by Cheta Nwanze

Yes, 43 days after the Chibok babes were ushered away, and 22 days after they were told to come and sit, the Chibok Babes Committee has returned to Abuja, without actually visiting Chibok. Leaves room for another visit ai? And more sitting allowance?

That Nigerians are a talented lot is beyond question. Problem remains that our country is not set up to take advantage of all that talent, and getting a visa to high-tail it out of here can be very tough, so a lot of this talent is put to use in err, nefarious ways.

Consider Ehis Akharamen, clearly a talented web developer. Unfortunately, and I speak from experience, getting a web development gig that will put food on the table consistently in Benin isn’t kosher, so Ehis put his talents to other use. He built a website that mimicked the official website of WAEC, and knowing how keen our culture is on instant gratification, made his scheme even better. He added some measure of kind-heartedness and gave away the “answers” to the WAEC exams for a token.

This brings us quite nicely to another part of our national problem, understanding. You see, talent is one thing, wasting it is quite another, which tends to be aided by a lack of understanding. Both the police and the reporter informed us that young Ehis hacked WAEC’s website, when what he did was to clone the site.

That brings forth the question of what they really know. Same question which can be applied to the chaps who have collected a sitting allowance on day 43. Yes, 43 days after the Chibok babes were ushered away, and 22 days after they were told to come and sit, the Chibok Babes Committee has returned to Abuja, without actually visiting Chibok. Leaves room for another visit ai? And more sitting allowance?

Speaking of sitting allowances, if fine girl is to have her way, the Junior Gavels will not be getting any. At least not on her account. A group of wigs representing fine girl have misquoted a part of the Constitution to mean that she cannot be probed unless the Prez gives his assent. Going by the Prez’s comments in his last jaw-jaw, we all know precisely where such a request will end up.

Bits and Bobs

The prospect of meeting the Almighty so soon was not that tempting, so the Sunday worshippers stayed away, in Jos. Still in Jos, and the Old Boy in Plateau has lent more credence to the argument in favour of state/community policing. Academics the world over have a reputation for being out of touch. Nigeria’s have just proved it… In 2014, someone is still speaking of a national airline as a priority. I hope this really is not part of the APC’s manifesto…

Right of Reply

Mildred Okwo wrote,

If fine girl was a man you would not address her that way. I take offense

Chxta responds,

Sorry Ma’am, but our current Minister of Petrol can actually take part in, and win a global pageant. She is that beautiful, and deserves every compliment she gets. Quite unlike any of the male specimens that we have occupying those positions. Try this chap for size.

AbdulRahman Mijinyawa wrote,

While I don’t have all the details of the NNPC’s cash-flow set up (actually after the Sanusi gate, I am not sure anyone does), I do know that a significant part of NNPC’s cost is the Joint-Venture (JV) Cash Calls. These essentially, are the counterpart funding for oil and gas projects that NNPC has to to provide, through the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), to the operators of the various oil and gas assets for it’s (NNPC) share of these JV’s. This share ranges from 40-80% depending on the agreements and could be as much as $1.8bln per operator.

Taking only the five major IOC’s (Shell, Exxon, Total, Eni and Chevron), this comes to some $9bln (N1.4trn) which still leaves about N2trn of the budget to be accounted for. But at least we have some idea of part of the budget – something about half a loaf….

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.