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The Gas Revolution,
A Blessing To The
North
By Mohammed Danjuma
Newsdiaryonline
Wed Aug 10,2011
Rather than
continuously scarify the president on issues that ordinarily
would not make the front page of any discerning national daily,
let’s pause, take a hard look at the past, let’s not even
venture too far back for fear of the selective amnesia that
seems to be a plague these days, every building stands on a
foundation the strength of which determines the quality of that
building, did our past leaders lay a good foundation for a
strong Nigeria? Have we as a people been fair to ourselves? We
all know the answers to these questions. Let’s now look at the
prevailing situation in direct retrospective relation to the
past, it’s more or less likened to inheriting a building with a
weak foundation on which you are expected to continue building,
at this point it’s either you bring down the whole structure and
begin afresh on a stronger foundation or find a way of
strengthening the existing foundation before building on top.
Once you do a critical risk assessment of our predicament as a
nation you will agree with me that the latter option will be the
better of the two.
Now let’s
shed the toga of sentiments and take a discerning look ahead,
will these foundations that Jonathan is laying strengthen our
tomorrow? The electoral reforms, the banking sector reform, the
economic and power sector reforms, the transport sector reforms
which includes rail, waterways and road infrastructures, the
constitutional amendments and of cause, the gas revolution. With
prudence and commitment I make bold to say that the answer is in
the affirmative. Lest I deviate too far from my topic of
discourse which looks at the linkages in the gas revolution as
regards to agriculture and the environmental degradation in the
north.
The gas
revolution recently launched by the president is a long term
project which has a gas master plan to be implemented over the
next four years; a total of about $20 billion will be spent in
building the infrastructure which will include a world class
petrochemical and fertilizer plants across the six geopolitical
zones and two new liquefied natural gas plants that will produce
ethanol, a product that will boost power production and
industrialisation. More interestingly, this will make Nigeria a
hub in fertiliser production for both local use and export to
other African countries.
The mainly
agrarian northern part of Nigeria produces about 70% of the food
consumed in the country and this is achieved through the output
from peasants who toil to cultivate their crofts. Farming is the
main stay and the major employer of labour in the north today,
yet it is the list funded. The discovery of oil has had an
adverse effect on agriculture in Nigeria as quick money from oil
related ventures has created a steady rural to urban area
migration, an albatross to commercial farming. An accelerated
and uncontrolled tree felling for use as firewood consequent
upon a population explosion and its attendant cringe of poverty
also contribute immensely to the desertification of a hitherto
arable land, hence triggering migration to other menial jobs in
the cities occasioned by the lack of a productive farm land.
Those who
still manage to have an arable croft and the will to continue
farming are further challenged by the availability of fertilizer
which today has been so politicised and turned into a way of
making quick money by some greedy politicians in the north all
at the expense of the poor farmer. But the bitter truth is that
our future ultimately depends on the diversification of our oil
based economy through an aggressive revival of the agricultural
sector today.
The gas
revolution is certainly a blessing to the north as the forward
and backward linkages of the project will have a direct impact
to the common man in his farm from Taraba to Zuru in kebbi
state, fertilizer shortage will be a thing of the past and the
huge sums of money being spent by state governments to import
the commodity can now be utilised on other projects that will
benefit the society. I have deliberately not dwelt on the
anticipated 600,000 jobs or so this investment will create
across the nation, a gas pipeline will also be built from
Calabar to Kano, the availability of affordable cooking gas will
therefore greatly reduce the use of firewood in the northern
homes hence, a respite for our fast depleting forest and the
attendant challenge to the environment.
If nothing
else, I feel this is something worth celebrating as a people
centric foresight that we must all join hands and heads to
ensure its full implementation by this administration for the
good of all. It is actions like these that should form the
yardstick of measuring the performance of any leadership, not
those fed by primordial sentiments that will do no one any good.
Sometimes, the perceived failures of the leadership stems from
the failure of the followership.
Mohammed
Danjuma,Leader Northern Zone ,The Jonathan Project.
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