RE: ROAD TO JULY 29, 1966.

We must thank Jide Oluwajuyitan for this new(?) slant on the remote and proximate socio-political developments leading to the (sad) events of July29, 1966. Unlike most young commentators, I was already 18years old when this particular madness evolved to the point of denouement. Without necessarily agreeing with Jide and his new-found sources, we are grateful for this fresh insight. 

For example, I did not realise that Gen Aguiyi Ironsi was ACTUALLY a Saroman and was of such poor intellectual pedigree. Strange then that when Ironsi was violently taken out of the equation, these same characters, who Jide claimed complained about Ironsi, still went ahead to replace him with a Lt Col Yakubu Gowon, known to be far less cerebral than most of his peers and superiors. I am yet to read a proper explanation as to how Admiral Wey, Brigadier Ogundipe, Col Robert Adeyinka Adebayo, all brilliant Yorubas, were all found unworthy to replace the upstart Ironsi. I am still waiting. 

I must confess that I found Jide's take on the controversies in the Western Region and regional House of Assembly quite interesting. Others will disagree with his analysis and that of his sources, but then he is entitled to his view. That's what plurality is all about. 

I look forward to continuing revelations from other analysts especially the diminishing band of political activists old enough to have been real participants. Its a pity that Chief TOS Benson, Chief Adeniran Ogunsanya and a host of others who made Lagos and the West tick, had to die in the fullness of time. How we miss them. They would have set the record straight. That is if Jide's account is faulty. Is it? Readers are advised to research the issue and arrive at their own conclusions without my help. 

The Nation, the Nigerian Army, Zakzaky and the killings in Zaria

THAT SHI’ITE KILLINGS IN ZARIA: The Nigerian Army as state assassins - Punch Newspapers

I wish to refer to the recent Thursday column by Abimbola Adelakun (The Punch) on the barbaric massacre in Zaria of adherents of the Shi'ite persuasion of the Islamic faith led by the fiery Sheikh Zakzaky. Strangely many commentators took exception to Adelakun's line of argument whereby she condemned the unnecessarily bloody outcome of the encounter. I am completely taken aback that some Nigerians can find a not even convoluted way to justify the excesses of our military in maintaining peace in a low level volatile environment as in a street protest. It is in the nature of street protests to provoke the powers that be.

To kill someone because he or she blocked the free flow of traffic, tore up some Nigerian flags, wore some non-descript uniforms, and perhaps sang some very annoying songs, is most unreasonable. Because I am involved, I will not comment any further on the killing and maiming of non-violent Pro-Biafra protestors. I have done that extensively before now. Let us dwell on the treatment meted out to our recalcitrant northern "brothers."

But for the writings of Karl Maier in his popular book THIS HOUSE HAS FALLEN, I would have thought that the Sheikh Zakzaky phenomenon was of recent birth. Yes the charismatic Sheikh has been a thorn in the flesh of the several past administrations including the military. That was probably why our army in the north has been treating him as a marked man. That the army didn't kill him this time around remains a modern day miracle. Same thing applies to his group. The report that the security forces had earlier killed or most probably murdered three of his sons in questionable circumstances leaves so much to be desired. To simply move on with no questions asked implies leaving our very humanity behind. This is completely unacceptable. The International Criminal Court must be watching us with very keen interest.

Now a situation has arisen where the Iranian government, which should ordinarily have enough on its plate, and moreover has no locus standi in this sad development, is poking it's fingers into our eyes in the name of human rights! This is most embarrassing and shameful but at the same time completely avoidable. Nigeria keeps shooting itself on the foot and then hobbles along.

Finally one of the Nigerian Army PR bigwigs has just launched a new campaign whereby it has appropriated for itself the right and privilege to keep Nigeria united NO MATTER WHAT! . Will someone please advise the army that it's mandate ends where the popular will begins. The jury is still out as to what Nigerians want. We The People may appear currently confused, but We do not need any heckling from an army we pay from our coffers in order to arrive at a compromise or a working formula. That would be treason. The army should heed sound judgement and stay out of our way.

Re: Buhari on WHAT DO NDIGBO WANT?

What again can I say? I have been commenting over time on the tragedy of deliberately missed opportinities to get Nigeria moving forward more than 45years after the civil war. The fleeting joy of putting and keeping Ndigbo down will get Nigeria nowhere. It reminds me of the situation in wrestling whereby the strongman who secures a pin-fall must let go of his defeated opponent in order to be able to stand up and move on. Less charitable analysts of Igbo extraction (wasn't Prof Obumselu one of them?) have stated that until Nigerians allows Ndigbo to lead them with their "Onye aghana nwanne ya" principle, the nation will continue to stall in the shallows. Yes, that sounds like an extremist view, but there must be elements of truth in it. The Igbo development model of mass upliftment has been shown to work over and over again. All the negative tendencies for which Ndigbo are derided (or actually deride themselves) are of quite recent vintage. Without exception, they were transplanted into Igboland post civil war. One writer opined that words describing some of the obscene manifestations of graft, etc, actually do not have a direct translation or equivalent in Igbo.

I recall that up till about 15 years ago, the Nigerian Defence Industries Corporation was (and perhaps still is) involved in such mundane tasks as fabricating  (note that I didn't say manufacturing) simple farm implements, an activity already covered by the likes of Steyr at Bauchi and many artisanal operations spread nationwide. How many are aware of the time and resources wasted by DIC on DICON Salt of all investments? How Nigeria loves to beat about the bush! Ndigbo rightly feel that Nigeria is wasting it's time! Many Ndigbo, including the obviously minority MASSOB and IPOB are actually not interested in the Nigerian presidency, or the character occupying the seat.

More than two decades ago, speaking in private circles, I have had cause to lament the socalled "No victor No vanquished" mouthed with relish since January 1970. Nigeria would have turned out a better place if instead of deceiving ourselves, a war restitution of perhaps $1b (1970) was clamped on Ndigbo with the proviso that Ndigbo would be left alone to pursue economic activities with which to pay for it. Such an open legally based demand would have been in much better alignment with the popular sentiments hidden just beneath the surface. A win-win situation! Ndigbo would have been selling refined petroleum products to Nigeria, West Africa and beyond, with change to spare. Ndigbo would have successfully dragged the rest of Nigeria (kicking and screaming) into the industrial era. A fully domesticated armaments industry in Igboland, under the eagle eyes of the occupying Federal Forces would have made Nigeria, however configured, a powerhouse in this regard. The advantages of returning to Nigeria would be there for all to see. Economic progress all around. You don't have to try too hard to sell a good product.

This current charade has gone on for far too long. Obviously no ministerial appointment can undo the decades long neglect and obstructionism. It is time for the victors to rethink. It is in their own interest to do so. Then and only then can we truly say "Long live the Federal(?) Republic of Nigeria"

Re: Dogara Calls For Probe Of Anambra Gas Explosion; PLEASE, NOT ANOTHER PROBE

I have followed the recent news report that the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Yakubu Dogara, has expressed sadness over the death of several Nigerians in a gas explosion in Nnewi, Anambra State. The report added that while calling for a thorough investigation into the incident which occurred on Christmas Eve, leaving several others injured, the Speaker said (that) this was one incident too many that have claimed lives of innocent Nigerians.

‎He, therefore, called for a thorough investigation to ascertain the root and immediate cause of the explosion in order to avert a reoccurrence.

Here we go again! No, not another probe! We have had one probe too many with nothing to show for it. Heads have to roll this time around. That is the only way the functionaries appointed by our government to serve in our regulatory agencies will come to accept the very obvious fact that they owe us a duty of care.

We have been living apparently unperturbed with crass fiscal irresponsibility with just about everyone waiting for his/her chance or turn to dip into the trough. But here we are talking about our very lives being at stake as has been illustrated by the tragic explosion and inferno at a gas plant at Nnewi. In cases like this criminal neglect cum liability are reasonable findings.

The head,  by whatever name called, of the Department of Petroleum Resources  (DPR) will have to be summarily fired if perchance he has not already resigned. The same applies to the regional executives responsible for the deliberately sloppy approval processes for the site location, detailed engineering, procurement and construction, testing and proofing of a typical gas filling plant.

The public cannot know this, but the correct demands of engineering specifications here are way way above that of your usual petrol filling station. Yet the misfits at DPR will grant approvals and gloss over shortcomings as though it does not matter. No, I am not accusing these  colleagues of mine of ignorance. They know what to do. With the volume of API codes available and Computer Aided Design (CAD) to checkmate our errors of omission and/or oversight, it is almost impossible to come up with a bad design. All such shortcomings have to be deliberate. We routinely pay for them like in this case of Nnewi with our blood.

With such extreme Hazardous Area Classifications one would then wonder why the typical petroleum refinery or our own NLNG plant does not burn down every other week. Simple. Correct design and operating procedures. Correct design actually anticipates the usual human foibles and incorporates multiple redundancies and interlocks. For goodness sake this is 2015, not 1935 Galveston, Texas.

The investor/businessman is not expected to either understand or appreciate these fine details. That is what DPR is set up to achieve with or without the collaboration of the plant owners. The available sanctions are powerful enough. Close down the plant until it is shown to be safe.

DPR should be impervious to political noises and pressure. If you are clean but pressurized by the political structure, then you resign in as loud a manner as possible. No pension should be worth even one life. This is a matter of ethics. But then the issue hardly ever comes to that. Most of the time, as I have already alleged, the DPR officials are fully complicit. Otherwise a good many of the tank farms dotting the waterways of Lagos and other southern states would not have been granted approval, not even by the folks in Central African Republic. Yes, we are that bad.

Nigeria's False Industrial Revolution revisited: RAILWAYS, HEAVY LIFT TRANSPORT & PIPELINES, PLANNING Etc

Writing about a year ago on the above topic, I had endeavoured to lift the understandable pall of despondency covering Nigeria in its quest for a most belated industrial revolution. The editors at The Punch had more or less written Nigeria off because of the inability of its members to truly identify what little progress that has been made over the years. Sadly, they failed to see the possibilities going forward as in a Lee Kuan Yew's Singspore. For some sectors, like the automobile industry, which I extensively addressed in my earlier outing, the editors had swallowed hook line and sinker the position of the naysayers led by the then Japanese ambassador. It has been my hope that my effort to debunk the unsavory and false notions were successful. I had then promised interested readers further expose on other aspects of the requisite industrial revolution dealing with railways, pipelines and and other infrastructural development without which other heavy industries,  mining and even agriculture would have no hope for healthy development and growth. Having personally dabbled in Engineering Ceramics, I have had a few battle stories to tell as illustration. I also wanted to emphasize the vital role of planning and prioritization.

RAILWAYS AND HEAVY LIFT TRANSPORTATION

The Punch editorial continued, "Railways are also ubiquitous in Japan, Europe, India, South Korea, China and Brazil, all of which have industrialised. A government that refuses to break the state’s railway monopoly and open the sector to private investment, but continues to borrow from China to sink into an archaic system, is a joker."

I certainly agree with the above assertion. However our major problem is not borrowing per se from China or any other source, but what the borrowed funds are applied to achieve. Nigeria should identify potential local and foreign investors in the railway world and hand over the railways to them.

Using international best practices and standards, the government should invest ONLY in planning the railway network system, upgrades and new lines into the next quarter century, and then concession parts thereof on long term leases to the same major transporters who need no help to understand on which side their bread is buttered. Right now a good number of them are wasting scarce resources in an ego trip flying their personal flags in the airline industry. The proper planning horizon should necessarily encompass several administrations and also envisage the now not so new possibilities of power transition from one political party to another. We cannot continue holding ourselves hostage while blaming everybody else.

I believe that the Federal Government of Nigeria cannot afford to reveal to the citizens the real obstacles, mainly political paranoia, obstructing the development of the East-West (Calabar to Lagos) standard gauge rail line. The problem is definitely not finance. Between the World Bank, the IFC, AfDB, the various Arab, Saudi Arabian and Middle East development banks, US EXIM, the Japanese, Chinese and the Koreans, Ekene-Dili-Chukwu, Chanchangi, Dangote, and many other Nigerian entrepreneurs, there is enough available soft funds to do this particular project twice over. Our poorer neighbours including Ethiopia, Kenya and Mauritania still manage to attract capital for railway projects. All that the government of the day, any government, needs do is to tidy up the feasibility surveys and detailed planning. Politics need not intrude here.

Readers are advised to research the origin and evolution of the California Public Utilities Commission and similar entities in other climes. They are of great relevance in the legal and operational framework of privately owned major transportation infrastructure, hence providing a reliable template for new schemes.

PIPELINES

The same should apply to pipelines, both oil and gas. It is unfortunate that most of our bureaucrats do not appreciate that pipelines are primarily means of transportation. It is only a tiny segment of our supposedly enlightened elite who can wrap their minds around the concept of using pipelines for  moving solid minerals, such as in pumping of coal and other slurry over appreciable distances.

PLANNING? CART BEFORE THE HORSE

Here in Nigeria powerful interests typically carve out and corner aspects of major infrastructure and industrial schemes without benefit to the overall picture. It is not unusual, as in the case of Ajaokuta Steel and the Iwopin Pulp & Paper Mill, Oku Ibokun Pulp & Paper Mill, etc for political contractors to fall over one another in a mad scramble to get the contract for say government funded housing for workers yet to be employed. Twenty years down the road the plants are not completed, workers not hired, while the housing completed ahead of the logical sequence are more or less abandoned in no man's land. I find it extremely difficult to believe that I am smarter than those who make such patently stupid decisions. The simple explanation is greed, in the short term.

I recall my involvement about 20years ago with a then ongoing NNPC project called The Bonny Export Terminal Project. The terminal proper was already in place, standing on steel stilts in the middle of the Bonny River. Anyone going by boat to the Shell Bonny and/or NLNG Ltd Bonny plant cannot miss it. I  have trekked that platform.

The assignment was to heat-trace the heavy fuel oil pipeline. The fuel oil called HPFO which will normally congeal (and hence refuse to flow) at ambient or normal temperature needed to be kept hot. Meanwhile the science and engineering of providing the needed distributed heating was already mature. My organisation laid claim to having the most precise and reliable system worldwide which in this instance was besides the point. I had dutifully questioned the very rationale for the project, a very un-Nigerian thing for a contractor to do. Then as now, there was never going to be any volume of product to export or transship to other ports on Nigeria's southern coast. Then as now the refineries NEVER worked. And I said so to the engineering company overseeing the conceptual design and anticipated construction. Those were the days of Gen Sani Abacha as Head of State,  and Dan Etete as Minister of Petroleum. Readers should have already drawn their own conclusions about the duo. The main contractor was IPCO Limited. It was therefore no surprise that ultimately the project on which so much had been expended simply died. That is Nigeria for you. Similarly we can also point out for example a number of grain silos sited in places that make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Watch out for more insight. That is if I  don't throw in the towel first! This Nigeria sef.