Much Ado About ‘16 Years Damage’: Was Nigeria Paradise Before 1999?

Buhari

If you see the way those in APC controlled federal government talk about how the country was destroyed in the past 16 years ostensibly by the PDP administration that held sway within the period you will be pardoned to think that Nigeria was paradise before 1999 and PDP came and turned it to hell.

I decided to make this intervention when it occurred to me that children born in 1999 are now over 16years old and are already in the universities. These are children whose impression of Nigeria was formed in the last 16 years. These 'children of democracy' are being bombarded with APC propaganda and lies that Nigeria was better before 1999 and the more they hear this they may be persuaded not to appreciate the gains we have made in the past 16 years. In any case if Nigeria was paradise before 1999 why did Nigerians chase away the military and confine them in their barracks for good?

Nigeria Before 1999:

We are going to select some sectors and examined what they were like before 1999 and what they looked like today, so that the ‘children of democracy’ can make informed decisions on who to believe between those who said things were better before 1999 and those like me who are among the apostles of ‘cup half full’ who believe that we have made progress but more need to be done.

In the power sector before 1999, that is between 1960 and 1999, Nigeria never generated up to 6,000 megawatts of electricity, so the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) has never supplied any part of this country uninterrupted electricity. Many of us grew up shouting ‘up NEPA!’ anytime that NEPA supplied light to our houses which was rare.

In the case of telephone, one of the governments then, that was precisely that of military President Ibrahim Babangida, where the minister of communication said that telephone was only for the rich. And he was right. You have to be very wealthy to have telephone in your office and to have it in your house was a luxury only few can afford. If you want to have a telephone in your house in 1990, you have to apply in January 1989 and keep on bribing and lobbying to even be sure of getting it in 1990. To make local and international calls, people used to congregate at P&T office nearest to them very early in the morning to pick numbers and the crowd could be similar to what you have today at filling stations where people are scrambling for fuel.

I read about what was called ‘cement armada’ when I was doing research for my yet to be published book on corruption in Nigeria. ‘Cement armada’  was when imported cement congested the Apapa Port and indeed all the ports in Nigeria that a task force was set up to clear it. In the last 16 years Nigeria has become self-sufficient in cement and net exporter of the product.

Nigeria used to have a national carrier; Nigeria Airways. It was dead and buried even before 1999.

 Similarly the railway line bequeathed Nigeria by her colonial master was already dead before 1999 with its workers left in the lurch for years and weeds overgrew its rail tracks. This was the railway that the British used to move petroleum products from the south to the north with fuel depots dotted on its routes. It was used to transport imported goods to the country and exports from the hinterland.  Before 1999 it was already dead. It was through the railway road map that was developed in the last 16 years that efforts was made to revitalise it. New rail routes different from that of the British was created by Jonathan administration, with Abuja to Kaduna rail line almost 95 per cent completed, before he left office.

Before 1999 all the vehicle assembly plants in Nigeria had closed shop, with only Peugeot Assembly plant in Kaduna the ‘last man standing’. The new auto policy initiated by Jonathan brought back many of the assembly plants thereby creating jobs for Nigerians and a Nigerian company, Innoson Vehicle Motors (IVM) is producing MADE IN NIGERIA vehicles of all kinds. IVM is today producing spare parts for Nigeria Alfa Jet fighter planes for the Air Force facing Boko Haram in the North East.

When Brigadier General Sani Abacha announced the coup that ousted the administration of President Shehu Shagari, among other reasons, aside corruption, that necessitated their intervention, was that the hospitals have become ‘mere consulting clinics’. That does not sound like paradise health system in place. This was before 1999.

When Abacha himself became head of state after General Ibrahim Babangida ‘stepped aside’ corruption was at the centre stage. The man died in 1998 and by 2016 Nigeria is still receiving part of the loots he hid in foreign banks. Under his administration fuel scarcity was a way of life. People slept at filling stations for days on end, yet no one was sure when the product would be available. That was before 1999.

In the Last 16 Years

The state of power has not improved but the bureaucratic corruption that characterised NEPA has gone for good, as the sector has been taken over by the private sector who are presently battling the challenges of lighting up Nigerian homes. With more power plants constructed in the past 16 years than any other time in Nigeria’s history, there is hope that if the present administration follow the power road map of Jonathan, there would be significant improvement in power generation and distribution.

In the area of telephone penetration, Nigeria has the largest telephone penetration in Sub-Saharan Africa and one of the largest in the world in the last 16 years. Unlike in the past where people apply for telephone lines and it takes months to materialise, today lines are given free with free credits to bout. You can call any part of the world from the remotest village in Nigeria. Even Garri seller in Okigwe can tell the going price in Lagos or Port Harcourt using his phone, thereby helping the farmer to maximise his profit.

Nigeria no longer import cement. Several cement manufacturing companies have emerged in the last 16 years, so much so that Nigeria has emerged Africa’s largest exporter of the product. As a matter of fact, a Nigerian, Aliko Dangote has been setting up cement companies all over Africa.

The railway has been revitalised and better gauge added to what was left behind by the colonialists and one of the most recent addition was the rail line between Abuja and Kaduna which was on completion stage before the Jonathan administration was voted out. When it becomes operational this year, a worker can live in Kaduna ( where rent is relatively cheap) and be working in Abuja. Such worker can drive to the railway station in Kaduna by seven in the morning, park his car at the station and take a train to Abuja and arrive before 8am. By 5pm he is back to Kaduna. This is an unprecedented progress in history of transportation in Nigeria and it happened in the last 16 years.

The auto policy of the last 16 years has brought back car assembly plants that are creating jobs in Nigeria, while a Nigerian auto company, Innoson Vehicle Motors have been manufacturing tropicalized Nigerian vehicles suitable for our roads and weather. There were those who erroneously thought that Innoson was merely assembling cars. They were wrong. IVM is a manufacturing company. To prove that, when the Alfa Jet of the Nigerian Airforce was grounded because parts were not forthcoming from the manufacturers in United States, it was Innoson Motors engineers that constructed the needed parts for the Air Force and the Alfa Jets are now in operation bombing the terrorists at the North East of Nigeria.

The problem of fuel scarcity would soon be a thing of the past especially if the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is passed into law. Again Dangote and his associates are building the biggest refinery in the world in Lagos which would make Nigeria a net exporter of refined petroleum products.

In summary Nigeria has not been where it should be in the last 16 years given the huge expectations that followed the emergence of democracy in 1999, but please don’t tell me that what we had before 1999 was better than what we have in the past 16 years. The cup is HALF FULL.