CNG CONVERSION AND GAS HANDLING

Issues of safety should be paramount 

Although last Wednesday’s explosion at a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) station in Eyean, Benin City, Edo State, has been blamed on the activities of unauthorised technicians, it has also highlighted the issue of gas handling in the country. No fewer than three people were injured from the explosion traced to the activities of some fake installers of CNG cylinders. “This incident underscores the dangers of unauthorised CNG installations by unqualified technicians using non-compliant cylinders, which we have always campaigned against”, said the Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (Nipco) Plc that owns the outlet. “We are cooperating fully with the relevant authorities to prevent a recurrence and reinforce our commitment to public safety across all operations.”

With the skyrocketing price of petrol following removal of subsidy, the federal government recently unveiled a programme for the conversion of vehicles to CNG (since gas is much cheaper) to lessen the economic hardship in the country. But there are growing concerns about the issue of safety, especially in an environment where unscrupulous business people abound. It is therefore clear that relevant authorities need to organise sensitisation programmes for all gas retail outlets on how to operate their business with minimal risk to themselves and the public. The pertinent question is, how are Nigerians expected to differentiate genuine professionals from quacks in the sector? Like other policies of this administration that were announced

without much thought about implications, there is nothing on ground to suggest this has also been thought through.

 Even before the CNG programme, there were already concerns about the incessant domestic gas explosions amid intense campaigns on the need for Nigerians to adopt gas as a cleaner means of cooking. But the growing number of domestic gas explosions indicate the need

for an enlightenment campaign to ensure those who handle gas always abide by safety procedures. In an incident that is typical of the carelessness often associated with many homes, a female domestic help in Epe, Lagos, turned on the gas and left to chat outside. By the time she returned to light up the gas, the kitchen was suffused with chemicals. The resultant fire and explosion consumed her and many neighbours. There are also cases

 of illegal gas refilling plants domiciled in highly inflammable areas. So, both ignorance and greed have always played a big role in many of the tragic occurrences concerning domestic gas accidents.  

While the list of these accidents is long, they have become mere statistics in Nigeria such that many would have viewed the CNG incident in Edo State as ‘insignificant’, especially since no life was lost. Yet, that gas has progressively become the source of death and bodily injuries for users and innocent bystanders is what should worry critical stakeholders. It is for instance important to educate households on the need to gradually replace their metal gas cylinders with fibre cylinders, said to be highly fire-resistant. The promise to phase out and replace the gas cylinders in circulation with more advanced ones should also be hastened. Some households have been using the same cylinder for upwards of three decades. That practice could be very dangerous.

However, more concerning is the issue of safety standards and regulatory oversight in the CNG conversion programme. Earlier in the year, when the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, visited the scene of a CNG truck explosion at Ita-Oshin, Abeokuta, Ogun State, he recounted a similar explosion involving another CNG-powered vehicle in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The Ogun State incident  claimed one life, while no fewer than six vehicles and two shops were burnt. We consider these to be wake-up calls for authorities in the sector. CNG conversion should not be another harbinger of death in Nigeria.

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 RENEWED HOPE AT TETFUND

 There is a renewed confidence in the activities of the funding agency, writes ADAMS ABONU

With widespread economic apprehension pervading the polity, the need to prudently manage Nigeria’s common patrimony becomes the more pertinent. A bogus public sector and its attendant consequences demands that resources allocation should be done in a manner that returns value to the national economy. This is why the current disposition of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to device strategies that nip profligacy in the bud and institutionalize a culture of prudence comes to proper perspective. 

Since coming on board, President Bola Tinubu has not only shown a somewhat commitment towards enhancing national revival through novel policy redirection, the administration also appears poised to leave indelible footprints in the bid to place Nigeria ahead within the comity of nations. What remains to be seen is how these reforms would transform to common good for a beleaguered citizenry.  

Among numerous interventions by the Tinubu administration recently in the national scheme of things, the initiative to put tertiary institutions as a solution provider for myriad national challenges indicates that there is a renewed hope in the development trajectory of the country. At a time when tertiary education is the preoccupation of most development pundits in Nigeria and elsewhere around the world, it is expected that the impact indicator of TETFUND, the government agency with the core responsibility of harnessing infrastructural advancement in public (and private) higher institutions of learning, be accorded adequate attention. This reporter took it upon himself to level-up with development effort at the Fund through the course of recent months, prompting this article, which aims at highlighting the intervention strategies and the innovations brought on board by the incumbent dispensation at TETFUND and the need for President Tinubu to sustain this verve in the interest of national development.

Since he assumed the responsibility of steering affairs of TETFUND as Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono has brought commensurate confidence and a sense of accountability in funds disbursement. With his robust background in public procurement, the erstwhile civil servant who rose to the pinnacle of service has revived the confidence of Nigerians in the funding agency with his innovations and up-to-date strategies. The new helmsman brought to the job a robust wealth of experience in infrastructural development, public procurement management and a drive towards information technology and innovation, having identified these as crucial ingredients in meeting the challenges of global competitiveness.

For want of emphasis on the immediate preoccupation of the incumbent management of TETFUND, certain instances could suffice. Take a recent partnership with the Research For Innovation (R4i), an innovation incubation hub, that saw the training and harnessing of innovative potential from Polytechnics across the federation in a bootcamp for an instance. The training was directed at developing home-grown solutions to different technological challenges cutting across health, education, utility and other strategic sectors. Participants at the innovation camp which included lecturers, could not hide their excitement in being part of a process that could engender productivity.

Then consider the sound idea of National Research Fund initiated by the Fund to harness research and innovation prospects from scholars. This idea has seen the disbursement of over 23 billion naira to sponsor more than 900 development researches across various tertiary institutions of learning and further enhancing Nigeria’s development aspirations. These research proposals were vetted by TETFUND’s National Research Funds Screening and Monitoring Committee which recommended the funding of researches with good potential. The refocus on research and innovation by the incumbent leadership of TETFUND is not only timely but also a reorientation that should stand the tests of modern times.

Some of the approved research works under the Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation thematic group include Application of Hydro-Biochemical Framework to Develop a National Rural Water Quality Assurance Plan for Sustainable Water Quality Management in Nigeria, Development of Intelligent Multichamber Evaporative Cooling Preservative System for Post-Harvest Storage

of Selected Fruits in Nigeria; Development of

Electric Vehicles with Tracking System Features, among other resounding research ideas. Approval was also given for the Utilization of Scrap Tyres and Plastic Wastes as Aggregate Conductive materials for Renewable Energy Storage System, Digital Financing Inclusions under Cross-Cutting thematic group. A cursory observation with the approved research endeavours would indicate a common objective of meeting development challenges.

The Fund has revealed that this innovations that meet everyday challenges will be exhibited at Eagle Square in November. This affords the nation a chance to measure investments in the educational sector through the Education Tax Fund as this would bring researchers, inventors and creators to share their cutting-edge projects and productive ideas and innovations. 

Another recent giant stride in TETFUND’s bid to improve tertiary instruction in Nigeria is the equal drive being accorded physical infrastructure. It is now a common sight in public institutions to see that a proportionate portion of new building carry the Fund’s support logo. When ES Echono revealed sometime ago when he played host to the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) that hostels are to be built across campuses for students’ to address accommodation shortfalls, it was a testament to consolidate on the gains already achieved in this direction. With the Executive Secretary inculcating the students, who are the major beneficiaries of these projects in monitoring their implementations, TETFUND has demonstrated exemplary pragmatism.

‘’This year, we shall provide hostels for students in 36 tertiary institutions. We realise that the places where our students live are so deplorable. We also realise that only about 15 percent of our students are staying on campus while the rest stay outside the campuses, climbing Okada many times during the rains.

‘’These hostels will not be matchboxes and shanties but will be solid buildings that can attract students from anywhere in the world,’’ Echono stated while also hinting that work was in progress to provide free internet for students in public and private tertiary institutions to enhance qualitative learning.

When governors from different states and across different political parties ta ke their turns and come in their numbers to a particular agency of government, it could mean they found a treasure of value in such place. These courtesy visits by various state’s governors to the leadership of TETFUND to seek further support for states-owned tertiary institutions also reveals the widespread acceptability of the development initiatives being implemented. As at the last count, no fewer than 20 state governors have taken their turns to come to TETFUND with each showering encomiums on the development strides of the funding agency and the sagacity of the executive secretary. In one of such visits, Bauchi State’s Bala Mohammed didn’t just ask for the Fund’s intervention in tertiary institutions owned by the state but also hailed the managerial acumen of Echono, whom the governor described as a bright spot of the Tinubu administration.

On entrenching accountability and prudence in resources management, TETFUND under Echono has continued to set benchmarks of integrity. The innovation in project supervising and management needs sustaining and deserves accolades. 

In a remark in Lagos recently during a retreat for the newly constituted Bello Masari-led Board of Trustees of the Fund, Echono had charged heads of beneficiary institutions to ensure prompt and quality implementation of projects to enhance qualitative educational environment. 

While stressing that the demands are crucial for enhancing institutions that can compete on a global scale, the ES also indicated that efficient supervision remained the fulcrum of this expectations. 

Strategies like signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Blackboard Scheme, Supervisory Frameworks speaks to the preparedness of the Fund to engender prudent management of scarce resources. This should rightly occupy the interest of any well-meaning pundit. 

Numerous recognition of TETFUND’s impact continued to accumulate from civil societies, students, teachers’ and recently the African Leadership Magazine which honoured Echono at the House of Lords in London for his “dynamic innovations.” 

With President Tinubu’s directives that 30 percent of TETFUND’S budgeting be dedicated to the Students Loans Program, the times couldn’t be more auspicious to institutionalize prudence. It’s a good thing that Echono and his team is championing this noble course.