Dear Daddy,

Our federal government says it is working on getting the country "uninterrupted power supply" in 50 YEARS' time! Then, as a mark of its seriousness about economic development, it will take them 25 YEARS to link the north and the south with just THREE rail lines! And this does not include an East-West line which common sense dictates, and all Nigerians have for long been loudly clamouring for!

If a country as large and populated as ours lacks electricity and railways, not to talk of inland waterways transportation, how can the economy grow? Yet, for several years now, they've been self-applauding their economic performance! We wonder. Real ponder.

I sympathize with the federal planners. They have run out of steam, and deserve our persistent prayers. Most of the road projects they've embarked on are still crawling to completion. Yet, they have just a few months (out of two 4-year terms) to leave office! Amazing.

Ditto our federal parliament. It has always waited on the executive branch for all things! And this imperial executive patently savoured its primacy, its prerogative.

After spending (is it squandering?) eight years on "macro-economic" reforms, they have finally made the earth-shattering discovery that no economy can successfully prosper without a very robust railway network - anchoring its inter-modal transportation system!!!

When the president was reading his speech on the subject, in a national broadcast, I was pretty convinced that he must be quite convinced - in his heart of hearts - that only his speechwriters and hangers-on will ever bother. Not many else, I don't think.

In the end, only one question lingered: Is this a joke, or what?

The campaigns will tell.

Take care
Dayo