Nigeria The Beautiful!
Hmm… it’s been over 50 years since our “so
called” independence and even more since our discovery of Oil! After soberly
reflecting on our beloved country today, one cannot but appreciate the wisdom
and insights of the ancients!
There are so many quotes that can help us better
analyze our journey so far and where we are today. Be warned! Continued reading
of this rant may result in elevated insight or extreme irritation.
“Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”
this famous phrase may have been meant to describe the responsibility related
to handling political power, however, when applied to Nigeria today, it can be
lent to another use; Our shortage of power has aided the advancement of our
corruption, absolutely! It may be
difficult for many people to link our corruption epidemic to poor Power or
electricity supply, so let me connect the dots for you from my perspective. The
lack of adequate power supply is a direct representation of our collective lack
of productivity! Yes we are all to blame in some form or fashion. Power is
arguably the largest pillar of industrial growth and development of every
nation on earth! This is simple to prove, find a country on earth that has
grown industrial strength without power! Not possible!
Our lack of power has led to extremely poor
quality of our products! Review any of the few Nigerian made products you can
find, and compare it with a foreign competitor, 9 times out of 10, corners have
been cut with Nigerian made. This is also simple to prove, name someone you
know that in Nigeria that doesn’t want you to buy them “the original = made somewhere else” of something when you travel
abroad! This leads me to another famous quote, “the people get the government they deserve” Harsh but true! We
have compromised virtually everything that we should have stood up for! When
generating our own power to produce raises costs, quality is simply dropped by
the producer and lower quality is simply accepted by the consumer! In fact many
people seek out low quality items to save money… eyah! Poverty mentality! (You
actually pay more over time in maintenance and replacement costs).
It’s easy to point fingers and blame the
government for all our woes, but we should also note that most governments are
made up of their own people! Another quote, “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” Did the power of the
government corrupt the people or was it the people’s power that corrupted the
government?? I don’t know o, but as I dey here dey write this rant, I’m on gen
(one of three) and I have to kick in extra motivation to get up and be
productive when there is no power in the morning. However the government is not
off the hook of responsibility on Power! Since they have decided to run all our
industries, we should have insisted they do an adequate job of it! But most
times we settle for less and accept the scraps that we are given.
While other countries have long realized
that they are competing with the world and are constantly taking steps to
improve their chances in the world. Nigeria our country is fine ignoring the
pillars of development and consistently patching up the bruises of a faulty
structure!
- While our competitors in Ghana are rising to face the day, we
are looking for power to iron our clothes or pump water! - While our competitors in China and India are increasing their
daily productivity by working from home, we can barely work from home, and
are probably stuck in horrific traffic caused by too many crazy factors to
list here! - While our counterparts in South Africa and Brazil are
leveraging the lower costs of First World quality manufacturing in a Third
world country, the combined costs of producing your own power, poor
infrastructure, corruption, lack of development in supporting industries
and power abuse by all government offices, makes “Made In Nigeria” products virtually more expensive to produce
than in First World (Old Industrial) countries. Especially when the
quality standard is also factored in. - While working people all over the world are saving money from
their working years to start businesses, for retirement, private school
for their children or even further their own knowledge, we in Nigeria get
to dedicate a huge portion of our earnings to personal power generation,
just to get a semblance of a normal life!
I know, I know it sounds like another angry
Nigerian that has traveled out of the country just complaining as usual! But
when you consider the fact that most of our issues have been resolved in most
of the world over 100 years ago… It makes you wonder just WTF is wrong with
us?? And if this does not upset you, then you are not a patriot! If the future
of your entire country is being treated like a “get rich quick” scheme by our “so
called” leaders, and your response is “wetin
we go do?” or “At least they’re
trying” Then you do deserve the crap you get and you are the definition of
a Coward! Which leads me to my final quote, “A
coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave die but once!” The following is a
short list of our cowardly deaths as a result of no Power;
- In the course of producing our own power, most Nigerians live,
work and play in the same fume that people use to commit suicide! (Engine
Exhausts)
- Our hospitals operate their services on generator sets, like
any other Nigerian based home or business… If you need any sort of Power
based life support machines, refrigerated vaccine, organ/tissue transplant
etc… You should either be filthy rich, a politician, have a way abroad to
Cotonou or something or you’re screwed! - Cement and Asphalt (Road Tar) are standard in road construction
globally! While Cement is extremely power intensive to produce, its no
wonder we have to import it, while Asphalt is a Petroleum by-product,
which should be abundant and cheap here… Thanks to Power and Corruption,
you’d think they were scarce resources. We pay for it with countless
productive hours and lives lost in traffic and bad road accidents. - Technology is the current wave of today’s global economy, most
Nigerian based companies have to hire 5-10 times the needed staff to
handle a simple task such as accepting a payment from a customer!!! Power
availability to run globally basic payment systems are not yet reliable
enough to eliminate the need for triplicate signatures. Imagine the costs
that a business owner has to put up with, as well as the quality of
service to the paying customer! - Perpetual darkness all over the country has made our cities and
homes virtual playgrounds for criminals of all kinds… Our houses are built
like prisons to keep us in and safe from the darkness out there!
We can go on and on, but is it really an
issue to be discussed??? It’s Power man! This isht should be a basic
requirement of life in this day and age! The crazy thing is that the lack of
Power has made us severely unproductive and lazy in the world, and any support
or sympathy for the abysmal effort that has been put into power generation is
treasonous in the least! We have German and Chinese people building our roads
and civil structures, Dutch, British and Americans mining our oil and
processing it for us, while we buy it back like morons! Indians, Lebanese and
South Africans running a great deal of our food, textile, music, film and
mobile communication industries, while we scamper about trying to make the
monthly payments to live!!! I dare say that we are the only or one of the few
poor countries in the world that has a great number of unemployed people and
chooses to outsource the majority of its work! All these industries depend on
power and there is no question that we need to catch up with the world and stop
defending the bullshit!
Mr Fokus
by 
Well said Mr Fokus!
I chose elevated insight to extreme irritability
Preach my brother, preach!