Shekarau And Water Scarcity In Kano

When the government of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau came on board in 2003, it inherited a water project started by the administration of Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. As a water engineer and one who worked with the Kano State Water Board, Kwankwaso made tackling perennial water problem in Kano his government's main priority. It was identified that the major reason why there was water problem in Kano was because the big pipes that were underground in the metropolis that were more than 70 years old actually got blocked. And consequently, the water could not be effectively distributed.

A lot of efforts and resources were put, however in 2003 the Kwankwaso led government was voted out of office by Kano people who were surprisingly not so much satisfied by the way the state was being governed.

The work had progressed quite far when Shekarau came, with the work having reached a stage where huge pipes were seen to be laid around Kano metropolis. Unfortunately, some few weeks after Shekarau was sworn in, his government announced the cancellation and ordered the immediate stoppage of the work. The government reasoned that the work was not planned properly and was hastily put together and as such it was bound to fail. They promised to come up with a 'better' planned blue-print on how the water problem was going to be tackled.

It took the government two years to come up with their 'better' planned blue-print. I have to regretfully admit that that was the last time water ran in many areas of Kano state-including my area. The government said it intended to tackle the problem from its roots by expanding the capacity of the Tamburawa Water Treatment Plant to augment the Challawa plant.

The contract was given at the initial stage at 6 billion Naira, even though it was subsequently jerked up according to some reports in the media to over 16 billion Naira.

More than six years now after work at the Tamburawa water plant started and more than two years after the Shekarau's government claimed it had completed the work and even inaugurated it, the water scarcity in Kano still persists. It would be an understatement to say the Kano people were better off before this work started. In many areas, the situation just got worse. One just need to observe the number of water vendors who roam the streets of Kano to realise that there is a serious water problem. The water vendors are now competing with okada riders in terms of their number on the streets of Kano. Some times one driving in a car has to give way for their convoy to pass especially on a narrow street inside the city.

People who can not afford to buy water from the vendors or those who are in those areas where it's difficult for the vendors to access with their barrows, have to travel as far as several kilometers to get water and sometimes stay awake during the night as long as early morning hours to be able to get water from bore holes as there would be less queue at that time. That is the sad reality of the situation.

In my area, even though we have at least 10 privately built bore holes, however, whenever we are lucky NEPA gave us electricity, all those bore holes would be filled up by children and adults alike trying to get water. It does not matter at what time of the day or the night the light is brought, let it be 3am, people will still come out in numbers and queue up to get water. Immediately the light goes off, the vendors would be trooping and of course people will buy as the bore holes are never enough and again, the electricity never stays long for people to be able to fetch enough.

Many excuses were given by the Shekarau's administration as to why Tamburawa plant was yet to solve water problem in Kano, but the most frequently said of all the reasons was that there was no enough power supply to Kano from NEPA to effectively be able to handle the heavy machines installed at the plant for pumping the water. I do not want to delve in to this issue as any person with an iota of sense in their head should know that this is just rubbish. One thing I would say though is we have never had a steady power supply in Kano for more than 15 years now, and it was only within the last six years the water problem really aggravated. And again, Challawa was pumping water even then.

The truth of the matter as many professionals and commentators remarked is, the water problem is not as conceived by the Shekarau's government. That even if we needed Tamburawa water plant, however we need those old pipes to be replaced more. This also became so apparent when the government inaugurated the plant and water was pumped which burst some of the old pipes as many were blocked and therefore water could not pass through.

This just highlighted once again, the one very cancerous culture that our leaders have. That is their inability by sheer arrogance to continue and complete any developmental project they inherited from their predecessors. They just don't have idea how costly that is, aside the stagnation of capital development, there is also a huge loss of public money whenever such of those projects are abandoned and more especially when they are later have to come and be done all over again.

Kano people have turned to the government of Kwankwaso who has started the project some ten years back. Can he right the wrong and continue from where the last government stopped or he will start all over again as is the culture? Only time can tell.

If only we will have NEPA

On Saturday last weekend I was at home throughout. It wasn't by far a normal weekend for me, as my normal weekend is usually characterised by watching a lot of football. European football season as you are aware was over and coincidently, my darling Kano Pillars were on away match on that day. So I resigned to spending the day at home.

It started as if the day was going to be boring, but then around 11:30am NEPA or PHCN, whichever you prefer to use, brought back light. I was not particularly impressed because I knew it was not going to last, but I was wrong. The light didn't blink until around 7pm that day when they finally took it off. This was quite un NEPA like, especially in my area where we sometimes do spend 2-3 days without seeing even a flash of the light.

I was initially sceptical of trying to do anything with the electricity, I could not even on my tv set afraid of a disappointment when they take it off as it is quite within their capabilities to take it off simultaneously with the time I on the tv. It happened a few times anyway. But when I finally realised that may be we are in for a kind of an adventure, I begin to enjoy the light. I made my coffee in the comfort of my room, which could not have been possible if there was no light.

Anything I drank that day, apart from my coffee of course, I made sure that it was cold, in fact very cold.

The following day-Sunday- NEPA never brought light. That made me wonder how the life of an average Nigerian will change for good if we will have 24/7 uninterrupted power supply, or even less. People will buy less kerosene (which is not even available by the way). People will buy less petrol-one does not need to be sleeping and at the same time thinking how much fuel their generator will burn before the morning. I just concluded that anything that is not working in this country and of course nothing is working, it is not working because NEPA/PHCN is not working.

The government has been talking on how it wants to create jobs for the teeming unemployed youth in this country. How the government intend to do that without electricity in the country remains a mystery to many people. In the developed countries and even developing countries, private sector employs more people than the government. Though in Nigeria the reverse is the case, but the ideal situation is for the private sector to employ more than the government. And you can't achieve that if there is no electricity. Provide electricity, private investors will come and jobs will be created. If everybody who is suppose to be employed gets a job, then almost all our problems in this country will be solved.

A lot has been said about security situation of this country and we are all aware that its the youth who constitute security threat. Armed robbers, kidnappers, area boys, militants and etc, are all youth who can't get better things to do that resort to those evils.

There is no gain saying that there is a lot of poverty in this country. But where there is no employment there must be poverty. And the only way to address that is for the government to create an enabling environment for private investment in the economy. And you can only do that when there is a steady electricity supply.

We are far behind in education in this country, people don't take their children to school as they can't afford it and why can't they afford it is because they are either unemployed or under employed.

The answer no doubt is electricity, but that might be too much to ask in this country which has a history of very dubious dealings in our power sector. Obasanjo spent 16 billion dollars only to be able to provide a little over 2500 megawatts. I read some where that South Africa spent just 5 billion dollars and got more than 20, 000 megawatts.

Mr. President promised fresh air for the Nigerians when he was campaigning. Many of us will wish that mr. President will only have one point agenda, which is going to be of course electricity.

Four Billion Naira Hotel Bills

   If you had missed this news last week, by seeing it now  I am sure you will be saying: "wow, are you kidding me?" That is exactly how I reacted when I first saw it in one of the dailies last week. That the transition committee set up by the incoming governor of Kano state has discovered that the out going, oh sorry, the out gone Mallam Shekarau's led government had spent #4 billion in hotel bills in the state in its 8 years. The government neither confirm nor deny the allegations, the action which fortified people's belief that it actually incurred the bills. The only explanation (not officially though) came from the former Legal adviser to the ANPP Kano chapter, Dr Baffa Danagundi who said even if it was true the government had actually spent that lot on hotel bills, he was sure it was approved by the State Assembly.

   With all due respect, this is indeed lame attempt at justifying this irresponsible, reckless and unwarranted expenditure by the government. I can't say the government did not have cause to spend that much on hotels, but it is certainly clear that it was not prudent especially taking into consideration that there is a state owned hotel which was abandoned by the government and which 1/4 of this money would have been more than enough to transform it into a decent hotel that the government can accommodate any guests that may have cause to come to the state on an official visit. The hotel is situated in an area that is one of the best in the state. At some point, the staff of this hotel threatened to embark on strike over what they called nonchalant attitude of the government to their welfare and well being of the hotel. It is sad that its not only the hotel and its staff that suffer this neglect from the government, but even the road that the hotel is located on has been neglected. The effect of this is total collapse of business of the hotel as one can not even access the hotel as a result of  extremely poor condition of the road. There is only one explanation to this, ie, the government abandoning the hotel and its incurring this bills on hotels; somebody, somewhere was certainly getting a very huge commission from these transactions. This is what can only explain this irrationality. Whatever is the case, the incoming government owes a duty to the people of Kano to investigate and unearth the truth in this seemingly shoddy deal, fingers crossed. 

                 Goje Commissioned Four Billion Naira Stadium. 

   It is four billion Naira affair too in Gombe as the outgoing governor and senator elect Danjuma Goje commissioned a "state of the art" stadium that engulfed #4 billion. When one hears something like this especially when 'state of the art' is used to describe the stadium, one would begin to think that this stadium is

definitely up there with the likes of Emirates stadium of Arsenal and or Abuja National stadium, both of them having 60,000 plus seats. Well, if you had thought of that, I am sorry to say you are absolutely wrong. This stadium we are talking about has only 12,000 seats and it cost $ 250,000,000. Yeah dollars of course! OK, if you still don't get my point let me put it this way; Abuja National stadium built by Obasanjo cost $360,000,000 and we all know that there was so much cries that the stadium was too costly. Emirates Stadium of Arsenal f/c of England was built at $390,000,000, and both these stadiums are 60,000 plus seaters! 

   Isn't it logical that a stadium built by a Nigerian based firm that cost $250,000,000 to at least have fourty to fourty five thousand seats? More so, when we compare the cost of this one and those ones with 60,000, seats? So much for the mind to ponder. 

   God bless Nigeria!

Crash the price of rice too

   "Do whatever you can to crash the price of cement in 30 days". These are the words of Mr. President giving orders to the cement manufactures last week at the government house Abuja to crash the cement price. For two or so months we have been witnessing an unprecedented soaring of cement price in this country where a bag that was initially sold at # 1,650, now cost between #2,200 to #2,300 or more, depending on the particular product one wants. This really has brought hardship on the citizens of this country who use the product for construction works. One has to commend the president for deeming it necessary to intervene on the sufferings of the citizens as a result of this situation by summoning the manufacturers to a meeting and outrightly ordered them to reduce the price within 30 days. 

   After the meeting, the manufacturers while assuring people and the government that they are indeed going to do whatever possible to reduce the price  also revealed the various reasons why the price had to go this high. The Chairman of Dangote Cement, A. Aliko Dangote stated that the major problems the industry was facing were in the areas of supply of Low Pour Fuel Oil (LPFO) and the loss of 6000 trucks by his group recently. He however did not tell us how these were lost by his company. He added that the post election crises in the north was partly responsible for the hike in price. This is where I have problem, may be the Chairman of Dangote Group needs some memory refresh as regards the fact that, the cement price had reached over #2000 even before the elections and the post elections violence that erupted. So that excuse does not hold water. This greatly showed lack of sincerity from the manufacturers. Or may be its just true as somebody opined that the likes of Dangote who financed with a huge amount of money, the Goodluck/Sambo campaign are out to recoup their investment. Nothing could be further than the truth. In any case, the president did well by intervening and calling on the manufacturers to reduce the price in such a minimum period of time. 

   If Mr. President can do that, how about calling on them to crash the price of rice too? Which by far is more important to an average Nigerian than cement. And also which is by far much more expensive than the cement. A 50 kilogram bag of rice is sold between #8000 to #8500 depending on the product, compared to 50 kilogram bag of cement which goes for #2200 to #2300 depending on the product too. And curiously enough, two of the cement manufacturers that Mr. President had meeting with at the state house are coincidently the major importers of rice in this country. They don't produce the rice in this country therefore, they can't complain that there is no availability of LPFO in the country as they don't need it here. They equally can't complain of the high cost of taxes that they are required to pay when they import those products as we are all aware of the various tax wavers and concessions that they do enjoy when they import those products. There is just basically no justification that this click of very few but highly privileged individuals would be subjecting the over 150 million citizens of this country to this suffering. A bag of rice which is sold at the neighbouring Niger and Benin Republics respectively at equivalent to #4500, and their bags are fuller than ours, is sold at #8500 here in this country. The president only felt it necessary that the cement price be reduced but not that of rice's. If at all the masses of this country who are suffering, matter to the government, then how about ordering the importers to crash its price too?

Long queues again!

   I intended to post this piece last two weeks, but I had issues with my internet connection which has now been rectified though. Although the situation has considerably improved, but I believe the issues raised here are still not remedied, therefore the piece is still relevant. Enjoy.

   For the past few days, long queues at the filling stations across the northern states and the capital Abuja have resurfaced, proving wrong those who thought the queues at the stations were a thing of the past. Why should not them think that we have passed that era since the president assured and reassured us that we would never stay for as long as 15 minutes at the filling stations when we go to refill? That the government had taken measures to make sure that it never happen again. That those selling the products in jerrycans by the road sides would soon had to get something doing as we would have no reason whatsoever to buy fuel from them because of its abundance at the filling stations. Perhaps the mother of all assurances came when Mr. President while campaigning at the last April elections asked the Nigerians to vote for him for reason that he was able to bring to an end the fuel scarcity, and promised when he was voted he would do whatever to keep the status quo ante. Isn't it ironic that even before the president takes his oath of office that the queues resurfaced?

   People who actually have an idea on how the system works did not believe Mr. President when he said that. It doesn't require somebody to be genius to know that so long as transportation of the products is left exclusively at the hands of NARTO, and with the greediness for which this association is characterised with, the fuel crises will never be solved in this country. When the queues started to appear, in a blatant attempt by the government to deceive us as they always do, they attributed it to the holidays that were observed at that time, then later they said it was the post elections violence. Now that all those things are way  behind us and the problem still persists, they decided to be a little bit more honest by claiming that they are trying to reach a workable bridging claim with the transportes which may accumulate to about #2 billion monthly if the government succumb to the increase of 45 percent freigth rate as being claimed by the transporters. The plain truth is the government can not continue to be paying this 'subsidy' to the transporters for long, and as we don't have any alternative to them, they will continue to be hiking the rate and be holding the country to ransom at the sligthes provocation.

   The solution? Well, I have always argued that unless the government is going to revive one of these two or both, then any spell we may have of the availability of fuel is just going to be temporary. Repair the pipelines or revive the railways. That is all. These are the only solutions to this fuel crisis. You either be pumping the products through the pipelines or be transporting it by rail. One has to look at what the government spends every month on this 'subsidy' which stands now at staggering # 1.5 billion and which could well sky rocket to #2 billion if the transporters' demands are met by the government, and also the amount the government spends every month for repairing the roads which the transporters help considerably in putting it in its dilapidated condition with their heavy duty traillers and for which they don't pay corresponding taxes, and see if a total of such amount in a year can not make significant work in the revival of our railways. However, if anyone thinks the government will make the same calculations will be even more disappointed than those that voted for Mr. President on the promise that fuel crises would be over if he was elected. 

   Nigeria is being led by a visionless leadership, that is just the plain and bitter truth! So its better that we do not expect that from the government for fear of us being disappointed if it never happen.

My Story

   My name is Almajiri, I was born in one village far northern Nigeria. I am 15 years old now. I was brought to this city when I was just 7 years old by my father to learn and memorize the holy Qur'an. Since when I was brought here my father only came to visit me three times. And I have never seen my mother since when I left home. The last time my father came visit two years back, I told him I wanted to go back home to see my mother, but he said I could not do that until I memorize the whole Qur'an. I remember when we were leaving my village to come to this city, my father only told me that I was going to the town to stay with his uncle for a while. When my father was going back to the village he gave me some money to be spending and I cried like I was going to die when finally he was to leave. Immediately my teacher came back from seeing my father off, he asked me to bring that money my father gave to me. I have never seen kobo from that money again. 

   When it was time for dinner that day, my teacher gave me a small bowl and asked me to join a small army of other students in the school to go beg for food that we were to eat as dinner that night. We roamed the streets entering  one house after another begging for food, and when I finally found something, some of the students we were together, who were a little older than I was and who were not entering houses to beg as we were doing, confiscated my food and ate it and threw the bowl at me and asked me to go get the one I would eat again. When we finally came back and after the evening class, when it was time to sleep, that is when I realized there was in fact no where for me to sleep. We are close to hundred in the school and everybody just scattered in search of a place to sleep, I managed to get a little place beside one gutter by our teacher's house and slept there, that has become my sleeping place ever since. And it does not matter if it is raining or its during harmattan period as there is no where to go and sleep apart from there.

   That was the routine everyday, until finally I was able to get one house where I begged the house wife to be coming and be helping her with the day to day chores and in turn she would be giving me food so that I wouldn't have to be begging for food everyday. This was far better for me than having had to go scavenging for food three times every single day. Lest I forget, perhaps I should tell you that it took me four good years to finally get new clothing! Yeah shocking, right? My few cloths that I was brought here with had become dirty and tattered. It was this hajiya that finally noticed the situation of my cloths, and how it took her that long, I don't know, and gave me some few sets used by one of her children to be wearing. You can imagine how happy I was I got "new" cloths finally. Unfortunately, they never lasted, partly because I could go the whole month without taking a bath or washing my cloths and partly as there were not much to be rotating. It is hajiya when she noticed this sometimes that would give me some soap and detergent to bath and wash my torn cloths.

   When I started growing up I realized my fellow almajiris used to have money on them for which they buy some things they like or need. I asked one of them where they were getting the money and he told me at the roads junctions. That was how I left hajiya's house and started going to junctions and roundabouts begging for money from the motorists. Some will give us, some will refuse, some will even harass us for touching their cars or leaning on them. I stopped going to school completely, I only go back to school when it was time for me to sleep and immediately it is morning, I will carry my bowl and head to a junction and I will be there till evening. Did I hear you say: 'what about prayers?' No, who has time to pray? If you go for prayer, you don't know what you will be missing for that time you go to pray. I pray all the prayers I missed in a day when I came back from the junction and if I am tired on that day, then I just ignore them. As for what I was brought here to do, that is to memorize the holy Qur'an, as I said earlier on, I already stopped going to school since when I started coming to junctions, and the little I memorized has already vanished as I don't quite read it.

   As for my future, I really don't know about that, not that I care anyway. I heard that they said there are more than 9 millions of us roaming the streets in this country. I believe there is no future for us in this country where they say there are equally over 12 million youth who had gone to school and graduated but can not get job to do. What more of an almajiri? Begging is what I know for now and it is my future as I don't know what else I should do. perhaps when I grow a little bit I will think of becoming a water vendor or become okada rider or better again, start selling fuel by the road side. As you can see plenty of options for me there. It seems like I have a future after all!

   Government? Well, I just hope its not me you are asking that question, as I don't know if we ever have government in this country. I heard its election time, so may be they are trying to get re-elected so that they continue steeling our country money, and for us - almajiri family - we will continue been pauperized, ragged, torn and hopeless!

   This is my story, thank you for your time and God bless you.

Long live my country Nigeria.

   Yours faithfully,

   

   Almajiri.

Crying Over a Spilt Milk

   The presidential elections has come and passed. Nigerians finally made their choice, given PDP pass mark to rule us for another four more years beginning from May 2011. There are grumbles as you would expect at the aftermath of an election, especially in this continent (Africa), and even more especially in Nigeria. Surprisingly, however, most of these grumbling are not coming from the appropriate people who have justification to complain, i.e. political parties that contested and lost the elections, but rather from the youth who had every opportunity to change the government of PDP on last Saturday and who blew that chance off, and whom in my opinion actually have no justification whatsoever to complain afterward.

   INEC chairman professor Attahiru Jega yesterday pronounced the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)'s candidate as the winner of the elections having polled the majority votes cast and getting the required 25% in more than 2/3 states of the Federation, thereby beating its closest rival Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) that came second. Even before this announcement and return of the winner of the election President Goodluck Jonathan, youth in many northern states took to the streets rioting, harassing and even killing innocent people that they perceived to be supporters of PDP, and in some cases attacking people they were not so sure whether or not they were PDP supporters.

   I once stated on this forum that the Nigerian youth were very much ready to take to the streets to protest if the much anticipated free and fair elections were not held in this country. The burning question now is could it be said that there were no free and fair elections on Saturday to warrant the youth taking to the streets to protest? I know this is a very difficult question to answer, especially at the moment when more details on how the elections were conducted in various parts of the country are still emerging. And more especially considering the complexity of the various things that constitute free and fair elections!

   I read some where that the CPC disagree with the victory recorded by the PDP in the South South, South East and also in some states in the South West. Now supposing there were riggings in those states as alleged by the CPC, could that be the reason that the ruling PDP recorded a 'landslide' victory in the elections? I believe the answer is big NO! This is why at the beginning I said the youth in these northern states that are rioting have no justification whatsoever to protest the results of the elections. They are the very ones who by their action or inaction aided the victory of the ruling party. PDP needed 25% in the 2/3 of the total states in the federation to win the elections even if it got the majority votes cast in the elections. They needed to get those votes in the northern states and by their actions they gave them.

   When one looks at the statistics of the voter turnout in the north generally with the exception of some very few states, and compare it with the turnout in the South generally, one will certainly get the picture clearly. For instance, in Kano, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) registered over 5 million voters, but only a little over 2.5 million actually voted. In Adamawa there are over 1.7 million voters registered, but only a little over 800,000 actually voted. In Borno 2.7 million registered, and only a little over 1.1 million actually voted. In Katsina almost 3 million people registered, but only 1.6 million in fact voted. We can go on and on, the story is the same all over northern states, except Bauchi and Kaduna where the turnout was almost 80%. If one compares it with the turnout in the south generally, one will be left with only one conclusion that : the north just short itself in the leg and we really needed not to complain. In fact we have no cause to! In most of the northern states where CPC won the turnout was just 50% as against the total number registered, and worst still in most of those states the people made sure that the ruling party got the 25% of the total votes cast that they require. Whereas, in the South South and South East, the turnout was 90% to 95%, and amazingly, they all voted ruling party thereby given no chance to the opposition to get even 5% of the votes.

   Even if there was rigging as alleged in those zones, one only needs to look at how the people in the north voted or not voted as the case maybe, for one to just shut up before anybody tells you to. People, and especially those youth protesting, slept at home during the elections and did not vote and now that their counterparts in the south, and who apparently needed it more than them, decided our future for the next four years, only for them to start rioting, burning, maiming and even killing innocent people. This is most unfortunate, and the authority should really rise to their responsibilities by dealing with those youth according to the laws of the land. As my friend said: "they are only crying over a spilt milk"!

   All is not lost however, if at all we are serious of chasing PDP away and if the youth will actually learn their lesson, then we have LAST opportunity on the 26th of April to give PDP serious push towards irrelevance. If CPC can win all the 12 states they won in the presidential elections, they will of course be setting what could potentially be PDP's demise in 2015. This will only give CPC the necessary political base they need to give PDP strong opposition in 2015. This is more so as other opposition parties such as Labour Party (LP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and APGA will surely get some states in the South East, South West and South South respectively thereby reducing PDP's dominance in the polity generally.