Electric Cars: The Future of Driving

Cars have come a long way from their initial designs, capability and utilities. The development of internal combustion engines in the 18th century preceded the production of the first car credited to Karl Benz in 1886. These pioneer vehicles which had pretty simplistic designs were concerned more with functionality and durability.

1938 Horch Cabriolet

Over the years these cars (ICE's) which have become a very popular means of transportation throughout the world have improved significantly offering owners additional features for luxury and comfort such as air conditioners, rear parking cameras, GPS..etc just to name a few. However, the evolution of cars has moved a step further with the advent of electric vehicles (EV's), and more than ever since the inception of the idea for electric powered vehicles, it is seen now as a viable and possible alternative to the present vehicles which run on fossil fuel.

These EV's do not have engines but are powered by front and rear motors which do not run on fuel or diesel but on electricity which is stored in batteries, enabling the cars to be charged like a mobile phone right in your homes. 

Tesla Model S

The EV,s come with all the luxury that cars could possibly have in this age. (Check out the features of Tesla Model S) Car manufacturers who produce vehicles with ICE's such as GM, Toyota, Chevrolet,etc. are also in the race for electric vehicles and this could partly be because of the effect of global warming in different parts of world which results in the melting ice caps, heat waves, tsunamis and other catastrophic events. These events have had an adverse effect on plant and animal life on our planet.In view of these issues, a number of countries especially in Europe have adopted environmental laws and even implemented taxes which is aimed at reducing the amount of carbon emissions, charging person's with vehicles with a higher CO2 emission a higher rate of tax.

Tesla Model X

So, producing cars which are not powered by fossil fuel has become a priority for a number of car manufacturers, and in the lead (taking publicity into consideration ) of this revolution is TESLA who has invested a lot in perfecting the electric vehicle technology.The question here however is, what does this technology portend for Nigeria? Where Giant industry's like Tesla are investing in technologies that would render crude oil potentially unimportant.Though the need for energy worldwide is enormous, but other alternative sources are becoming more viable and so Nigeria may likely be in a crisis in the near future if the country does not break its over dependence on oil and start improving other sectors of the economy which can generate revenue for the country.

According to the freedom fuel foundation countries like Norway and Netherlands have a target, that by 2025 they would stop the sale of fuel or diesel powered vehicles and replace them with electric vehicles (EV). Germany and India have similar plans but place their targets at 2030. Most likely others countries would follow suite and soon the global demand for crude oil will drop.So!! what happens when the investments made globally towards alternative energy source starts yielding positive fruits? How would a Nigerian government who is reluctant to cut down it's expenses fund it's activities? Would the tax burden on the citizens then be increased? Food for thought people.

The Police : Crisis in Ikorodu

The duty of protecting the lives and property of citizens in usually the responsibility of the police anywhere in the world. However the recent events playing out in the Ikorodu axis of Lagos state has citizens of the state and the country at large asking the question - how well are the police handling these responsibilities?

The horrible crimes committed by the notorious group called "Badoo" should be handled in a more professional manner by the police.In every society, there are peaceful and law abiding citizens and among them there would be people who engage in criminal activities. A professional police department should be aware of this fact and therefore carryout proper and in depth investigations and root out the perpetrators of these heinous crimes without injury to it's law abiding citizens. However the system adopted by the police as a solution to this problem was to cast a large drag net, by making random and indiscriminate arrests of citizens who were not members of the dreaded cult.

 About a 100 persons or more were arrested by the police who had no tangible evidence linking a number of the persons who they termed as "suspects" to the crimes committed by the dreaded cult. Most of these unlucky civilians had their photos taken and pasted on the pages of some Nigerian dailies regardless of the fact that they were yet to be adjudged guilty by a competent court.   It was a typical tactic of "arrest first and get evidence later". Mr. Okewunmi Omotoyosi Daniel was among the unfortunate persons who were bundled into a police vehicle and detained without prior evidence linking him to any wrong doing. In a country were there is sanity and equity, such a person who has been traumatized by this incidence ought to be appropriately compensated, but can we expect that?

A more significant presence of the police in the Ikorodu area would most likely have curtailed this problem and the resulting backlash of the community who had begun taking the laws into their own hands by killing persons they suspected to be members of the group.
As citizens of Nigeria, are we not entitled to better? Should we not have a police force who should actually protect us rather than subject us to unlawful imprisonment?

Military approach to Biafra a Failure

The 1960's saw the emergence of the Biafran ideology and till date this ideology still burns passionately in the heart of eastern Nigeria. The question this time around is, would the Nigerian government make same mistakes it made in the past or address the issue better?
Would the other Nigerian tribes sit aside and watch as they did in the past as our eastern brothers were humiliated, mistreated and eliminated?
Would the other tribes decide that it has nothing to do with them?
Pastor Martin Niemoller in a poem given his account of the 2nd world war said;

                           "   First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. "

 It is said that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing - (Edmund Burke) and this unfortunately is what has happened in Nigeria for decades.

From 1966 mass pogroms of eastern Nigerian citizens was witnessed both locally and by international observers until after the war in 1970. However 47 years after, the Ideology of Biafra is still alive.Time has therefore proven that you can kill a people, quell an uprising by brute military force but an ideology is not is easily extinguished.

The problems which led to Late Odimegwu Ojukwu calling for an independent state of Biafra included but were not limited to political, economic, ethnic, cultural and religious tensions which existed in the Nigerian society. Looking at our present situation, these issues highlighted still exist and as a matter of fact have acted as a catalyst to fuel the passion of our brothers in the east towards achieving their objective to be free of a country which they no longer consider to be a part of.

Fast forward to 2016, how is the government of the day handling this issue? it would seem that they have taken the same disastrous path which was taken by their predecessors leading to the deaths of countless lives. In a publication by Amnesty International about 150 peaceful pro-biafran activists were killed , though the Nigerian military disputes this figures, Amnesty International was able to put a figure to the death toll after analysis of videos, photographs and eye witness testimonies.

It is a wonder why peaceful protest and rallies such as that staged on the 20th of January, 2017 by the IPOB are always considered a threat requiring the presence of the military and police who  often take this as an advantage to unleash brutal assaults on the hapless protesters leading to the imprisonment, persecution and extra-judicial killing of these peaceful agitators. Meanwhile, issue which require dire military presence and intervention such as the killing of Nigerians nationwide by Fulani Herdsmen who were classified on the global terrorism index as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world have received little or no attention.

There is nothing new on the face of this planet, and so it is important that as people we learn from our past, so that same errors don't resurface in the future. However unlike any other government on the face of planet earth, the Nigerian government is adept at repeating it's mistakes and that is why the adoption of a  militarized approach in dealing with the Biafran situation has been counter-productive as the ideology still lives.

Therefore, it would be more effective to approach the situation from a democratic standpoint, as people have the right to determine how they are governed. Potential Biafrans see their union with the rest of Nigeria as a case of an arranged marriage gone south from which they seek an annulment, and like a woman who has been constantly brutalized by her husband she seeks refuge and help.

There have been other countries which have agitated for and gained independence from it's central government, for example Montenegro which was separated from Serbia in 2006 after a referendum. It would be more logical and less destructive to human lives if a referendum is carried out to determine the ultimate decision of our eastern brothers. A referendum does not mean that the Biafran idea would succeed, it may fail just like the attempt of Quebec to leave Canada in 1995, but at least let the position of the people be known.