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Letters & Opinion
PEOPLES DAILY, FRIDAY, JUNE 28, 2013
Water: Encouraging results from Niger state By Danladi Ndayebo
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s stakeholders in water and sanitation business converged on the Hague, Netherlands on March 22 to mark the 2013 edition of the World Water Day, the authorities at the Niger State Ministry of Water Resources dedicated the day to take stock of its achievements and to marshal out ways of improving on its efforts at tackling the challenge of supplying portable water to the 4.5 million people spread across the 25 Local Government Areas of the state. Two days to the event, the Commissioner in charge of the Ministry of Water Resources, Hajiya Hadiza Abdullahi presented grim statistics of water situation in Nigeria and the world, at the weekly state executive council meeting. According to her, an estimated 70million (about 42%) of Nigerians lack access to clean and safe water, with most of those affected living in rural areas. She also corroborated expert opinion that more than one in six people worldwide do not have access to improved water sources. Going by the 2011 estimate of the world’s population of 7 billion people, she said, it translates to more than 1.1 billion people lacking access to improved or potable water, with over 70 percent of these said to be living in the developing counties. Hadiza’s estimates are in agreement with those of the Honourable Minister of Water Resources, Mrs Sarah Ochekpe who recently put the current “water supply service coverage in the country at 58 per cent, which is about 87 million people”. This,
according to under successive the minister, administrations. translates to Government also lack of potable made substantial Peoples Daily welcomes your letters, opinion articles, water for about financial 70 million commitment text messages and ‘pictures of yesteryears.’ All written people. In the to supply water contributions should be concise. Word limits: Letters rural areas, chemicals, - 150 words, Articles - 750 words. Please include your Ochekpe said, reagents and name and a valid location. Letters to the Editor should be only 42 per cent pipes. It installed addressed to: have access to additional water potable water main pipelines; supply.” procured drilling The Editor, Iit hardly rigs/implements, Peoples Daily, 1st Floor Peace Plaza, needs debating high-lift pumps, 35 Ajose Adeogun Street, Utako, Abuja. that the problem submersible Email: opinion@peoplesdailyng.com of water supply pumps and water cuts across all tankers. It equally SMS: 08134607052 the states of drilled hundreds the federation, of boreholes all in excuses that it inherited a perennial the bid to improve water supply to nations and continents of the problem of water supply when world, with far reaching negative the people thereby enhancing their it took office in 2007. It would effects on the environment, socio-economic lives. not give the excuse that the dry agriculture and health care. But By 2009, the state water season often poses a challenge to the Niger state government has corporation had successfully public water supply in many parts shown a lot of commitment to de-silted Tagwai Dam after 25 of country. Upon assumption the provision of portable water years and completed the turnof office, government began to to the people because of its belief around of water works across the tackle the problem of dilapidation that guaranteeing clean and safe State, including the installation of infrastructure which the state water is a sure way to good health. of transformers and stand-by water corporation had battled with Governor Aliyu would not give generators. The commissioner of
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Upon assumption of office, government began to tackle the problem of dilapidation of infrastructure which the state water corporation had battled with under successive administrations. Government also made substantial financial commitment to supply water chemicals, reagents and pipes. It installed additional water main pipelines; procured drilling rigs/implements, high-lift pumps, submersible pumps and water tankers. It equally drilled hundreds of boreholes all in the bid to improve water supply to the people thereby enhancing their socio-economic lives.
Water Resources said the state government is working tirelessly to ensure that potable water reaches all the nooks and crannies of the state, adding that some waterrelated projects have been executed to improve the situation. She said the situation of water supply in Minna has improved considerably following the rehabilitation and refurbishing of Chanchaga and Bosso Water works. With the purchase of booster pumps for Maitumbi area, connection of 33Kva line to Pogo booster station, connection of 6” pipeline to Tunga area, improvement in water supply situation at the Minna military cantonment, the perennial problem of water supply hitherto witnessed in most part of the state capital is now history. The ministry also embarked on other semi-urban water supply schemes in the state, and introduced mini water schemes Kuta, Madaka, Mashegu, Agwara, Lemu and Kata-eregi. It procured several borehole rigs for drilling of boreholes in communities, and trained some of its staff on waterrelated issues both locally and abroad. The state has also bought several water vehicles and distributed same to the 25 Local Government Areas for distribution of water to communities that lack the commodity. Although the problems are still not over, it is not difficult to see that the situation has improved reasonably in the metropolitan cities, especially in the State capital. Danladi Ndayebo is the Chief Press Secretary to Niger state governor
Damned, Senate’s single six-year term proposal By Ogaga Ifowodo
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oon after his election, President Jonathan proposed his panacea for the political troubles of Nigeria: a single six-year term. And now half of the nation’s senators, purporting to know the will of the people, have dutifully obliged him by rubber-stamping the obnoxious idea. Their premise is that democracy, and not its would-be practitioners, is to blame for the failure of representative governance in our country. The logic is as follows: the president and state governors are always consumed by the goal of securing a second four-year term under the current system. Consequently, they abandon governance and, using the enormous power and privileges of incumbency, squander time and scarce financial resources in that bid. Senator Ekweremadu’s committee puts it beyond doubt: “the financial expenses often associated with re-elections” and the need to “ensure that the executive heads are freed from distractions so that they can concentrate on public policy issues.” Only that the president and senators’ solution has nothing to do with democracy and everything
with the anti-democratic disposition of our politicians. The problem we have is that of trying to practise democracy without democrats; of having as its standard-bearers persons weaned on the poisonous milk of military dictatorship, steeped in the culture of power without responsibility and political office as the gateway to unaccountable riches. It is almost axiomatic that a single term turns the office holder into an autocrat with the elimination of the most effective check on power. So the president or a governor may not be distracted by the quest for a second term, but might he not be by any number of megalomaniacal dreams? For example, to be the “Eze Ego” (king of money) of Africa, the Ogidigborigbo (ask exGovernor Ibori what this means) of the universe? The dream of owning the most prestigious golf course on earth? To steal enough to build a private heaven amidst the poverty and misery of the vast majority of his fellow citizens? Were Jonathan and his senators really interested in radically cutting the exorbitant cost of our demon-cracy and imbibing a genuine spirit of service, they would have considered a more sensible
alternative: parliamentary government. Unfortunately, they take the presidential system as sacrosanct. We began our experiment in self-governance with the parliamentary system. Then in 1979, we sought to conjure national unity through the magic of a president elected by popular mandate. Hoping, thereby, to slay once and for all the monster of tribalism. Well, you know it: that dream has since been turned into a nightmare by the ensuing mechanical notion of unity which transformed a shaky but thriving federation into a constricting unitary state. It is time, I think, to return to the parliamentary model. For one, the presidential system tends to be prohibitively expensive, in poor and rich countries alike. Moreover, it has failed to deliver to us the golden fleece of national unity. And speaking of democracy, how much more representative can a system be than one which makes politics truly local? In a parliamentary system, the candidate stands for election in her own immediate constituency. Her electorate consists of the people best able to judge her character and fitness for public office. At the centre, the party
with the majority of seats forms the government. And failing a clear governing majority, forms alliances to that end. One could argue that the parliamentary system is more conducive to federalism defined as the devolution of power by constituent units to a central authority. And that the United States, ironically, is the perfect illustration of this concept: its president is not elected by popular ballot but by an Electoral College constituted by the states’ delegates. But that is not the only ideal that recommends the parliamentary model. Six or eight years, in my view, is not enough time for meaningful achievement in a country without passable basic infrastructure (roads, railways, electricity and communications grids, schools, healthcare, water works, etc.). Under a parliamentary system, the tenure of a dynamic and truly transformative leader would be subject only to the popular will. Left to me, I would say that if only for his bold commitment to an effective urban mass transit system by way of a light rail metro network in Lagos, Governor Fashola ought to remain in office for as long as his electorate returns him. Vision
and dedication to the common good being so rare among our politicians, we ought to be able to retain the few who display these qualities to any appreciable degree. A parliamentary system enables this and, even better, the electorate does not have to wait till the end of an electoral cycle before ridding itself of a corrupt or inept government: elections can be called at any time as a referendum on the party and persons in power. Still, it is true that without statesmen and women, no form of government is any good. “For forms of government let fools contest,” the great English wit, Alexander Pope, proclaimed in his “Essay on Man,” adding that “Whate’er is best administer’d is best.” I agree insofar as Pope presumes selfless men and women who can be trusted to rise above the claims of this or that ideology or social system. Unfortunately, these are not the kind of men seeking to persuade us that in order to advance democracy, we must first constrict and weaken it. Professor Ogaga Ifowodo teaches literature at the Central State University of Texas in the United States. He can be reached by email via omoliho@gmail.com