Rather than await the filing of charges against them, our engineers – civil; electrical; structural; chemical; mechanical; petrole- um, etc – have gone on the offen- sive by filing their statement of defence against allegations that they are culpable with regard to the disaster that has engulfed our nation.
Repeatedly, over the weekend Christin Purefoy of CNN devoted primetime to long queues all over our beloved country for petrol, diesel and virtually everything else while our entire nation was grinding to a standstill – in darkness.
No electricity; no water; no food; no work.
Purefoy the commentator was genuinely bewildered by the graphic but grotesque pictures he was relaying to the entire world – Africa’s largest producer of oil could not provide fuel for its own citizens! The four refiner- ies – two in Port Harcourt; one in Warri; and one in Kaduna – are comatose.
Hence, our nation is compelled to import fuel almost at gunpoint but the importers are insisted on being paid the outstanding arrears running into billions of dollars before the new government took over on May 29.
The former Minister of Finance and Co-coordinating Minister for the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, was adamant that it was all blackmail. Be- sides, there is the unresolved issue of the subsidy scam and the gargantuan corruption on which it is anchored.
In any case, under cover of darkness the engineers insist that the fault lines are obvious and self-evident. It does not require rocket science to figure out that without fuel, the power stations cannot generate elec- tricity.
Even when we rely on gas or hydro-electricity, the vicious circle of incompetence and cor- ruption remains the permanent devil in the equation.
Officially, we have only four refineries but there are myriads more in the cranny creeks of the Niger-Delta for whom business is brisk.
Any law enforcement officers or intrepid auditors who dare venture into their domain is destined for kidnapping fol- lowed by demand for ransom or fed directly to the crocodiles as lunch to serve as a warning to others. It’s a huge mess. Neverthe- less, the engineers insist that they are not guilty.
They would rather point accusing fingers at the financial engineers oth- erwise known as chartered accountants. I am here to de- flect the totally unfounded allegations against chartered accountants.
Our role has been limited to auditing the accounts if and when we are engaged to do so.
We also offer professional advice which the government is at liberty to entirely ignore. Now the chicken has come home to roost.
Ample evidence is provided by the front page bold headline of Daily Trust newspa- per of 25th May, 2015: “Nigeria Faces Shutdown As Energy Crisis Worsens”.
According to the report, “Ni- geria faces a shutdown as fuel be- comes increasingly unavailable nationwide and prices doubled or tripled in some places.
Petrol, diesel and even kerosene are no longer being sold in 80 percent of fuel stations across Nigeria, according to reports by our cor-respondents.
The situation is so critical that motorists are stranded at filling stations for a whole day. As a result trans- port fares have shot up sharply – in some places rising by 100 percent or more
. Airlines have also cut flights by half, leaving passengers stranded and some angry for being forced to miss crucial business trips.
“The pain and suffering are compounded by power gen- eration which has dropped to all-time low forcing critical services like hospitals, banks and telecoms to depend ever more on generator plants. But our correspondents report that even such alternative services are themselves threatened by the current fuel shortages.
“Telecom operators have warned that the nation faces shutdown if the situation does not improve immediately. A few hospitals have also expressed concerns that they will no longer be able to carry out operations should the situation continue for a day or two.
“The fuel crisis is coming at a time when about 50 foreign leaders are due in the country for the inauguration of a new president on Friday.”
Regardless, the engineers are adamant that they cannot be held responsible for the “systems collapse” that has literally thrown the spanner in the works. In their Statement of Defence, they have reminded us that they, like the rest of us, are still trying to figure out whether what plagues our nation is a design fault or engineering prob- lem.
It may even be a mainte- nance issue or a total mismatch between the computer model/ engineering drawings and the finished (or unfinished) product.
However, what is puzzling is that the engineers have been stridently protesting that the chartered accountants must join them in the dock and be ready to face public umbrage. This is regardless of the fact that there are so many branches of engi- neering/consulting engineering and project management and they are more than enough to take the rap without looking for scapegoats.
Al Jazeera appears to be as puzzled as the rest of the world over the chaotic situation in Nigeria. It has been diligently monitoring our crisis and has relied heavily on the front page report of ThisDay newspaper of January 25, 2015: “Why There Is Epileptic Power Supply, by Sen- ate Committee”.
Since BBC sacked Jeremy Clarkson from its vastly suc- cessful “Top Gear” weekly pro- gramme about cars, it has re- placed it with a new programme, “Driving In The Dark”, which is very much a reality show.
Last week, it featured a report based on the front page headline of Vanguard newspaper of May 21, 2015: “Residents Storm Sapele Streets Over Unending Blackout”.
J.K RANDLE
