By Uzoma Ahamefule
• Senator Enagi may have plans of going into solar importation
directly or by proxy, hence his request to ban generator use
. Senator Enagi, Sir, propose a bill that will make it compulsory
to probe the power sector and audit NNPC
. Propose a bill that will stop ex-governors who are senators from
getting all rights as ex governors and still get salaries as senators
The news of the proposal bill by Senator Bima Muhammadu Enagi of All
Progressive Congress (APC) Niger South last week to ban the sell and the
use of generators in Nigeria was a shock that got many Nigerians really
upset. He added in his proposal that sellers and users should be jailed
not less than 10 years. According to the Senator’s explanation of the
narrow proposal, if the bill is passed it will help to curtail the
menace of environmental pollution and help facilitate the improvement of
the power sector. I am speechless.
Is Senator Enagi not aware that the generator business flourishing was a
result of the government’s failure to provide electricity for the
people? Government should play her role well by providing steady power
supply for us and we will see who will be interested in generators.
Anyway, while I will thank the senator for thinking about the
environment, it is equally obligatory to let him know like many
Nigerians that I was highly very disappointed at his proposal and see
his bill as very dishonest, provocative, shallow and laughable. The bill
is not different from the suppressive bill of “hate speech” equally
proposed by his counterpart also from Niger State. I appeal to other
senators, all well meaning Nigerians and our pressmen to help so that
the socket of the life support of this bill that is still in incubator
could be collectively plugged out immediately and now for it to die
quickly.
I can vividly remember that when Buhari and APC were campaigning in 2014
prior to the 2015 election, Babatunde Fashola had been widely quoted to
have said that any responsible government would fix Nigeria’s
electricity problem within six months, and that the best thing to do
would be to vote out Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) under the then
president, Goodluck Jonathan. APC, President Buhari and Fashola are
today still in power and over five years have gone since they came to
power, what happened to their promises? Why do Nigerians still
experience epileptic power supply after billions of dollars spent in
that sector, and even in some areas they do not get light for months but
would still be exploitatively asked to pay electric bills – for light
they never saw and used? Why? Though in 2018 it was equally reported
that Fashola denied ever making the statement attributed to him and
challenged all to prove him wrong with evidence. But why did he not deny
the statement in 2014 but waited till 2018 when the campaign of the next
election was close?
This same government was also reported to have promised to equal naira
to one dollar. Why does exchange rate of a dollar today fluctuates
between 350 and 400 naira? Meanwhile when they made the electoral
promise naira was exchanged then between 180, 190 and 200 to one dollar.
At least this very promise has not been denied. The people of this same
government promised security for Nigerians and to end Boko Haram. Have
they defeated Boko Haram? Are we all secured? What are they telling us
about their promises? It is on record that in the history of this
country that the lives of Nigerians have never been massacred like it is
witnessed on daily basis today – in exception of the time of the
Nigerian Biafra war. It is an equally known fact that this very
government is clueless on how to tackle Boko Haram, acts confused, full
of propaganda and lies.
President Buhari told us before he was elected in 2015 that fuel subsidy
was a fraud. But in 2019 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), a
reputable accounting firm, Buhari’s government spent over N2.3
trillion in subsidies in three years – N1.12 [1] trillion and N1. 2
trillion on electricity and fuel subsides respectively – and the
government has again budgeted N450 billion for petroleum subsidy in
2020.
The essence of the above references on the government’s promises and
failures is to inform Senator Enagi that his proposal was a misplaced
priority and that he misfired. Hypocrites perhaps surround him as that
is the normal case with many Nigerian politicians, thus he may not know
that this very federal government of today is a big failure.
Obasanjo’s government was accused by many – that included President
Buhari – of spending $16 billion dollars in electricity without giving
Nigerians light, whether that was true or not I don’t know.
Consequently Senator Enagi, Sir, please kindly propose a bill that will
make it compulsory for private auditors and investigators to be
constituted and be allowed to investigate all monies mapped out for
electricity projects under President Buhari’s government and beyond
and how they were used. Because genuine Nigerians would be very happy to
know why all these years of spending billions of dollars in the power
sector that Nigerians are still without constant electricity like it is
in Ghana. Again Senator Enagi, Sir, propose a bill that should contract
private auditors to audit the account of NNPC and allow independent
investigators to investigate why our refineries cannot be repaired and
new one cannot be built. We want to know those sabotaging the efforts of
the government. Are those people invisible? Why can’t Nigeria build
refineries, and why have we spent trillions in oil subsidy? Some people
close to those in authority are feeding fat at the expense of our
collective pains and misfortune. Nigeria is really terrible.
In a country where successive governments continued to fail in the midst
of plenty to provide basic amenities – health/social care, electricity,
motorable roads, drinkable water and qualitative education – failed to
pay senior citizens their pension rights and workers their salaries as
when due, sometimes they are even owed up to four, six or eight months,
how fair is it that ex-governors get their own entitlements and at the
same time receive salaries as senators? Therefore Senator Enagi, Sir,
please don’t forget to include in your new proposal a bill that will
stop the rape and the cruel injustice against Nigerians. Let there be a
bill that will henceforth stop ex-governors from getting pensions money,
allocation of houses, changing or buying of new cars, health and house
maintenance allowances all from government and still receive millions of
naira salaries and other incentives as senators. Let the law be that an
ex-governor who contested an election as a senator and won seizes
immediately to receive the benefits that go with a former governor at
the time he/she is sworn in as a senator.
Nigerians are brutally raped continuously by the political class and we
the ordinary Nigerians are in pains. But for how long shall the same
ordinary Nigerians continue to stupidly defend and support evil against
themselves because of political affiliations, ethnic/religious
backgrounds or myopic selfish interests? When will they know that a good
road does not recognize whether the plier is an APC or PDP etc. or even
an apolitical person?
Senator Enagi, Sir, you are trying to dump the failure of the government
with your proposal on the doorsteps of ordinary Nigerians because you
feel that we can’t do anything. You know that when you make the right
bill proposal that will end the hostage we are in in the power sector
that it will definitely not go through because of the cabals who have
gri