Wednesday, 22 November 2017
Friday, 26 May 2017
Mark Zuckerberg's speech to Harvard's graduating Class of 2017
Zukerberg's speech which was on purpose revealed how he met Priscilla, whom he calls the most important person in his life. The Facebook CEO also touched on some current issues. At some point in his speech, Mark Zuckerberg became emotional, and at the end he received a standing ovation from the crowd.
It was indeed a beautiful speech by Zuckerberg.
President Faust, Board of Overseers, faculty, alumni, friends, proud parents, members of the ad board, and graduates of the greatest university in the world,
I’m honored to be with you today because, let’s face it, you accomplished something I never could. If I get through this speech, it’ll be the first time I actually finish something at Harvard. Class of 2017, congratulations!
I’m an unlikely speaker, not just because I dropped out, but because we’re technically in the same generation. We walked this yard less than a decade apart, studied the same ideas and slept through the same Ec10 lectures. We may have taken different paths to get here, especially if you came all the way from the Quad, but today I want to share what I’ve learned about our generation and the world we’re building together.
But first, the last couple of days have brought back a lot of good memories.
How many of you remember exactly what you were doing when you got that email telling you that you got into Harvard? I was playing Civilization and I ran downstairs, got my dad, and for some reason, his reaction was to video me opening the email. That could have been a really sad video. I swear getting into Harvard is still the thing my parents are most proud of me for.
What about your first lecture at Harvard? Mine was Computer Science 121 with the incredible Harry Lewis. I was late so I threw on a t-shirt and didn’t realize until afterwards it was inside out and backwards with my tag sticking out the front. I couldn’t figure out why no one would talk to me — except one guy, KX Jin, he just went with it. We ended up doing our problem sets together, and now he runs a big part of Facebook. And that, Class of 2017, is why you should be nice to people.
But my best memory from Harvard was meeting Priscilla. I had just launched this prank website Facemash, and the ad board wanted to “see me”. Everyone thought I was going to get kicked out. My parents came to help me pack. My friends threw me a going away party. As luck would have it, Priscilla was at that party with her friend. We met in line for the bathroom in the Pfoho Belltower, and in what must be one of the all time romantic lines, I said: “I’m going to get kicked out in three days, so we need to go on a date quickly.”
Actually, any of you graduating can use that line.
I didn’t end up getting kicked out — I did that to myself. Priscilla and I started dating. And, you know, that movie made it seem like Facemash was so important to creating Facebook. It wasn’t. But without Facemash I wouldn’t have met Priscilla, and she’s the most important person in my life, so you could say it was the most important thing I built in my time here.
We’ve all started lifelong friendships here, and some of us even families. That’s why I’m so grateful to this place. Thanks, Harvard.
Today I want to talk about purpose. But I’m not here to give you the standard commencement about finding your purpose. We’re millennials. We’ll try to do that instinctively. Instead, I’m here to tell you finding your purpose isn’t enough. The challenge for our generation is creating a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.
One of my favorite stories is when John F Kennedy visited the NASA space center, he saw a janitor carrying a broom and he walked over and asked what he was doing. The janitor responded: “Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon”.
Purpose is that sense that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, that we are needed, that we have something better ahead to work for. Purpose is what creates true happiness.
You’re graduating at a time when this is especially important. When our parents graduated, purpose reliably came from your job, your church, your community. But today, technology and automation are eliminating many jobs. Membership in communities is declining. Many people feel disconnected and depressed, and are trying to fill a void.
As I’ve traveled around, I’ve sat with children in juvenile detention and opioid addicts, who told me their lives could have turned out differently if they just had something to do, an after school program or somewhere to go. I’ve met factory workers who know their old jobs aren’t coming back and are trying to find their place.
To keep our society moving forward, we have a generational challenge — to not only create new jobs, but create a renewed sense of purpose.
I remember the night I launched Facebook from my little dorm in Kirkland House. I went to Noch’s with my friend KX. I remember telling him I was excited to connect the Harvard community, but one day someone would connect the whole world.
The thing is, it never even occurred to me that someone might be us. We were just college kids. We didn’t know anything about that. There were all these big technology companies with resources. I just assumed one of them would do it. But this idea was so clear to us — that all people want to connect. So we just kept moving forward, day by day.
I know a lot of you will have your own stories just like this. A change in the world that seems so clear you’re sure someone else will do it. But they won’t. You will.
But it’s not enough to have purpose yourself. You have to create a sense of purpose for others.
I found that out the hard way. You see, my hope was never to build a company, but to make an impact. And as all these people started joining us, I just assumed that’s what they cared about too, so I never explained what I hoped we’d build.
A couple years in, some big companies wanted to buy us. I didn’t want to sell. I wanted to see if we could connect more people. We were building the first News Feed, and I thought if we could just launch this, it could change how we learn about the world.
Nearly everyone else wanted to sell. Without a sense of higher purpose, this was the startup dream come true. It tore our company apart. After one tense argument, an advisor told me if I didn’t agree to sell, I would regret the decision for the rest of my life. Relationships were so frayed that within a year or so every single person on the management team was gone.
That was my hardest time leading Facebook. I believed in what we were doing, but I felt alone. And worse, it was my fault. I wondered if I was just wrong, an imposter, a 22 year-old kid who had no idea how the world worked.
Now, years later, I understand that *is* how things work with no sense of higher purpose. It’s up to us to create it so we can all keep moving forward together.
Today I want to talk about three ways to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose: by taking on big meaningful projects together, by redefining equality so everyone has the freedom to pursue purpose, and by building community across the world.
First, let’s take on big meaningful projects.
Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks. But we have the potential to do so much more together.
Every generation has its defining works. More than 300,000 people worked to put a man on the moon – including that janitor. Millions of volunteers immunized children around the world against polio. Millions of more people built the Hoover dam and other great projects.
These projects didn’t just provide purpose for the people doing those jobs, they gave our whole country a sense of pride that we could do great things.
Now it’s our turn to do great things. I know, you’re probably thinking: I don’t know how to build a dam, or get a million people involved in anything.
But let me tell you a secret: no one does when they begin. Ideas don’t come out fully formed. They only become clear as you work on them. You just have to get started.
If I had to understand everything about connecting people before I began, I never would have started Facebook.
Movies and pop culture get this all wrong. The idea of a single eureka moment is a dangerous lie. It makes us feel inadequate since we haven’t had ours. It prevents people with seeds of good ideas from getting started. Oh, you know what else movies get wrong about innovation? No one writes math formulas on glass. That’s not a thing.
It’s good to be idealistic. But be prepared to be misunderstood. Anyone working on a big vision will get called crazy, even if you end up right. Anyone working on a complex problem will get blamed for not fully understanding the challenge, even though it’s impossible to know everything upfront. Anyone taking initiative will get criticized for moving too fast, because there’s always someone who wants to slow you down.
In our society, we often don’t do big things because we’re so afraid of making mistakes that we ignore all the things wrong today if we do nothing. The reality is, anything we do will have issues in the future. But that can’t keep us from starting.
So what are we waiting for? It’s time for our generation-defining public works. How about stopping climate change before we destroy the planet and getting millions of people involved manufacturing and installing solar panels? How about curing all diseases and asking volunteers to track their health data and share their genomes? Today we spend 50x more treating people who are sick than we spend finding cures so people don’t get sick in the first place. That makes no sense. We can fix this. How about modernizing democracy so everyone can vote online, and personalizing education so everyone can learn?
These achievements are within our reach. Let’s do them all in a way that gives everyone in our society a role. Let’s do big things, not only to create progress, but to create purpose.
So taking on big meaningful projects is the first thing we can do to create a world where everyone has a sense of purpose.
The second is redefining equality to give everyone the freedom they need to pursue purpose.
Many of our parents had stable jobs throughout their careers. Now we’re all entrepreneurial, whether we’re starting projects or finding or role. And that’s great. Our culture of entrepreneurship is how we create so much progress.
Now, an entrepreneurial culture thrives when it’s easy to try lots of new ideas. Facebook wasn’t the first thing I built. I also built games, chat systems, study tools and music players. I’m not alone. JK Rowling got rejected 12 times before publishing Harry Potter. Even Beyonce had to make hundreds of songs to get Halo. The greatest successes come from having the freedom to fail.
But today, we have a level of wealth inequality that hurts everyone. When you don’t have the freedom to take your idea and turn it into a historic enterprise, we all lose. Right now our society is way over-indexed on rewarding success and we don’t do nearly enough to make it easy for everyone to take lots of shots.
Let’s face it. There is something wrong with our system when I can leave here and make billions of dollars in 10 years while millions of students can’t afford to pay off their loans, let alone start a business.
Look, I know a lot of entrepreneurs, and I don’t know a single person who gave up on starting a business because they might not make enough money. But I know lots of people who haven’t pursued dreams because they didn’t have a cushion to fall back on if they failed.
We all know we don’t succeed just by having a good idea or working hard. We succeed by being lucky too. If I had to support my family growing up instead of having time to code, if I didn’t know I’d be fine if Facebook didn’t work out, I wouldn’t be standing here today. If we’re honest, we all know how much luck we’ve had.
Every generation expands its definition of equality. Previous generations fought for the vote and civil rights. They had the New Deal and Great Society. Now it’s our time to define a new social contract for our generation.
We should have a society that measures progress not just by economic metrics like GDP, but by how many of us have a role we find meaningful. We should explore ideas like universal basic income to give everyone a cushion to try new things. We’re going to change jobs many times, so we need affordable childcare to get to work and healthcare that aren’t tied to one company. We’re all going to make mistakes, so we need a society that focuses less on locking us up or stigmatizing us. And as technology keeps changing, we need to focus more on continuous education throughout our lives.
And yes, giving everyone the freedom to pursue purpose isn’t free. People like me should pay for it. Many of you will do well and you should too.
That’s why Priscilla and I started the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and committed our wealth to promoting equal opportunity. These are the values of our generation. It was never a question of if we were going to do this. The only question was when.
Millennials are already one of the most charitable generations in history. In one year, three of four US millennials made a donation and seven out of ten raised money for charity.
But it’s not just about money. You can also give time. I promise you, if you take an hour or two a week — that’s all it takes to give someone a hand, to help them reach their potential.
Maybe you think that’s too much time. I used to. When Priscilla graduated from Harvard she became a teacher, and before she’d do education work with me, she told me I needed to teach a class. I complained: “Well, I’m kind of busy. I’m running this company.” But she insisted, so I taught a middle school program on entrepreneurship at the local Boys and Girls Club.
I taught them lessons on product development and marketing, and they taught me what it’s like feeling targeted for your race and having a family member in prison. I shared stories from my time in school, and they shared their hope of one day going to college too. For five years now, I’ve been having dinner with those kids every month. One of them threw me and Priscilla our first baby shower. And next year they’re going to college. Every one of them. First in their families.
We can all make time to give someone a hand. Let’s give everyone the freedom to pursue their purpose — not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because when more people can turn their dreams into something great, we’re all better for it.
Purpose doesn’t only come from work. The third way we can create a sense of purpose for everyone is by building community. And when our generation says “everyone”, we mean everyone in the world.
Quick show of hands: how many of you are from another country? Now, how many of you are friends with one of these folks? Now we’re talking. We have grown up connected.
In a survey asking millennials around the world what defines our identity, the most popular answer wasn’t nationality, religion or ethnicity, it was “citizen of the world”. That’s a big deal.
Every generation expands the circle of people we consider “one of us”. For us, it now encompasses the entire world.
We understand the great arc of human history bends towards people coming together in ever greater numbers — from tribes to cities to nations — to achieve things we couldn’t on our own.
We get that our greatest opportunities are now global — we can be the generation that ends poverty, that ends disease. We get that our greatest challenges need global responses too — no country can fight climate change alone or prevent pandemics. Progress now requires coming together not just as cities or nations, but also as a global community.
But we live in an unstable time. There are people left behind by globalization across the world. It’s hard to care about people in other places if we don’t feel good about our lives here at home. There’s pressure to turn inwards.
This is the struggle of our time. The forces of freedom, openness and global community against the forces of authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism. Forces for the flow of knowledge, trade and immigration against those who would slow them down. This is not a battle of nations, it’s a battle of ideas. There are people in every country for global connection and good people against it.
This isn’t going to be decided at the UN either. It’s going to happen at the local level, when enough of us feel a sense of purpose and stability in our own lives that we can open up and start caring about everyone. The best way to do that is to start building local communities right now.
We all get meaning from our communities. Whether our communities are houses or sports teams, churches or music groups, they give us that sense we are part of something bigger, that we are not alone; they give us the strength to expand our horizons.
That’s why it’s so striking that for decades, membership in all kinds of groups has declined as much as one-quarter. That’s a lot of people who now need to find purpose somewhere else.
But I know we can rebuild our communities and start new ones because many of you already are.
I met Agnes Igoye, who’s graduating today. Where are you, Agnes? She spent her childhood navigating conflict zones in Uganda, and now she trains thousands of law enforcement officers to keep communities safe.
I met Kayla Oakley and Niha Jain, graduating today, too. Stand up. Kayla and Niha started a non-profit that connects people suffering from illnesses with people in their communities willing to help.
I met David Razu Aznar, graduating from the Kennedy School today. David, stand up. He’s a former city councilor who successfully led the battle to make Mexico City the first Latin American city to pass marriage equality — even before San Francisco.
This is my story too. A student in a dorm room, connecting one community at a time, and keeping at it until one day we connect the whole world.
Change starts local. Even global changes start small — with people like us. In our generation, the struggle of whether we connect more, whether we achieve our biggest opportunities, comes down to this — your ability to build communities and create a world where every single person has a sense of purpose.
Class of 2017, you are graduating into a world that needs purpose. It’s up to you to create it.
Now, you may be thinking: can I really do this?
Remember when I told you about that class I taught at the Boys and Girls Club? One day after class I was talking to them about college, and one of my top students raised his hand and said he wasn’t sure he could go because he’s undocumented. He didn’t know if they’d let him in.
Last year I took him out to breakfast for his birthday. I wanted to get him a present, so I asked him and he started talking about students he saw struggling and said “You know, I’d really just like a book on social justice.”
I was blown away. Here’s a young guy who has every reason to be cynical. He didn’t know if the country he calls home — the only one he’s known — would deny him his dream of going to college. But he wasn’t feeling sorry for himself. He wasn’t even thinking of himself. He has a greater sense of purpose, and he’s going to bring people along with him.
It says something about our current situation that I can’t even say his name because I don’t want to put him at risk. But if a high school senior who doesn’t know what the future holds can do his part to move the world forward, then we owe it to the world to do our part too.
Before you walk out those gates one last time, as we sit in front of Memorial Church, I am reminded of a prayer, Mi Shebeirach, that I say whenever I face a challenge, that I sing to my daughter thinking about her future when I tuck her into bed. It goes:
“May the source of strength, who blessed the ones before us, help us *find the courage* to make our lives a blessing.”
I hope you find the courage to make your life a blessing.
Congratulations, Class of ’17! Good luck out there.
Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/05/mark-zuckerbergs-speech-as-written-for-harvards-class-of-2017/
You can watch Mark Zukerberg give his Commencement Speech in the video below
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Oyoyo by Axel Joe
Thursday, 11 May 2017
Lifelong Learning: What? Why? How?
Thursday, 23 March 2017
Thursday, 24 November 2016
Scorecard of Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola
As part of activities to mark his one year in office, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, addressed a press conference where he listed the gains of the three ministries under his watch. Read the text of his address below
Ladies and Gentlemen, Our memories will recall that on 11th November 2015, Mr. President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR, concluded the process of constituting his cabinet by administering the oath of office on ministers.
I was assigned to consolidate a newly merged ministry of Power Works and Housing, shortly after which I briefed members of the public and the press about our plans, in my maiden press briefing tagged “Setting The Agenda.”
While some of the assumptions may have altered somewhat about the timing of the budget, a budget was eventually signed into law on Friday 6th May 2016 (6 months ago) and we have set about implementing the budget of N260.082B with releases of N70B made in June (for Quarter I) and N60B made in October (for Quarter II)
It is now exactly a year since we were sworn into office, and I believe it is an appropriate time to acquaint you with our progress of work.
Because 3 (THREE) ministries are involved, I will dwell on summaries in order to manage time, but from time to time I will highlight some details whenever they are necessary to explain a point and to reinforce our commitment to remain accountable to you, our employers.
1. WORKS:
This ministry as we all know is responsible for civil Works especially the construction of roads, bridges, buildings and other similar civil engineering undertakings.
As I mentioned during my briefing on the agenda setting, we had inherited about 206 road projects already contracted out; with outstanding completion costs in the region of N1.5 Trillion.
Although the works ministry share of the 2016 appropriation was N260 Billion, which was a lot more than the 2015 budget of only N18 Billion that the last administration left, it is a drop in the ocean against the liabilities that were outstanding to contractors.
Our interactions with contractors showed that many of them had not been paid for an average of 2 to 3 years before we resumed, and this explained the stoppage of works, by the contractors, the layoff of workers, and consequently poor condition of many roads.
With limited resources against liabilities, with debts already owed, we had to make difficult choices of deciding which of the 206 roads under contract we should start with, and how many.
Our choices were informed by the realities of our economy and the size of our resources,
We resolved that all roads are economic roads but that some were more urgent and more impactful than others.
So our choices were determined by roads that carried the heaviest cargo, to allow farmers, businessman, industries and travelers move their goods and themselves across the country in order to drive productive activity.
Secondly, we chose roads that support our energy sufficiency and put our resources in roads leading to and from petroleum tank farms so that we can move petro, diesel and kerosene across Nigeria.
We also chose roads that led to and from our major sea and airports so that maritime business can go on, to drive the economy.
Therefore, we re-mobilized contractors back to work on roads across the 6 (SIX) Geo-Political zones, with the list provided in Annexure I to this brief which I will leave with you.
Some important roads in this category are:
– The Port Harcourt- Aba Road, where mobilization was delayed until Monday 31st October because of rains, and the difficulty of establishing a works yard.
– Sokoto – Tambuwal – Makera-Kontagara Road where work is going on, – (Sokoto-Kebbi-Niger States)
– Ilorin-Jebba Road, – (Kwara State)
– Loko-Oweto Bridge, – ( Nasarawa/Benue States)
– Shagamu- Ibadan , – (Oyo-Ogun State)
– Shagamu – Lagos, – (Lagos-Ogun State)
– Ogbomosho-Oko-Ilogbo-Osogbo , -(Oyo-
Osun State)
– Funtua-Katsina , -(Katsina State)
– Wukari-Akwana , – (Taraba State)
– Abriba –Arochukwu – Ohafia , – (Abia State)
– Abuja – Lokoja – Airport , – (FCT/ Kogi State)
– Oji-Achi-Obeagu-Mmaku-Awgu-Ndeaboh-Mpu-Okpanku , -(Enugu State)
– Ajase Ipo – Offa – Erinle – Osun State Boundary , – (Kwara State)
– Ikot Ekpene Border- Aba – Owerri Dualisation , – (Akwa Ibom/Abia and Imo States)
We also paid consultants who are supervising these roads and had been denied payment for 2 to 3 years. This has helped to recover lost jobs, and put some money back in circulation, as part of a government strategy to build out of this recession.
As I said during our first briefing, our short-term objectives are to complete uncompleted road contracts, restore motorability back to as many roads as possible, improve journey times and reduce the cost of travel for commuters.
This has clearly started on the roads I have spoken about; and the results will accrue as progress on the works improve over time and the roads are completed.
In the medium to long term, we intend to cover more roads as our resources permit, and increase our maintenance capacity of road assets to ensure that we do not neglect our highways again in the manner we have done over the years to our collective detriment.
The first step to maintenance is to restore the authority of all the states controllers of works, to charge them to take responsibility for all federal roads within their states posting, and to bring up an annual budget that will be submitted to Parliament.
This will help us decentralize authority over road maintenance, vest responsibility on the people who are on ground and closer to the Roads so that they can resurface damaged roads, clear over-grown vegetation, enforce axle-load compliance, install signs and lane marking and gradually restore our highways back to contemporary quality.
2. 2017 AND BEYOND – WORKS:
Going forward in 2017, we have developed proposals for the budget to intervene in critical roads in the 6 (SIX) Geo-political zones that lead to and from major food producing states based on information supplied by the Ministry of Agriculture.
We plan to do the same for states that produce minerals from mining activity, and for states where we have strategic fuel depots.
For decades, we have paid almost no attention to bridges built across the country as though they are indestructible.
We are beginning to see erosion, stress, and in some cases failures and near collapse in Kano (Tamburawa), Lagos (Ijora), Kogi (Lokoja) Ogun (Long bridge on Lagos-Ibadan) Kaduna (Jaji) and other places.
Although we have started some work in a few places, we have only about N2 Billion to work in the 2016 budget.
We have nonetheless developed a 3 (THREE) year plan to cover 42 (Forty-Two) bridges that will require about N277 Billion authorization by Parliament over the period.
I must also point out that we received representation from parliamentarians about roads in their constituencies and from the monthly FRSC reports all of which have been factored into our next three-year plan.
How far we go, how much we get and how much we can do, now depends on how much money the country can get, and how much she gets approval to spend.
3. POWER:
Following the privatization in 2013, the ministry is now largely a policymaker, and regulator through NERC [Nigerian electricity regulatory commission] and is now only directly responsible for expansion and maintenance of the transmission line through (TCN) and completion of projects started before the privatization which were uncompleted and about which I will share a few details.
The story in power is not different from that of works in terms of uncompleted projects in transmission.
As I said in my meeting briefly, we inherited over 100 transmission projects for which contractors were not paid for about three years.
This not only resulted in stoppage of work, laying off of workers, but left projects uncompleted.
But it also resulted in contractors abandoning over 800 containers, which contained transformers, switches, panels and other equipment needed as materials to complete transmission projects because they could not pay for them.
To compound the situation there was no provision in the budget of 2015 to pay them as only N5 Billion was budgeted for the Ministry of Power.
All this has changed. The ministry has N24 Billion for 2016 and has started paying contractors and getting the necessary approvals for them to return to work.
Examples of these are in Sokoto, Maiduguri, Okada, Alagbon, Damboa, Nasarawa, Gurara, Osogbo, Kashimbilla, Kumbotso, Ikot Ikpene to mention a few.
This puts a lie to the narrative that the transmission grid is static at 5000 MW and is not expanding because these projects add to the capacity.
Furthermore, with the budget we have started paying the shipping companies and warehouse owners who kept custody of the containers, and the report I received last week indicates that a first batch of about 400 containers will be released to contractors to go out and do their work.
In addition to transmission, we are working to complete uncompleted power generation projects to deliver on the incremental power program of our roadmap of incremental, steady and uninterrupted power.
Some of the projects that should start coming to conclusion in 2017 are the 215 MW Kaduna Power, 40 MW Kashimbilla Power (Hydro), 40 MW Gurara I Power (Hydro), 29 MW Dadin Kowa Power (Hydro), 10 MW Katsina Power (Wind) 1,125 MW (14 Solar projects) and the 240 MW Emergency Power Project for Afam (Gas).
We are working with the generation companies to increase their power generation capacity through repairs and maintenance.
Egbin has restored all its turbines even though it has suffered a gas outage as a result of vandalization.
Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro have increased the number of functional turbines, so they are producing 300 MW extra power during this year’s rainy season, more than they did last year.
As at 5 November 2016, reports reaching me from the control center showed a peak generation of 4010 MW, and this is without the 3000 MW lost to gas pipe vandalization.
I am aware that efforts are in progress to repair and restore the damaged gas pipelines, and also to fast-track emergency gas supply.
Government has also recently provided a guarantee to ensure supply of gas to Calabar power plant, which has power and transmission, but no gas to operate efficiently.
On the distribution side, we continue to work with the DisCos to improve their customer service and in particular meters supply.
As you heard on a recent TV program hosted by Channels TV called ‘The Crux’ some of the local meter manufacturing companies attest now to improvement in orders to supply of meters.
As you will have also seen, I have been involved in meter distribution flag offs in Kano, Benin and Sokoto.
All told, while there is still work to do, and there is the big problem of liquidity to overcome, the promise ahead looks good, the plans are clear and our resolve to implement is unwavering.
4. 2017 AND BEYOND – POWER:
Going forward we intend to roll out our Rural Electrification Implementation program which Mr. President has now approved as required by the law.
Our objective is to improve access to power for rural communities.
You will have heard of our education intervention project, which is indeed a rural electrification implementation project.
We are using universities as one of the anchors because they are in rural areas and they represent a quick way to penetrate the rural areas and also expand to villages and towns in rural areas, close to the Universities.
We are starting with 37 federal universities, seven teaching hospitals, to which we plan to deploy 37 independent power plants of nine gas plants, and 28 solar plants to guarantee a cumulative 120 MW, to replace 1,105 generators that are producing a wasteful 210 MW.
We have done the audits and planning of all the schools and if we get financing authorization we can implement, to provide access to power to our people in the rural areas.
The second anchor of our Rural intervention is the use of small Hydro dams; that are in the rural areas to support agriculture and Agro processing by providing power.
The approval for the first 6 (SIX) is pending for consideration by the Federal Executive Council.
All of these sources of power, with embedded power from Paras Energy 40 MW gas in Lagos, the expected completion of Azura power in Edo, expected gas supply to Ihorbor Gas power plant, Gegeru power, Olorunsogo, Omotosho, Gbarain and others make me hopeful that we can get incremental power.
How well we do with making the incremental power steady and ultimately uninterrupted will depend on how we as a people resolve issues like vandalization, electricity theft, electricity conservation, invocation of court powers in utility regulation and of course strikes.
5. HOUSING:
We have not yet started constructing houses. But tenders have been considered and over 500 contracts are now ready to be issued for work to start in earnest.
However, we have received land from 27 (TWENTY-SEVEN) states as at 24th October and more are still responding.
We have completed simple designs of one, two and three-bedroom bungalows for the northern states to respond to the cultural, climatic and land use peculiarities.
We have completed simple designs of one, two and three bedroom blocks of Flats for Southern states also in response to similar peculiarities.
We have identified inputs like doors, windows, tiles, paint, roofing materials that can be made locally and we have resolved to use only made in Nigeria inputs unless there is no local production capacity.
We have done some inventory of quantities of materials needed in order to provide investment information for local manufacturers to position to respond and supply in order to create employment and get factories back to work.
These include:
A) Materials
i) 22,288 – Doors
ii) 27,849 – Windows
iii) 3,502 – Water cisterns
iv) 3,502 Wash hand basins
v) 2,830 – Kitchen Sinks
vi) 261,299 – Sq. Meters of floor tiles
vii) 178, 680 – Sq. meters of wall tiles
viii) 561,119 litres of paint
ix) 342,960 Sq. Meters of roofing material
B) Skilled Labour
413,000 Man days
C) Unskilled Labour
440,000 – Man Days
While our planning and research continues, the above is at least indicative of the kind of attention and dedication we are demanding of our staff and the response we are getting.
6. 2017 AND BEYOND – HOUSING:
Going forward in 2017, we plan to build more houses first to stimulate jobs.
Thereafter, we plan to assess the affordability and the acceptability of our designs.
Thereafter, we plan to industrialize the production of the most affordable and acceptable designs.
We will then increase supply using private sector as developers while government will then concentrate on strengthening institutions like the Federal Mortgage Bank to deliver on its core mandate of providing mortgages to working class people to own their homes.
It is my belief that if we can achieve this, the size of our housing deficit will not appear that daunting again, because it will be a system that can respond every year, instead of once in a while, to repeat housing construction, delivery and acquisition.
How much we can then deliver will be defined by the size of our resources and our ambition, and not by the absence of a workable plan.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am done. I thank you for listening.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing