BNW

B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News

Home |   About Us |   Contact Us |   Members |   Search |   Subscribe |   Disclaimer |   THE GUARDIAN CONSCIENCE, NURTURED BY TRUTH LAGOS, NIGERIA.     Wednesday, June 30 2004   news   editorial/opinion   policy & politics   focus/record   business   sports   capital market   metro   arts   money watch   energy   maritime   Guardian Chat Click to join the chatroom Your Excellencies, let there be light By Martins Oloja "We neglect our cities to our peril, for in neglecting them, we neglect the nation" " President John F. Kennedy, 1962 IT will be relevant to address this memo to the ruling party, PDP that Has dominated the political life of this country for now. This is their second term. Now, they have 28 out of our 26 states in their pocket. The ANPP are in control of only seven while the 'almighty' AD have only one state. So, there is a sense in which one can claim that Nigeria's fate is at the moment tied to the performance of PDP. In other words, if 28 out of our 36 states are healthy, even the ever hostile international community will hail our exploits as a nation. The gist of my rigmarole is that in a recent tour of most parts of the country especially the capital cities of the states, it is discovered that the cities are too dark in the night. In this vein, apart from Abuja that is struggling to maintain its street lights, most of the cities I visited and passed through are too dark for comfort. There is therefore another sense in which one can conclude that "there is but one mind in all the governors, all bent against street lights". You may be wondering why I am so concerned about the state capitals when most parts of the rural communities are in a shambles. The truth is that if the governors cannot take care of the cities where they stay and run the affairs of the states, how can they remember the rural communities Even Abuja where all the people that matter in Nigeria are located, there is still room for improvement especially in the area of urban beautification. Even in the area of street lighting. Abuja is still below expectation as so many streets are still left without lights. Only the highways are well-lit. It is just noteworthy that in Abuja, there is a new chief executive that is bent on making Abuja work as one of the most beautiful capital cities in the world. The Hurricane Malam el-Rufai is seen to be a doer of what he has promised, not just a "talker and planner". But there is still one area of Abuja he has to look at quickly. That is the area of Gate-Ways to Abuja. One is talking of the City Gates from the Airport, from Kaduna, from Keffi, etc. In other words, there is nothing unique to usher in visitors to Nigeria's federal capital city, Abuja. Even in the night there is no spectacular lighting to show that one is about to enter a very important city. During the day, there are no remarkable or special signposts in any of the gateways to welcome visitors or tourists to the capital city where they run the affairs of this country. What we are saying is: the City Gates are too ordinary; they should be extraordinary, in this connection. There should be some awesome elements around the City Gates to Nigeria's Federal Capital city, Abuja. Coming to the state capitals, it is tragic that in most of the cities yours sincerely passed through, from Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria (some websites still refer to Lagos as the capital of Nigeria), through Akure, Lokoja, Benin to Asaba and Awka, the story is the same. It is gory tales of darkness upon darkness in the capital cities. Awka, Lafia, Ado-Ekiti and Abakaliki present the worst spectacles in this connection. These cities stand out like sore thumbs. These state capitals, especially Awka, Abakaliki and Lafia are too terrible to behold in terms of even primary city infrastructure such as roads and water, let alone street lights. In Minna, you find some street lights sparkling in the nights but this is not enough to hail Minna as a city that is well illuminated. Though Bauchi and Kaduna states are two quintessential PDP states which objective observers always use as paradigms of how state funds have been well used to develop infrastructure such as roads, electricity and water, among others, the remarkable governors of the two states have not taken street lighting as a fundamental objective that should be taken seriously. Even the oil-rich states such as Delta, Akwa Ibom and River are not too keen on the state and beauty of their states in the night. Asaba, Uyo and Port Harcourt are not good reference points in urban development. What is really wrong with our executive governors that are just concerned about illumination of only the Government House It is sad that these are the governors who travel abroad almost every month where they see world-class capitals cities of the states they visit in their endless search for investments. Not even, the most widely travelled governor (in pursuit of business abroad) Dr. Orji Kalu has learnt any lessons from the cities around the world capitals. He gallivants uncontrollably around the world. But the only lesson he learns is how to succeed in business. He has not seen the beautiful street lights in New York, Washington, New Jersey, Texas, etc . Their Excellencies should realise that the investors they are looking for would not like to see utter darkness that the capital cities have become. The potential investors they invite to inspect their countries will always appraise the state of the country by what they see first in the cities. Definitely darkness is not any value added to our image as an emerging market. Besides, bandits always exploit darkness (in the cities) to unleash their wickedness on the city dwellers. It is easy to blame our almighty NEPA but that is not a good excuse to throw the Nigerian cities into darkness. All we are saying is the ruling PDP should evolve a policy of improving the environment better than they met it. Thank goodness, the national chairman of the PDP, Chief Audu Ogbe is always fascinated by good environment. Long before he became chairman of the ruling party, he had written to an FCT Minister about the expediency of privatising waste control and management in Abuja as a way of beautifying the capital city. That was at the early stage of this administration. Therefore, the ruling party should impress it on the governors of the PDP states to make improving their environments a fundamental objective...of state policy. And lighting their streets should not be classified as federal (road) projects. After all, subsection (f) of the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution deals with the fact that "construction and maintenance of street lightings..." is one of the primary functions of the Local Government Councils. There is need to tell these never-do-well, docile 774 local councils that they should wake up to their responsibility by building and maintaining street lights where necessary. In the same vein, the brand new Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development should be made to work with its counterpart, the Federal Ministry of Works and the state ministries to ensure that our well illuminated roads and streets speak well of our country. If we fail in this area, the impression our guests from the West will have is that we are still sustaining the relic of the tag they heartlessly gave us long ago when they said we were in a "Dark Continent". The high point is that it is expedient that the federal, state and local governments largely dominated by the PDP light up Nigeria. In other words, if the 28 states the PDP controls can be torch-bearers, in this connection, others in the ANPP and AD will find their way. Thus if the Federal Ministry of Power and Steel can live up to its promise to electrify all our 774 local government headquarters, the states can influence the local councils to construct and maintain street lights. Just as the governors' forum can be used to highlight the value of an excellent road and street lightings. The last line for the PDP governors is this line I recorded in 1982 from Alhaji Lateef Jakande the Second Republic action governor of Lagos state that: "the king who turns a jungle into a beautiful city will long be remembered and the king who allows a beautiful city to turn into a jungle will not be forgotten". In the name of everything that is noble in Nigeria, Your Excellencies, let there be light on the city roads and the streets. This I think will add value to our country.  Oloja is the Abuja Bureau Chief of The Guardian � 2003 - 2004 @ Guardian Newspapers Limited (All Rights Reserved).  Powered by dnetsystems.net dnet�

	BNW News
Voice of Biafra | Biafra World | Biafra Online | Biafra Web | MASSOB | Biafra Forum | BLM | Biafra Consortium
	© 2001 BNW BiafraNigeriaWorld  Privacy Policy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Powered by ACENetwork ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Axiom PSI Yam Festival Series, Iri Ji Nd'Igbo the Kola-Nut Series,Nigeria Masterweb