The US President, Barack Obama, who was on a political tour of South Africa, Tanzania and Senegal, unveiled a $7 billion initiative dubbed Power Africa at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, as part of his government’s plan towards ‘promoting good governance’ in the continent. The US president listed Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya and Tanzania as beneficiaries of his mouthwatering largess despite his evasion of the majority of these countries during his visit. The notion, rife across the globe, at the announcement of his trips to the three countries, was that Obama intentionally decided to shun certain countries especially Nigeria and his home country, Kenya, for political cum security reasons. Critically vilified in the past for what African leaders perceived as his poor foreign policy in Africa unlike his predecessors despite having hailed from the continent, Obama’s latest power plan for Africa, no doubt, came to many as a pleasant surprise.
While I would not be hasty in expressing my fears over his inclusion of Nigeria in the lofty plan, the need, however, for details on who gets the money and how it would be spent on the targeted project in the country becomes very imperative owing to anteceding factors that made previous endeavours by the government of Nigeria towards ensuring stable electricity supply repeatedly failed missions. One needs to ask the US government how it intends to battle some human monsters in the country, whose stock in trade is to perpetuate darkness so far it suits their whims and caprices?
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