MR. PRESIDENT AND FACEBOOK GIST ON POWER
The entire world has been "agog" with the revelation that not only does Goodluck Jonathan use email etc., indeed Mr. Jonathan has a Facebook page, and get this: he maintains it himself!
This news was so astounding that a group of North Koreans decided to attempt to steal his "thunder" by setting up a site for their own leader, though not wanting to stretch credulity too far, never claimed that he edited the page himself; even "gods" – demi or otherwise – have limitations.
Well, I started to answer the frequent posts, sometimes just "liking" (Facebook language for the uninitiated) some of the articles he posted. Recently though "the Page" has taken on a new more interactive purpose, and with the requisite pun, has become more purposeful.
Mr. Segun Dawodu who besides being an MD and business person is a foremost historian on contemporary Nigerian history posted a response to the proposed power bill. He advised the President that he had some solutions he wished to proffer with regards to the power crisis and not wanting his proposals to go the way of previous attempts at policy "intervention" he was making a direct appeal to Mr. President.
Not long after, President Jonathan blogged that he had deployed a senior advisor to meet with Mr. Dawodu thus prompting me to forward the following communiqué for which I require no visit; in this case I’ll come to the mountain!:
"Dear Mr. President,
I hope that you are still monitoring comments on the subject of power. I read with interest the progress of Mr. Dawodu on micro power generation. For over a year I have been promoting power generation at an even lower level, the individual consumer. Just a week ago I received a new electricity meter from Southern California Edison. This meter is called a "Smart meter" and allows me - if I generate power from solar or wind - to sell this power back to the grid, so what we have is "net metering". I came to Nigeria last year regarding this process as the representative of a major company in this industry, Elster Meters, they are the global leaders. What I'm seeking is for smart metering and the opportunity for every Nigerian to generate power no matter how small to enable the industrial and social development of Nigeria."