Babatunde Raji Fashola, the amiable former governor of Lagos state and the man whom President Muhammad Buhari has saddled with the enormous responsibility of overseeing three critical ministries of Works, Housing and Power, was in Ilorin, Kwara State this penultimate week.
For me, it was an opportunity to meet once again, a man with whom I had worked closely with while in Lagos and serving as the chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) in that unique state of aquatic splendour. And from the interactions, it was evident that BRF, as he was to be eventually branded by the people of Lagos, has not changed much; particularly in terms of his commitment to working things out, literally drawing out water from the rocks. He has grown older, of course he has advanced in age but this type of 'growing older' is the one facilitated by exposure to the pressure of work, work and work. And when you notice that the man has been much traduced by political naysayers; when you consider the weight of opposition that accompanied his emergence as a federal minister and the burden that has been placed on his shoulder; you can only commend him for how far he has gone.
Let me share this: there is this cartoon that went viral some months back. It was a drawing of President Buhari and BRF. Buhari, ever to the point, faced his Minister of Power and asked, 'Fashola, what happened to Power?" Well, if you expect the Minister to answer the way a former IGP answered an almost similar question when the then Military President, Ibrahim Babangida asked, "my friend, where is Anini?", then you got it wrong. Trust the Nigerian sense for the comical, BRF, in that cartoon, simply replied his boss: Power Belongs to God!
Yes, power belongs to God. He gives and takes it from whom He wills. It is a message that celebrates the essential BRF.
But beyond the theological, that cartoon encounter also exposes the kind of pressure that has come to bear on the minister. His boss, the President, wants results and he needs results because that is the gauge people would use to measure his performance in office. And if there is one area where Nigeria looks for urgent results, it is in the area of power.
And to be candid, Fashola has been up and doing since he assumed office only that as the Yoruba would aptly put it, the hen’s feather would not allow anyone to notice that bird also sweats. During his visit to Kwara, BRF visited my boss, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed. And from the report he gave to the governor; he submitted a DVD report, uncommon in this clime; we only need to extend our hands of support to the man in order to achieve what he has set out before him.
According to Fashola, if you live in Kwara or have had reason to pass through the federal road called Ilorin-Jebba-Mokwa, going to the north, you will know that travellers spend weeks, at times, before getting to their destinations, yet that road is a very important strategic road for agriculture. Statistically, Fashola said on daily basis, not less than 5,000 trucks pass through that road and about 18,000 small vehicles. Imagine having even only 500 trucks and 2,000 smaller vehicles stranded on a road on a single day. Yet that has been the experience which the Federal Government is committed to change, according to the report from BRF.
That section of the national road was his first port of call upon landing in Kwara. Now with contractors back to site for repair and rehabilitation, the time spent on the road has drastically reduced. And that is the beauty of democracy, as the minister himself said it:"This is what democracy really means to those people. That is why they voted so that one day a journey of an hour will no longer take them one week.
He also talked about efforts in the power sector. Let me quote him: "The only matter that I'm sure interests and concern the people of Kwara State as it does other parts of Nigeria is power. We have set out a very simple roadmap where we have identified the problem. We 'have enough power as a country, so we must get more. So, the first leg is incremental power. The second leg is to stabilize power and the third leg is uninterrupted power. The first leg is largely everybody's responsibilities. It's the responsibility of the government and the responsibility of the citizens. So we are expanding opportunities for power; we are signing solar agreement; we are starting solar project; we are looking for power from coal; we are trying to resolve the gas issues; we are developing more hydro capacity. Right now, most power we are using is coming from the hydro power plants and we are going against the odds from about 2,000 to about 3,500 megawatts.
"Yes it is true that the rains have helped, that's what hydro energy is about; more water means more power and off peak when there is no water there is less power, because that is the energy that drives the electrical parts of the generating plant. But what is unsaid is the fact about maintenance, repairs that we started which has improved the amount of energy that we can get from those hydro plants. Before now, even though the rains were there, we couldn’t get more energy. Now we are getting more energy because we are fixing turbines, we are maintaining parts; we are getting close to 400 extra megawatts from those hydro plants, which was not there to be taken last year. We are also talking to the gas people; the communities that are angry, and when all of that come together and we merge that with the gas outage which is about 3,000 megawatts, the prospect for more reliable and increase power clearly lies ahead. And I know those communities will not be angry forever."
Power belongs to God. But he has allowed BRF to be in charge of generating and supplying electricity to Nigerians under the current government. And from his accounts, he is walking the talk, as the ruling party promised during electioneering campaign. Right now what the minister needs is our prayers and support to make his efforts in the works and power sectors successful.
BRF needs to be commended for creating synergies between state governments and the federal seat. For instance, Governor Ahmed made the minister to realise that "in 16 years, the visit by BRF was the first time a federal minister would sit down to discuss issues of road and power with the state". An excited Ahmed said while responding to the progress report from Fashola: "This is the first time any representative of the federal ministry of works will come and sit with us, review the status of our road and work out strategic ways to get them to the levels that will be beneficial to us and the economy. We’re very excited and are happy. We thank you so much for this".
Oba writes from Ilorin, Kwara State.
