Saving Sowore, Electricity Gridlock, Oil Theft, And Former President Goodluck Jonathan -By Simon Kolawole

The failure of the Department of State Services (DSS) to release Omoyele Sowore, convener of Revolution Now movement, despite a court order is turning the whole case into a circus. No matter the offence Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, is accused of committing, we are in a democracy and court orders must be obeyed. The government cannot keep holding an individual without legal justification. We are not operating under the obnoxious Decree No 2 of 1984 under which people were arrested and detained in a devil-may-care manner. The Sowore case is yet another acid test for President Buhari’s self-professed conversion to constitutional democracy. Watching…

THE GRIDLOCK
For the 11th time this year, the national grid collapsed on Friday night, sending darkness across the nation. No matter the megawatts we generate, the national grid, managed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), must be able to move the power from the generating companies (GenCos) to the distribution companies (DisCos) before we can enjoy the electricity. TCN has become the biggest obstacle to regular power supply today and has endangered many agreements the country signed with GenCos. And you know what? We chased away Manitoa, the Canadian company managing the grid, in 2016 without getting a competent replacement. Shocking!

OIL THEFT
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has released a report on oil theft and pipeline vandalism in the country. The biggest summary is that crude oil and refined products worth $41.9 billion were stolen between 2009 and 2018 — that is the size of the nation’s foreign reserves currently. The tragedy, if I need to emphasise it, is that most of these criminal activities are carried out in collusion with security agencies and government officials, some of them very senior. This is an open secret. The evils we do in this country! That is why at some point, crude oil was selling for $100 and above but our foreign reserves were not growing. Treasonable.

REMEMBERING GEJ
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has been derided for his stewardship but there is one thing nobody can take away from him — the singular honour of accepting defeat and congratulating his opponent while results were being announced! No top presidential candidate in our history has been able to do this. When the Supreme Court threw out Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s petition against President Buhari recently, he couldn’t summon the courage to accept defeat and congratulate Buhari. Do we still remember that Buhari himself never accepted defeat or congratulated his opponent? Those who think Jonathan’s gesture was not special need a rethink. Statesmanship.