massive effort required to restore damaged infrastructure and resettle the two million IDPs in the North-East. It will not therefore be out of place for him to seek the help of the friendly Middle-Eastern countries.

Today, a great deal of our resources is spent on war against terrorism. If we close this chapter by ending the insurgency, needed resources will be freed for national development programs.

More than any other gain, Nigeria would hope to establish enduring agreements with the three countries to facilitate the exchange of needed intelligence on extremist movements and terrorism. This could be helpful in discovering the origin and sources of continuing inflow of resources to terrorists in the Lake Chad Basin area despite what many say is a formidable blockade around the Sambisa forest in which the terrorist are holed up.

Going to Qatar straight from Saudi Arabia would seem like a natural progression in terms of the pursuit of our national objectives in the Middle-East.

In addition to everything else, this country is reputed to be a big player in the Islamic Development Bank, IDB which should hopefully join the World Bank in voting a significant amount of money for the reconstruction of the North-East. The World Bank has already committed itself to spending USD 2.1 billion to rebuilding the region.

Qatar which made advances in the development of solar power and other renewable sources of energy may, in addition to keying into the reconstruction of the North-East also be persuaded to make investment of a serious nature in this country’s power sector.

As is usual with President Buhari, his visits abroad are not like a citizen’s vacation abroad. All his visits are according to plans taking into consideration advice from officials in the defence, foreign affairs, trade and investment departments of government.

Typically, these visits are marked by back-breaking schedules from start to finish.

In the Middle-East as in other regions he has visited, the aim is to project a respected and well-placed Nigeria; a country of good people under a good leadership in the hope of attracting foreign investment which in turn leads to economic development and job creation which then lead to improved life-styles, security of life and property, better infrastructure and better services for the benefit of the citizens.


http://www.peoplesdailyng.com/buharis-middle-east-ties-north-east-reconstruction-initiatives/

Ok

Jim iyke just dull for this package

The issue is CAN THE FEDERAL GOVT AFFORD ANOTHER WAR WITH THE NIGER DELTA MILITANTS.


It's goes beyond just going to the Niger Delta with 20 battalion of soldiers to protect the pipelines and kill everyone that comes close because like the battle in the North East it won't be a conventional warfare but unlike the battle in the North east the life blood of Nigeria runs through the Niger Delta.

A picture speaks a thousand word OP.

Cc lalasticlala mynd44

Without a doubt, the federal government’s decision to pay legacy debts totalling N213 billion in 2014 as part of the process of boosting gas supply to Nigeria’s power sector is indeed a big step in the right direction. However, a lot more has to be done, especially in the stopping of pipeline vandalism. This will ensure that the callous and greedy acts of a select few do not thwart the government’s efforts to use natural gas to provide power for the innocent majority.

Right in the centre of the homepage of the Presidential Task Force on Power lies a small tab titled “GENERATION REPORT”. This tab provides a snapshot about the status of the country’s electricity system for the previous day and is perhaps the most succinct summary of the rather sorry state of Africa’s largest economy’s power system. Looking through this must be very disconcerting for every Nigerian; the peak electricity generated is barely 30 percent of the peak demand.

However, the more poignant issue is that many power industry experts like myself believe that peak supply-demand ratio is much lower; 15 percent at best! This is because we believe the government’s estimate of a 12GW peak demand vastly underestimates the true demand. The government’s 12GW peak demand estimate means that the Africa’s largest economy’s peak demand/capita is 71W/capita, while South Africa’s (Africa’s second largest economy) stands at over 600W/capita. Admittedly, South Africa’s GDP/capita is slightly above double of Nigeria’s; still, this does not explain the vast disparity in peak electricity demand per capita.

If we pretend for a moment that government’s estimates are correct, the next logical question is: why is there an 8GW supply shortage? This question does indeed have many answers but for the sake of brevity, I will just mention the two dominant ones – lack of adequate generating capacity and unavailability of some existing generation plants.

With a total installed capacity of 8457.6MW (81 percent of total) in early 2014, thermal plants (gas-fired plants) dominated the Nigerian power supply mix. The rest of Nigeria’s capacity is in the form of hydropower plants. On face value, the thermal capacity alone is nearly double of Nigeria’s recorded peak generation (4600MW generated 11/11/2014). This immediately prompts the question: why is Nigeria not using all its installed capacity considering the huge demand-supply shortfall?

In addition to this outright gas supply shortage, another issue that is to blame for the unavailability of Nigeria’s thermal plants is pipeline vandalism. Sadly, this is an issue that has been around for a long time with the government seemingly being unable to arrest it. Pipelines are essentially the veins of gas-powered generation…In January 2016, Babatunde Fashola, the minister of power reported that the vandalism of the Excravos-Lagos pipeline was to cost N470 million in losses per day across the entire power sector supply chain.

Sadly, it is not that simple. The quantity of electricity that can be generated at any point in time is not determined by the total installed capacity but rather by the total available capacity. The available capacity is the percentage of the total capacity that is not prevented from working through planned/unplanned outages and/or the lack of required fuels. While the poor maintenance culture in several Nigerian power plants means they have considerable unplanned outages, the main problem facing Nigeria’s thermal power plants is the lack of fuel – natural gas.

How then is Nigeria, the country with the 9th most proven natural gas reserves in the world unable to provide the natural gas needed by her thermal power plants?

In November 2014, the minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo stated that Nigeria was losing over 60 percent of its installed gas-fired capacity due to the lack of gas. He declared that while 1.9 billion cubic feet of gas was needed per day to power the country’s total capacity, the gas plants were only able to produce approximately 900 million cubic feet per day.

In addition to this outright gas supply shortage, another issue that is to blame for the unavailability of Nigeria’s thermal plants is pipeline vandalism. Sadly, this is an issue that has been around for a long time with the government seemingly being unable to arrest it. Pipelines are essentially the veins of gas-powered generation; they provide the route for the transportation of natural gas from where they are mined to the power plants where they are needed, which are often numerous hundreds of kilometres away. According to Dr. Sam Amadi, the former Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Nigeria lost as much as 10 percent of the total thermal capacity due to pipeline vandalism in early 2014. In January 2016, Babatunde Fashola, the minister of power reported that the vandalism of the Excravos-Lagos pipeline was to cost N470 million in losses per day across the entire power sector supply chain.

Historically, the biggest challenge the government has faced when attempting to procure natural gas for local power plants is price. The price of the raw material – natural gas – will undoubtedly affect the final cost of electricity. Electricity is highly subsidised in Nigeria. As a result of this, the government has consistently attempted to coerce gas producers to sell their gas to Nigerian utilities at prices much lower than the international going rates.

Unfortunately, the adverse effects of this gas supply shortages are not limited to existing thermal plants. More importantly, they could spell real trouble for the government’s commitments to expanding gas-fired generation in Nigeria. In a country where policy U-turns is all too frequent, one policy that seems to have lasted is the government’s commitment to encouraging gas-fired power generation. Gas-powered plants are viewed as the cornerstone of the capacity expansion needed to develop Nigeria’s power system to the levels required for sustained and high-end economic development.

The landmark moment confirming the big commitment to gas-fired power generation was the launch of the National Integrated Power Projects in 2005 by the Olusegun Obasanjo government. 10 years on, majority of these plants are yet to be completed and the completed ones have been hindered by the gas shortage problems. Under the initial plan, the plants built under the NIPP were to be privatised after an initial period so as to enable to three government tiers who co-funded the project to recoup their money.
Not only does this gas supply shortage mean it will be harder for the government to find prospective buyers for these plants, it also potentially leaves the government vulnerable at the negotiating table. The inability of the government to get good value for its investment could have repercussions on the social welfare side, especially at the local government level. Equally alarming is the adverse impact of the gas shortage problem could have on the willingness of foreign investors to invest in Nigeria’s power sector.

Addressing the gas shortage problem should be easy: (a) increase Nigeria’s gas exploration and transportation capacities and (b) develop and implement security measures to protect the pipelines from vandalism. Actually, it is not as straightforward as it may seem.

Historically, the biggest challenge the government has faced when attempting to procure natural gas for local power plants is price. The price of the raw material – natural gas – will undoubtedly affect the final cost of electricity. Electricity is highly subsidised in Nigeria. As a result of this, the government has consistently attempted to coerce gas producers to sell their gas to Nigerian utilities at prices much lower than the international going rates.

The government’s attempt to minimise gas prices may be inadvertently aided by the discovery of shale gas. The advent of shale gas is expected to lead to reductions in the international gas market as more countries discover their abundant reserves.

Understandably, the gas producers have been unwilling to do this. Consequentially, gas production in Nigeria has not expanded at the required rates. Some industry experts also believe that the government’s artificial pricing regime for gas-to-power is responsible for some of Nigeria’s gas pipeline vandalism issues. They theorise/speculate that gas production companies are incentivised to vandalise their pipelines to the power sector in order to increase the gas volumes they sell to their industrial consumers who pay almost three times more per unit volume of gas.

The government’s attempt to minimise gas prices may be inadvertently aided by the discovery of shale gas. The advent of shale gas is expected to lead to reductions in the international gas market as more countries discover their abundant reserves. Lower international gas prices should make Nigerian gas producers more willing to invest and sell their gas to Nigerian power generators.



Without a doubt, the federal government’s decision to pay legacy debts totalling N213 billion in 2014 as part of the process of boosting gas supply to Nigeria’s power sector is indeed a big step in the right direction. However, a lot more has to be done, especially in the stopping of pipeline vandalism. This will ensure that the callous and greedy acts of a select few do not thwart the government’s efforts to use natural gas to provide power for the innocent majority.

Yusuf O. Ali is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge; you can reach him on e-mail at: yoa20@cam.ac.uk, and Twitter: @YalyAli


http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/the-shortage-of-natural-gas-for-power-generation-in-nigeria-counting-the-costs-by-yusuf-ali/

Where police

Fayose syndrome.

Wetin concern me

Seen

emamos:
It is well

It's not well.

This thread go sweet.

Oga seun, please don't forget to remember "last2comment" when you decide to bless one of your site followers. Thanks