12 Jun 2008 |
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Stephen Ojeremen
Yes, I resign to my village darkness. I resign to using cold water to bath; I resign to my kerosene lantern and water pot (since there is no light to power my fridge). I resign to listening to the chaotic noise of generators in my neighborhood. I resign any hopes for abundant power supply Nigeria in the years of the PDP and Umaru Yar’Adua. The loud and screaming headline from the Punch Newspaper of Monday, June 8 read: “Power Crisis: Makoju Quits”. I thought the man had resigned ‘honorably’ for failing Nigerians. But alas, the body of the report was totally anti to the headline! The report started: “Makoju, one of the last aides of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in the Yar’Adua administration will, however, serve as an honorary adviser to the President. But he will earn no salary during the period he will serve as an honorary adviser.” The man, who was busy doing nothing, has the audacity to say he would proceed on a short rest? Who cares about Makoju’s “rest”? Rest from what work? What is the result of his “work” that he needs a rest? He should go! We do not need his free services and free “advise”. He should vamoose from the scene! Joseph Makoju, who addresses himself as “Engineer” failed woefully to turn the fortunes of a dying power sector, despite cheap and huge public sums at his disposal. Joseph failed to exhibit the wise attributes of the biblical Joseph, after whom he is named. Yet, he has the audacity to insult Nigerians on top of his massive failures. He shamelessly claimed: “There was no problem at all. All along I had been on secondment and on contract; many people do not realize this. I will still be involved as the President has requested. For example, this coming week I will be in the President’s delegation to Paris as part of the effort to find a lasting solution to the power crisis.” There was no problem at all (?). What a statement from the “Engineer”. He is a big problem case that is beyond redemption. What “solution” does this adviser has after eight yeas of failure? I wonder what new ideas a person has to contribute after spending more than eight years in a key advisory position without any positive results. I do not think the legislation of term limits on certain positions is there just for the sake of it. Indeed, what more can any leader, however effective, do after almost a decade in the same position. Smart leaders quit when the ovation is loudest, else the law of diminishing returns sends them crashing hard, and all their achievements relegated to footnotes, if not the trash-bins of history. In this case, Makoju was not even effective and has failed totally for more than eight years as a Managing Director of NEPA, then as that of PHCN, then as presidential “advisor” on power. Now, what new ideas would this “Joseph” bring in as “honorable” advisor? Like the typical Nigerian politico-economic cannibal who loots from the public till to create vast “private empires”, Joseph Makoju is being speculated to join the Dangote cement group as a “Chief Executive”: Alhaji Aliko Dangote, had told our correspondent in Abuja that he was planning to build 1,000 mega watts gas-fired power station in six locations. The calculations then were that Makoju would head Dangote’s power generation business…”, said the same Punch report. Why should the President continue to keep non-performers and total failures? The likes of Makoju should vamoose from the power scene in Nigeria; he is a curse that bears the plagues afflicting the power sector. The usual thing in forward-looking countries and societies is for non-performers to quit. Clearly, after eight years of nonsense “advice” that failed to bring any positive change in the power sector, Makoju ought to have resigned or be fired long ago by the President (from Olusegun Obasanjo to Umaru Yar’Adua). I resign from any hopes, despite the looming “declaration” of a “state of emergency” in the power sector. With regards to the power sector, we are finished in the next four or eight years, going by the nonsense that is unfolding. There are no new people with any new ideas or new ways and systems of doing things to achieve results. Call me a prophet of doom, but please I beg all readers not to get afflicted with the disease called amnesia: we will move no where in the power sector after four or eight years of Umaru Yar’adua as President. Quote me. I repeat. Quote me. I say it again. Quote me. If you doubt me, listen to the President’s spokesman, Segun Adeniyi on the resignation of the Nigerian “Joseph”: “Makoju asked for it, he apparently wants to be freer but he is still very much involved. We had an all-day meeting on Saturday at the Villa and he was there. He was not removed”. What will be the result of retaining such advisors whose advice of more than eight years in the power sector has plunged the sector into further mess and rot? Even ignorant fools would have a rethink if someone advised them for eight years on the same problem, and all the bagful pieces of advice could do was only lead to a worsening of the problem. I resign to my darkness and hopelessness.
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