Empower Nigerians with Electricity, No more Rhetoric says Toyin Dawodu

[FeedStar]

When Jonathan assumed the office 7 months ago, most Nigerians including this writer were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  According to a saying, "show me your advisers, and I'll tell you what kind of leader you are."  Take the "Honorable" Minister finance for example, I sent him three email messages on my idea to create over 100,000 jobs for Nigerians.  He got all the mail, and read them, as confirmed by my outlook. He did not even have the courtesy to respond.



Twenty five years ago, I had sent a graduate research idea to President Buhari, through the Nigerian embassy, to encourage Nigeria to create a sovereign wealth fund, buy refineries and retail gas stations in the U.S. This was my initial reason for contacting Mr. Aganga to congratulate him for encouraging the Nigerian government to start a sovereign wealth fund. But I was disappointed in his failure to even respond. I sent similar letters to the minister of information, Mrs. Akunyili, about my idea to create up to $6 billion USD of internally generated funds for Nigeria without borrowing, and up till today, I have yet to receive a response. At least, when I send similar suggestions to U.S administrators, including the white house, I usually get a response.

My doubts about the competence of the people that the president surrounds himself with, were confirmed when Mr. Aganga said a few months ago that Nigeria's unemployment rate was 19.7%. I searched every where to find out where he got his numbers from and till today, I am still looking.

My contacts with the Nigerian minister of power has not been that positive either, since Mr. president is his own minister of power,  I would have thought that the ministry would be more responsive.  In the six months since we we've been talking to Mr. President about generating power, China has built over 36,000 megawatts of power for its people. It is one thing to write slogans on the pages of face book, But Nigerians need electricity and jobs.

A few days ago, Mr. Aganga stated that Mr. Atiku has poor knowledge of the economy. Obviously, he figured that he could just throw out words and numbers to confuse Nigerians, without refuting the facts stated by Atiku, and if he did refute them, the facts have to check out.

Out of the over 130 comments on the pages of Next, 90% of the commentators challenged Mr. Aganga's position as to his explanation of the state of Nigeria's economy. While most did not side with Mr. Atiku, they all concluded that Nigeria's economy is heading in the wrong direction. So instead of the Jonathan government coming up with concrete facts and plans, they think it is better to keep slinging mud at others who criticize their rudderless ship. 

Mr. Aganga claimed that the government spent $5.6 billion on NIPP, yet Nigerians are still in darkness. During the six months Mr. Jonathan has been in power, China has built six power plants for a total of over 36,000 megawatts. Yesterday, the Presidential adviser on power, Prof. Nnaji stated that Nigeria aims for 20,000 megawatts of power in the next 10 years. What an ambition. It takes China less than six months to build 20,000 megawatts. The question is why would it take Nigeria 10 years?  I am still awaiting a response to the email I sent to Prof Nnaji six weeks ago regarding information on his road map and the procedure to obtain a power purchase agreement with the Nigerian government.  These are some of the questions Nigerians should be asking when they go to the polls in 90 days, Can President Jonathan solve Nigeria's power problem and  create jobs for Nigerians

The lesson in all these is that Nigerians are no longer as gullible as the politicians think. So if the president thinks he can win the election by throwing numbers around instead of coming up with concrete plans on how to fix the Nigerian economy, provide electricity and create jobs for Nigerians, he may be surprised that Nigerians would rather support someone else instead of a leader who has surrounded himself with yes men and women who can't even respond to suggestions from Nigerians. Show me your advisers, and I'll show you what kind of leader you are.

Toyin Dawodu is the Managing partner of Capital Investment Group and founder of Nigeria Let There be light, a movement to create meaningful change in Nigeria. Email:  toyin@capvestgroup.com

Empower Nigerians with Electricity, No more Rhetoric