N10 Billion for Villa Solar? What About the Poor Masses?

By Raymond Godday, Bauchi

Yet another N10 billion gone down the drain, not for the hospitals, not for the schools, not to improve the lives of the poor, but for solar panels in the Presidential Villa. It is not merely questionable; it is shameful.

Has Nigeria reached to a point now where our leaders would leave us to suffer darkness while they address the national power supply within themselves? If Aso Rock must break free from the misery of the rest of Nigeria, then what hope do we, the poor masses, have? Who will install solar for the common Nigerian family struggling to pay rent, buy fuel, or even eat one good meal a day?

Such wasteful spending has a dangerous implication: that the government is for the well-connected few and the rest of us must just keep living in the dark. If the Presidency itself cannot resist the same power struggles millions of Nigerians face every day, then it has failed as a servant to all.

Where has the already incurred billions that we spent on the national power budget gone to? Does it no longer qualify as government priority to make electricity reach all households? Do we now need to swallow hard that solar for the Villa becomes more important than power to our hospitals, schools, and localities?

We must inquire, what becomes of rural dwellers, market women, students, small-scale business owners, and the unemployed youths? Do they not deserve equal power that Aso Rock leaders are accumulating unto themselves?

It is high time the government remembered that leadership is not luxury, but service. The N10 billion could have illuminated thousands. But it will only illuminate a handful.

Let us speak plain, this is not development. It is abandonment. And we, the people, must shout before darkness becomes our way of life.

Raymond godday, writes from Mass communication department, Abubakar Tatari Ali polytechnic Bauchi, can be reach via raymondgodday52@gmail.com or 08038488230