In a classic display of one of the elements of Robert Greene’s The 48 laws of power, President Muhammadu Buhari may have ingeniously struck a matchbox with the appointment of former Lagos State governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN as Minister of Power, Works and Housing.
In this, the President seems to be saying, “use the wisdom, knowledge, and legwork of other people to further your own cause. Not only will such assistance save you valuable time and energy, it will give you a godlike aura of efficiency and speed. In the end, your helpers will be forgotten and you will be remembered. Never do yourself what others can do for you.” Fashola, the revolving whiz-kid on the block has come with a rock-solid reputation;; with a career that is constantly rebounding on reputation, and through it, according to the same laws of power, “ you can intimidate and win;; once it slips, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides.” Buhari in all, by this appointment which hits at the heart of the debilitating state of infrastructure in the country, in the words of Greene, has cast himself in the image, of a vulture, which;; of all the creatures in the jungle has it the easiest. – “the hardwork of others becomes his work;; their failure to survive becomes his nourishment.”
A past strewn with laurels
Undeniably, Fashola remains the most decorated chief executive of a state in Nigeria since 1999. He has been honoured by various groups across the globe for exemplary and visionary leadership. The Economist, Financial Times, CNN international, BBC, Time magazine,
as well as Daily Telegraph of London are just some of the media institutions that gave him a pat on the back. The Ebola pandemic, and the war waged by his government against it was one of the considerations for bestowing on him the globally prestigious Stephen J Solarz Award on October 28, 2015, by the Belgium based International Crisis Group at its 20th anniversary in New York. Till date, his swift response to the outbreak of Ebola is a lasting testimony to his style of leadership, and created ample room for the confidence reposed in him, which facilitated his super ministerial status.
He was abroad at the outbreak of Ebola, but cut short his trip. In a deft maneuver reminiscent of the inspiring leadership, which Rudy Guiliani gave in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack at the World Trade Center in New York, Fashola delved into the matter in commando style. An isolation center sprang up overnight at Mainland Hospital, Yaba complete with ambulances, doctors, nutritionists and other health workers. In record time, Ebola was eradicated from the state. His administration in Lagos touched all aspects of human and infrastructural development. Under Power, he built the LFG Independent Power plant, Candel Agrochem manufacturing plant, the Peninsula integrated power project, transformer manufacturing company, among others. Under Public Safety and security, he also scored a bull’s eye. Accidents decreased; Free flow of traffic improved, and sex offences drastically was cut down through innovative laws like the sex offenders register, which he signed into law on December 1, 2014.
The Road Traffic law yield improved driving culture and safety on the road, and Okada accidents dropped to near zero. More roads were equally built and expanded. He spared nothing towards the realization of the Lagos mega city dream, building micro-water works, 12.5 MW IPP Power plant for Iju and Adiyan waterworks, energy city projects and rural electrification projects, among others. The expanded Economic Empowerment Programme was the most ambitious of his programme to generate employment. He built and delivered several housing estates across the state, though his critics dubbed them elitist. There was massive beautification of the environment, tree planting initiative, gardens, all of which placed the state ahead of environmental practices. His commitment to education development was unwavering. Public schools were renovated and expanded, while solar powered panel for uninterrupted power supply in schools was introduced. There was Agric Value Chains Empowerment programme, which had impact among the masses. Fashola built the first made in Nigeria Traffic Radio, and many network of roads. With these dream projects, there is heightened anxiety that the famed Midas touch he brought to bear in his tour of duty in Lagos will be brought to bear in his new assignment.
The new task
If he will make an encore at the federal level, he is expected to tackle headlong the perennially weak power supply in the country. In achieving this, the swan song among the populace is that he must among other bold initiatives focus on transforming the sector by plugging leakages in the system. Characteristically, he set the tone on his first day at work, shortly after he was sworn in, when he told officials of the Power Ministry that “we are here to work with you in solving problems on ground as quickly as possible. We want to know if some of these problems are man made or systemic.” The Director of Research and Advocacy for the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), Sunday Oduntan expects Fashola to sort out the problem at the Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN. He wants the outfit privatized owing to perceived weakness of the grid and the power tussle within, especially the alleged meddling by the ministry of power officials, which has dimmed the prospect of a vibrant transmission network for the country. Oduntan also wants the minister to lead the campaign for a cost reflective tariff and for government to allow the DISCOS access to the Sovereign Wealth Fund.
The funds according to Oduntan, are necessary to enable the DISCOS to step up action on massive procurement of meters and transformers, network renewals and expansion, and for other capital expenditure.
The argument that civil service bureaucracy and complaints of financial insolvency may serve as encumbrances and frustrate him from meeting his goals is instructive. Maverick politician and Second Republic governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa would have none of that. “There should be no excuses. He worked with civil servants as governor and should know what to do with their bureaucratic methods,” he told Sunday Sun.
He further dismissed the raging issue of the nation being cash trapped as “self-serving and deceitful.” The Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Fund is considered the third largest in sub-Saharan Africa, after Botswana’s $6.9billion and Angola’s $5 billion. The fund was set up by former President Goodluck Jonathan to safeguard oil revenues for future generations, provide a buffer against external shocks and spur infrastructure development. This will come in handy against the background of the oft-declared paucity of funds by the President.
The federal roads are in a terribly dilapidated state. He is not only expected to give facelifts to them, but build new ones. Key among these roads are the Lagos-Ibadan, Enugu–Port Harcourt, Apapa–Oshodi and Abuja–Lokoja expressways.
N433.4b budget as roadmap
With a whooping budget estimate of N433.4b earmarked for his ministry, the golden boy of Lagos may have got the marching orders. He has equally announced the return of toll gates, its proceeds, he believes will aid and oil the infrastructural offensive he has set his sights on. A new increase in electricity tariff has also been announced. Through this and many other actions, he has given a clear and bold policy direction, and the likely bent of his actions. What is now left is to give concrete and meaningful translation of these directions in practical terms. For the hordes of partisans in his party, anxious Nigerians who for many years have waited and borne the weight and brunt of the comatose state of infrastructure, the intermittent whetting of appetite through bogus and outlandish promises by previous administrations, cautious excitement is the buzz word.
Plans, agenda, strategies unveiled
Taking the bull by the horns, the minister has unveiled his plans and strategies for 2016. His spokesman, Hakeem Bello told Sunday Sun that his vision encompasses “short, medium and long term goals.” The short-term measure in the road sector includes payment of contractors to enable sacked workers to go back to work;; and completion of roads that connect states, which bear the heaviest traffic. In the power sector, he is set to get contractors to finish ongoing transmission contracts to facilitate transportation of power being generated to the DISCOS to distribute, resolve tariff issues by ensuring fair billings and holding DISCOS to target. He is also to unlock value chains in the housing sector by ensuring construction across the country in conjunction with the state governments to stimulate loof power being generated to the DISCOS to distribute, cal economy and create job opportunities.” He, however, added that, “these will be hinged on outlined plans on budget and financing, dictated by current realities which will underscore the need for recurrent expenditure to change in favour of capital expenditure.” He explained that following intensive briefings, meetings with parastatals and agencies, as well as critical concerns in the sectors, the Minister, and the minister of state, Mustapha Baba Shehuri last Tuesday set an agenda and outlined strategies for achieving these goals in the three critical sectors of the economy under the ministry. In his inaugural press briefing with the theme “setting agenda for delivering change,” Fashola picked his bearing from the huge expectations of the Nigerian public, noting that their cooperation was needed in the whole process of it will not achieving success. The minister blamed the economic downturn and the anomaly in budgetary expenditures over the years for the massive loss of jobs, regretting that if ignored, it will not achieve the needed change in the economy.
“The first thing that must change is the capital to recurrent ratio of the budget, and our colleagues in the ministries of finance, budget and planning are working on this and they will address you at their own time on the changes they have made and what citizens must do to enable them achieve that plan. As I have had cause to say before, the budget is the article of faith of every serious nation and government and our resolve to do more capital spending with less resources must be indicative of our seriousness to reflate the economy,” the minister said.
“The records that have been made available from previous budgets show that the last time Nigeria budgeted over N200 Billion in a year’s budget for roads was in 2002. It seems that as our income from oil prices increased over the last decade, our spending on roads decreased”. He observed that the Federal Government budgeted N18. 132Billion in 2015 and the ministry of works got N13Billion for all roads and highways in 2015, although it has contracts for 206 roads, covering over 6,000 km with contract price of over N2 trillion.
“… By paying the contractors, we will restore the lost jobs as an economic intervention of our promise of change”, the minister stated, adding that the intervention would start from the contractors handling the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and across Nigeria gradually. Giving more insight into the problem created by the anomaly in budgeting, the minister recalled that as at March 2015, the sample of job losses from only five out of thousands of construction companies showed that in company 1, the number of junior staff fell from1800 to 1250, while senior staff strength fell 550 to 300, and expatriates from 500 to 250. According to him, in company 2, local staff strength was reduced from 3000 to 1500 and expatriates strength fell from 100 to 50, while in company 3, staff strength fell from 2500 to 1100 with more likely to go.
Fashola regretted that because of the budget and financing structure in 2015, the ministry could not promise those travelling for the Yuletide and end of year festivities shorter journey times, adding, however, that “But we are optimistic that with works hopefully resuming next year, things should improve over the next few months and progress.” He said that, “ the removal of settlements under federal bridges, along federal highways needs the buy-in of all governors and the leadership of the Federal Government.”
In the power sector, after the completion of ongoing transmission contracts, the second priority, according to him, would be to ask the governors to identify and enumerate their most populous industrial and commercial clusters where manufacturing, fabrication, welding and related productive work is going on, especially by small businesses, and see how we can use the existing legal framework to attract embedded power supply to these people who must be ready to pay for the power. He said that the DISCOS could move them from self-generation, which, according to him, does not deliver all round electricity, to a place where they would get over 90 percent predictable and reliable power to run their businesses.
“We have success stories and experience to work with from some successful small independent power projects in places like Lagos, Isolo Industrial Estate, Lekki Free Trade Zone, and Aba, to mention a few, and we can expand on these,” Fashola stated, adding that owners of DISCOS would be expected to cooperate “through flexibility and innovative disposition for emergency interventions while they plan and develop their wholesale roll out plan.” Fashola who noted that the Federal Government is now a regulator through the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), declared government’s intention to strengthen this part of its responsibility “ so that we can hold the GENCOS and DISCOS to their contracts with citizens. But before we do that, we must play our own role of providing gas and expanding the Transmission Network.” He said tariff is the most complex challenge, insisting that the role of government would be to set the tariff, and in doing so, be committed to what is called a multi-year tariff order.
In the housing sector, Fashola said the priority would be to complete ongoing projects, adding that the ministry would then get land from the governors in all states and the FCT to start housing development across the country using the Lagos homs model, starting with 40-blocks of housing in each state and the FCT.
“We see this leading to potential delivery of 12 flats (homes) per block and 480 flats (homes) per state, and 17,760 flats (homes) nationwide, for a start.”
If Fashola succeeds in breaking the power jinx, which has gulped more than $30 billion since 1999, he will assuredly transcend to a class act and a class in himself.
No comments:
Post a Comment