The Federal Government has earmarked over N50 million to illuminate the ever busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway to avert accidents and improve the security situation.

The federal controller of works, Mr. Tunde Ekunsumi, who revealed this to newsmen in Lagos said the light up plans would not only give the motorists a pleasurable ride on the road , but would also raise the standard of the road to international standard. Source

I smell a rat!

Of what use is an illuminated road if it runs hundred of miles through the jungle, full of deep potholes and poorly maintained?

Just as it is anywhere in the world, public properties are prone to vandalism, and Nigeria is no exception.

In fact, vandalism and theft of public amenities such as street lights, electric and telephone cables is endemic in Nigeria; vandals and thieves run willy-nilly everywhere, even when their targets are located within city limits and highly visible. Lagos is an example: All light fixtures along the longest bridge in Nigeria, the 3rd Mainland bridge, have been vandalized. Several thousands of vehicles cross this bridge daily.

Having street lights along the expressway is not just creating easy targets for vandals, the rationale is flawed.

From my experience, roads are illuminated mostly when located within city limits - not when they run several miles through a no-man’s land. And the way to ‘raise the standard of the road to international standard’ in Nigeria is not embanking on projects that makes little or no sense, but by ensuring roads are in good condition, all the time.

The whole project is nothing but a gimmick to enrich some pockets, I’m convinced.

“The time has come for us to decide whether we are a nation or not. And if we are, we need to take some painful decisions. We should be able to leave these resources for our children unborn if we cannot utilise them today.”

Finally, it appears the government is coming to its senses.

I’m all for this. Just in April, I called for all onshore gas-flaring wells to be shut down until the nation is ready to do what is right.

There will be a loss of revenue, no doubt, and the oil producing companies are quick to point this out: A shut down will “cut Nigeria ’s production by about 870,000 barrels of oil per day, amounting to a revenue loss of $12bn at the price of $40 per barrel.”

But this isn’t too dear a price to pay for doing what’s right. Nigeria shouldn’t put its people in harm’s way and endanger the environment, just for a couple of million of dollars! Simple.

The oil companies have proposed a 2012-deadline for zero flare. In 1993, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) started pursuing the gas flares out policy without success.

Finally someone got the memo that the only option to solving nagging problems is simply to bite the bullet and face the problem head-long.

Shut down the darn wells I say!

On the web: Punch: Gas flares out deadline: FG set to shut oil wells

On Grandiose Parlor: Gas flaring, Niger-delta crisis

Video of Mandela 90th birthday bash: The 46664 Concert, London

The Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr. Robert Ejevami, said on Tuesday in Abuja that there were discrepancies in the N86.29 billion railway modernisation project, adding that while it was awarded for $250 million, $175 million was paid into the company’s foreign account while the balance of $75 million was paid into its Nigerian account.

The AGF made the revelations while appearing at the public hearing into the management of funds allocated to the Transport and Works Ministries between 1999 and 2007.

If you are thinking as I did, you will wonder why those men.

The two governors were former OBJ ministers, who managed the power projects from 2000 to 2008. Those projects, the nation later discovered - thanks to House of Representatives probe - are a cesspool of corruption. This blog and several others discussed the House probes then, see: Nigeria deserves to be in darkness and Obasanjo waived due process to fast-track power projects.

Just when I was getting enthusiastic that the president will be different and capable of thinking out of the box; the inclusion of these men is a downer.

It shows it’s still business as usual in Nigeria, where the same old incompetent hands get recycled. Since the federal government has remain stuck in its old ways of doing things, it is no surprise that the label “federal” has become a synonym for “failure”.

How can the nation attain fresh and desirable outcomes when it keeps making the same mistakes over and over again?