This appears to be one of the mid-term goals of the Prof. Bart Nnaji-led Presidential Task force on Power, as the Roadmap for Power Sector Reform was launched yesterday. The projected capacity will boost current supply by more than 500%.

I’m very impressed the task force has a website, a very decent one for that matter: http://nigeriapowerreform.org. The executive summary of the power reform is available for download (PDF).

OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT as at Aug 18, 2010. Click to enlarge

http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/, the official government website for the 140million+ strong nation, makes me what to cry. The aesthetics and functionality of a government website might not be the most critical issue out of the myriads of problems Nigeria has, but the state of a government website does speak volumes to the state of affairs in the country.

In an era of multimillion dollar national branding, the present nigeria.gov.ng is not befitting and projects an erroneous image of what Nigerians are capable. we certainly can do better, way better!

The Federal Government of Nigeria will soon commence a new process of National Identity Card registration throughout the country, according to news reports.

The new process is expected to begin in the next six months, adding that under the new system, fresh identity cards would be issued to Nigerians along with the ones currently in circulation.

For some 30 years Nigeria has been grappling—at huge financial costs—to establish a national ID card system. The scandal-riddled project came to crescendo in 2003 when three federal ministers were charged with corruption in connection with a $214m contract with SAGEM, a French firm.

The accused, former Internal Affairs Ministers Sunday Afolabi (late), Mahammed Shatta, and Dr Mohammed Shata former Minister of State in that ministry; former Labor Minister Hussain Akwanga; and former Enugu State governor, Chief Okwesilieze Nwodo, it is interesting this man is now the chairman of the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party.

None of these characters were ever prosecuted; in fact the charges were later dropped. The project went on and was executed haphazardly.

Now, we are back on the road to a national ID card, once again. Back in 2003 at the commencement of the failed project, former president Obasanjo, whose administration initiated the idea, said “the scheme [ID card project] will help government planning and to fight fraud and corruption”. The statement couldn’t have had more ironic implications…the project have proved to be nothing but a cesspool of scam, scandal and sleaze!

So what does it take to “accelerate innovative, results-oriented, and sustainable solutions”, using a phrase I borrow from the public innovators’ website?

First and foremost, those in charge must see themselves as problem-solvers, not politicians, ethnic lords or bureaucrats. Many governors are politicians thick and through, and see problem-solving a secondary assignment and task to be delegated to assistants and commissioners.

A problem–solving mindset brings about a sense of self awareness. A problem-solver would foster an atmosphere of inquisitiveness and seeks opportunities to collaborate and innovate. Among the Nigerian teeming political class, one can name those problem-solvers—there are just a handful of them around.

For some 10 days, the Ondo state governor paid his first official business visit to the U.S. The man met with American dignitaries, business people and state indigenes, read speeches, received honors and awards, and even engaged in a town hall meeting with the Ondo Diaspora, yet the state website—the only media outlet the state has for the global community—has no official statement on the visit! If not for an article written by Professor Niyi Akinnaso that was copied and pasted from Punch newspaper, there would have been no trace of the trip.

What the state web media team does on its website is illogical if it has to rely on the print media for materials to post online. The governor has a bus-load of press and media people that follows him everywhere, a whole ministry devoted to information, and an information technology agency, what are they all doing?

It is high time the governor reviewed his media strategy, particularly how the state website is used to augment his efforts and showcase the state. The world is now a global village thanks to technology and a dynamic media that has gone digital. If the Mimiko administration wants to reverse the existing impression of state as a sleepy backwater rural settlement to that of a great business or tourist destination, then it must jump on the World Wide Web.