Ahmad
Nigeria’s official entry for FESTAC 77, the World Black and African Festical of Arts and Culture, which we hosted in 1977, was a p;ay titled LANGBODO. It was based on the classical piece of Yoruba literature, written by the late Chief D. O. Fagunwa. A book that caught my imagination as a kid of eight years, as it did for so many youngsters of my generation; OGBOJU ODE NINU IGBO IRUNMOLE (literally: the brave warrior in the forest of demons!), Fagunwa’s piece was the story of a mythical expedition, by a group of seven intrepid hunters into the dense jungle IRUNMOLE, in search of the elixir of national re-birth. The hunters chosen for the expedition had all manners of supernatural powers and each with some truly magical names! The exploration of magical power, the domineering presence of dense jungles and man-eting beasts in a society at pre-industrial levels of development caught the imagination because the issues which came under exploration in this literature reflected the yearnings of man for domination over the forces of nature as well as the celebration of the prowess of community. Thses were afterall, societies where the communal ethos was still very dominant and respected.
I have reflected upon this theme of exploration and expedition this week, because of the developing story about Nigeria’s Communication Satellite (NIGCOMSAT-1), which has become shrouded in controversy in recent days. THE PUNCH newspaper of Wednesday, November 12, 2008, had reported that Africa’s first geosynchronous communication satellite, NIGCOMSAT-1, might have been lost in space. Industry sources were quoted as saying that the satellite could not be found in its launch positon in orbit, some 37, 000 kilometers above the earth. The Manging Director of NigComSat, Ahmed Rufai assured that the satellite merely had a “challenge”, that weekend, “which had been fixed”.
But the matter took a new turn the following day, because DAILY TRUST of Thursday, November 13, 2008, reported the Federal Government as having “dimissed speculation that NIGCOMSAT is missing”. Well, the Minister of State for Science and Technology, Al-Hassan Zaku, assured that our satellite, rather like the old TOKUNBO car on the pothole-filled Nigerian road “was parked in the orbit after it developed a technical fault”. If like me, you don’t know whether to cry or laught at the absurd explanation, you still have to wait to the end of this “now you see it, then you don’t ” story of Nigeria’s communication satellite.; Al-Hassan Zakum clearly ignorant about space science, further exposed his own limitation in the matter, by adding that the satellite “was being repaired by the Chinese firm that built it”. But to stave off Nigerian inquisitiveness our ‘savvy’ minister tried to give himself covering fire, by adding ‘reassuringly’ perhaps, that “in the event that the satellite cannot be repaired eventurally, Nigeria would be migrated to another satellite (rather like touts “migrate passengers from one bad vehicle to other in our motor parts!) already in orbit or a new satellite would be built for the country (can you catch a whiff of salivating for the possbilitiy of a new round of contracts?).
Our minister was not done though; the satellite, he said “was parked (just as MOLUE bus at Oshodi but stop!) so that it will not collide with the satellite of other countries in the orbit… If not parked there will be no energy left to move it but because there was still some energy left, we decided to move it aside and part it in a safe place… We decided that they park it while repaires continue”. Taking Nigerians for gullible fools who don’t follow events, including the specialized field of space science, is part of the baggage of officialdom in our country; if we are not outrightly lied to, they attempt to obfuscate or mystify issues. The Director, Strategy and Communication of NigComSat, Mrs Abimbola Alale, also weighed-in on the story, hoping she could win respite, by sounding ‘technical’. Alale said NIGCOMSAT-1, developed “technical problem” and “was powered down”; it was put “inemergency mode operation” in order to carry out a “fault-tree analysis to narrow down the cause effect and mitigation of the problem”. She then promised to brief Nigerians “as definite faults on the satellite emerge”. Ever able to detect opportunities from situation, even members of the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, have threatened to go as far as China on the matter of the “parked”, ‘lost’, “out of service”, “unserviceable” (make your pick), NIGCOMSAT-1!
By Tuesday this week, we got a clearer picture (not from stellar space unfortunately) about the ill-fated NIGCOMSAT-1; THE GUARDIAN reported that the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited “may have foreclosed the recovery of the NIGCOMSAT-1”. The Chinese company that built it, China Great Wall Industry Corporation, had not handed over to Nigeria, in any case, and if it had not been “powere down”, insurers would have “denied culpability for what could have amounted to negligence on the side of Nigeria and the managers of the system”. So stripped of Aesopian language from all directions, what happened is that Nigerian have just seen twenty four billion naira go down the drain pipe of the delusions of former president Olusegun Obasanjo. THE NATION newspaper of Tuesday, November 18, 2008, got it spot on, in my view, when it described the project as ‘seemed built to fail”. It was dogged by unsuitable technology, faulty components and suspect solar panels. The satellite eventually “blanked out”, rather like Nigeria itself does regularly without power supply.
The NIGCOMSAT-1 was one of the prestige projects of Obasanjo: a dictator who needed to have regular ego massages (even the space centre was named after him), Obasanjo spent twenty four billion naira to purchase what has become a white elephant from the Chinese. He believed the nation could use it to boost rural telephony, enhance agricultural growth and become catapulted to the league of technological advanced nations. They appear on the surface as lofty ideals; however, as with most things with Obasanjo, his large ego and delusions of grandeur never allowed him to take the basic steps first, and in the process the nation is the worse for it. How does Nigeria become technologically advanced. When education has been systematically neglected? Our rulers refuse to learn that it is education, especially the public school system that can offer the basis for the recruitment of the brilliant children who will be our scientists and engineers, including, the space scientists. So instead of a focused regime of investment in education, research and development, that can aid his ‘lofty vision’, Obasanjo went for the quick fix of seeking Chinese aid. Nopw, there are two issues here: one positive, the other, negative. China, together with the other Asian countries, has invested massively in education; it takes research and development seriously, to the extent that on a per capital basis, are beginning to our-invest the Europeans. That has contributed significantly to their impressive take off. We ought to have borrowed a leaf fromt that .
On the negative side is that China’s capitalist transition is done with the viciousness of the old robber barons of the American Wild West. Chinese Capitalims is rampaging, as it unleashes forces contructed within the authoritarian and disciplined ambits of it culture, history and politics. China is reaching to the world and redrawing the maps of the struggle for worldwide control of resources and market. It then comes into contact with the lumpen capitalism of the Nigeria ruling class, which is build on a foundation of corruption, indiscipline, absence of patriotism and banditry. This is the context within which Nigeria was given its satellite, which seemed doomed from the beginning. At this point, we should return to our point of embarkation: the expedition to LANGBODO. We sent seven mythical hunters in search of the elixir of peace and development. Well, Nigeria has refused to invest in education and we neglect scientific development and oppose rational thought: the ruling class exploite mysticism and manipulates obscurantism, in a society where existence is hell for most citizens. It is a disorganized country, where mergency bodies will depend on local hunters to locate the wreckage of planes after months of pretending to be doing their scienctific best in the matter!
Against this backdrop, I suggest that we should organize a search party to reclaim our much beloved NIGCOMSAT-1 . currently “culture”; for a start, we can use “JUJU” which Obasanjo said can be used to fight apartheid in South Africa many years ago. Then we should line up traditional hunters from every community (to prevent trouble we can allocate them according to the geopolitical zones); marabouts; prayer warrious; bokay; yantauri; all manners of village and urban toughts; area boys; yandaba; and other patriotic lumpen to help locate where the NIGCOMSAT-1 IS “parked”. On locating it, the mechanics and spare parts dealers from Owode Onirin (Lagos); Panteka (Kano); Apata (Kaduna), will then”push it” to kick start it back to life! Maybe, just maybe, we can use our “culture” to recover twenty four billion naira of investment and bring back to life all the hopes which Obasanjo invested on our behalf in the white elephant called NIGCOMSAT-1! It will be an original contribution to the world; and who knows, we might be invited to the next G-20 meeting to share our experience or even be given an automatic seat in the UN Security Countcil, as befitting the only black “super power” that depends on its own devices!
