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Of Teachers And Buhari’s Placebo

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5 years ago

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Besides its use as a medical term, the word placebo is also figuratively defined to mean ‘a way of trying to please someone who is not satisfied about something’. In other words, it is another way of attempting to placate someone or sell him a dummy.
Sometime in October last year, President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly approved a range of incentives that, by all intents and purposes, qualified as a placebo to teachers employed into the nation’s civil service at the basic and secondary school levels. No doubt, his unsuspecting victims are obviously relishing the effect already.
According to his Minister of Education, Mr. Adamu Adamu, the President approved the new incentives to improve the conditions of service for teachers in Nigeria.
“It was with this clear understanding of the role of the teacher in the emerging knowledge economy and the need to attract and retain the best brains in our educational institutions that the President approved a range of incentives in order to revitalise and reposition the teaching profession,” he said.
Adamu explained that the first incentive was to restrict the employment of teachers into the civil service to highly gifted and academically outstanding graduates with the right attitudinal and emotional inclinations.
The new order also seeks to establish a special salary scale for teachers in primary and secondary schools, including provisions for special rural posting allowances; science teachers’ allowances; increased retirement age from 60 to 65 years; and also the years of service from 35 to 40, whichever comes first. Added to these, is the institution of a Special Teacher Pension Scheme to enable the teaching profession retain its highly experienced hands.
In order to attract the best brains into the teaching cadre, the minister said Mr. President had also approved the re-introduction of automatic bursary awards to Education students and the funding of their teaching practice from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
All these, he assured, would be packaged into the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Bill 2020 which has already been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) and is now on its way to the National Assembly for legislative fine-tuning.
To attain all government objectives and strategies in this regard, a National Implementation Committee on the Revitalisation and Repositioning of the Teaching Profession in Nigeria was raised under the chairmanship of the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Mr. Sonny Echono.
While the perm sec assured that his committee was already in talks with the states and their Heads of Service under the auspices of the National Council of Establishment, he, however, feared that there may be prolonged deliberations with other agencies like the National Incomes, Salaries and Wages Commission to work out a new salary scale for teachers.
Much as it is natural to expect every lover of quality education in Nigeria to begin to pop Champaign in celebration of a dream-come-true for our teachers, I shall, however, drink with caution; not for fear of being intoxicated, but surely in realisation of the fact that such incentives had, in the past, constituted mere paper largesse. They had amounted to near intangibility in real terms. For instance, a special rural posting allowance, as is being hyped up on paper, might amount to just N3000 per month for a teacher on Salary Grade Level 12. And given the very harsh economic circumstances in the countryside, can this paltry sum be considered a worthy incentive for such a principal officer? Certainly not!
Again, even if they all accept to flow along with the federal government on this, who would ever want to wager that the states would submit to lavishing any more perquisites on some set of civil servants who should even be grateful to their governments for hiring them in the first place? Yes, just as the entire workforce is seen as undeserving of any full payment of the subsisting N30,000 New National Minimum Wage and pension backlogs in almost all the 36 states and FCT, so will the teachers’ unpaid allowances become a cogent reason for incessant labour strikes across the country in the near future. Dealing yet another blow to our education system?
And who even said that now is the best time for President Buhari and his Adamu to begin to tinker with the idea of new incentives. Certainly the Nigerian economy is far from being in good health nor have the tertiary institutions become better staffed and equipped to begin the process of churning out the required caliber of teachers for whom the new emoluments are being determined.
Honestly, notwithstanding how pissed off one can sometimes get with some of Buhari’s positions on matters of state; I will always award him maximum score on presidential carriage. To be sure, I am sometimes disarmed by his uncommon simplicity and no-holds-barred disposition. For example, even as erstwhile US President Donald Trump is known to be extremely voluble, it was Buhari (apparently without anyone’s prompting) who disclosed to Nigerians and indeed the world the secret discussion he had with his host in Washington DC concerning the killing of Christians back home in Nigeria. I am still not comfortable with his response to Mr. Trump but I really admired his gut regarding this rare disclosure. And Trump never countered his account of what transpired between them in that White House inner recess.
Nevertheless, it beats me as to how Buhari has allowed himself to be led to administer this placebo on our teachers knowing full well that the nation is currently cash-strapped to bear such burden and that he will have left office by the time everything is tidied up for a meaningful implementation of the new order. Of course, except if somebody can prove to me that the ruling party is not already in search of campaign promises for 2023.
Well, let our teachers continue to pray and hope that the economy picks up pretty soon and that whoever eventually replaces Buhari would be most receptive to what the outgoing chief executive bequeaths in terms of assets and liabilities.

 

By: Ibelema Jumbo

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Renewable Energy Faces Looming Workforce Crisis

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3 weeks ago

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August 18, 2025

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Despite a discouraging political climate and unprecedented uncertainty in the United States clean energy sector, low costs of wind and solar energy continue to drive growth of the domestic clean energy sector.
However, while market forces continue to support the expansion of renewable energy capacity, the sector faces critical challenges extending beyond the antagonism of the Trump administration.
The continued growth of solar and wind power risks being hampered by several mitigating factors, including (but not limited to) intensifying competition over increasingly scarce suitable land plots, stressed and volatile global supply chains, lengthy and unpredictable development processes, Complex and overlapping permitting processes, and a critical talent gap.
The renewable energy labor shortage has been years in the making, but is no less closer to resolution. The issue spans both white collar and blue collar positions, and threatens to kneecap progress in the booming sector.
Between the years of 2011 and 2030, it is expected that global levels of installed wind and solar capacity will quadruple. Analysis from McKinsey & Company concludes that “this huge surge in new wind and solar installations will be almost impossible to staff with qualified development and construction employees as well as operations and maintenance workers.
“It’s unclear where these employees will come from in the future,” the McKinsey report goes on to say.
He continued that “There are too few people with specialized and relevant expertise and experience, and too many of them are departing for other companies or other industries.”
The solar and wind industries are suffering from a lack of awareness of career paths and opportunities, despite their well-established presence in domestic markets.
Emergent clean energies face an even steeper uphill battle. Geothermal energy, for example, is poised for explosive growth as one of vanishingly few carbon-free energy solutions with broad bipartisan support, but faces a severe talent gap and punishingly low levels of awareness in potential talent pools.
But while the outlook is discouraging, industry insiders argue that it’s too soon to sound the alarms. In fact, a recent report from Utility Drive contends that “solutions to the energy talent gap are hiding in plain sight.”
The article breaks down those solutions into four concrete approaches: building partnerships with educators, formulating Registered Apprenticeship pathways, updating credential requirements to reflect real-world needs, and rethinking stale recruitment strategies.
Targeting strategic alliances with educational institutions is a crucial strategy for creating a skilled workforce, particularly in emerging sectors like geothermal energy.
Businesses can, for example, partner with and sponsor programs at community colleges, creating a pipeline for the next generation of skilled workers. Apprenticeships serve a similar purpose, encouraging hands-on learning outside of the classroom. Such apprenticeships can apply to white collar positions as well as blue collar roles.
“If we can figure out a way to educate the younger generation that you can actually have a career that you can be proud of and help solve a problem the world is facing, but also work in the extractive industry, I think that could go a long way,” said Jeanine Vany, executive vice president of corporate affairs for Canadian geothermal firm Eavor, speaking about the geothermal energy talent gap.
These approaches won’t solve the talent gap overnight – especially as political developments may discourage would-be jobseekers from placing their bets on a career in the renewables sector. But they will go a long way toward mitigating the issue.
“The clean energy transition depends on a workforce that can sustain it,” reports Utility Drive. “To meet the hiring challenges, employers will benefit from looking beyond the next position to fill and working toward a strategic, industry-wide vision for attracting talent.”
By: Haley Zaremba
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Is It End For Lithium’s Reign As Battery King?

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1 month ago

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August 1, 2025

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Lithium-ion batteries power the world around us. Their prevalence in our daily life is growing steadily, to the extent that lithium-ion batteries now power a whopping 70 percent of all rechargeable devices.
From electric vehicles to smartphones to utility-scale energy storage, lithium-ion batteries are increasingly forming the building blocks of innumerable sectors.
But despite its dominance in battery technologies, there are some serious issues with lithium supply chains that make it a less-than-ideal model upon which to base our world.
Not only is extracting lithium often extremely environmentally damaging, it’s deeply intertwined with geopolitical pressure points. China controls a huge portion of global lithium supply chains, rendering markets highly vulnerable to shocks and the political will of Beijing.
China’s control is particularly strong in the case of electric vehicle batteries, thanks to a decade-long strategy to outcompete the globe.
“For over a decade, China has meticulously orchestrated a strategic ascent in the global electric vehicle (EV) batteries market, culminating in a dominance that now presents a formidable challenge to Western manufacturers,” reports EE Times.
The effect functions as “almost a moat” around Chinese battery production, buffering the sector against international competition.
The multiple downsides and risks associated with lithium and lithium-ion battery sourcing is pushing EV companies to research alternative battery models to power the electric cars of the future.
There are a litany of lithium alternatives in research and development phases, including – but not limited to – lead, nickel-cadmium, nickel-metal hydride, sodium nickel chloride, lithium metal polymer, sodium-ion, lithium-sulfur, and solid state batteries.
Solid state batteries seem to be the biggest industry darling. Solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte as a barrier and conductor between the cathode and anode.
These batteries don’t necessarily do away with lithium, but they can eliminate the need for graphite – another critical mineral under heavy Chinese control. Plus, solid state batteries are purported to be safer, have higher energy density, and recharge faster than lithium-ion batteries.
While solid-state batteries are still in development, they’re already being tested in some applications by car companies. Mercedes and BMW claim that they are already road-testing vehicles powered by solid-state batteries, but it will likely be years before we see them in any commercial context.
Subaru is on the verge of testing solid-state batteries within its vehicles, but is already employing a smaller form of the technology to power robots within its facilities.
However, while solid-state batteries are being hailed as a sort of holy grail for battery tech, some think that the promise – and progress – of solid-state batteries is overblown.
“I think there’s a lot of noise in solid state around commercial readiness that’s maybe an exaggeration of reality”, Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said during an interview on this week’s Plugged-In Podcast.
Sodium ion batteries are also a promising contender to overtake lithium-ion batteries in the EV sector. Sodium is 1,000 times more abundant than lithium.
“It’s widely available around the world, meaning it’s cheaper to source, and less water-intensive to extract”, stated James Quinn, the CEO of U.K.-based Faradion. “It takes 682 times more water to extract one tonne of lithium versus one tonne of sodium.That is a significant amount.”
Bloomberg projections indicate that sodium-ion could displace 272,000 tons of lithium demand as soon as 2035.
But even this does not signal the death of lithium. Lithium is simply too useful in battery-making. It’s energy-dense and performs well in cold weather, making it “indispensable for high-performance applications” according to EV World.
“The future isn’t lithium or sodium—it’s both, deployed strategically across sectors…the result is a diversified, resilient battery economy.”
By: Haley Zaremba
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Why Oil Prices Could See Significant Upside Shift

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1 month ago

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July 28, 2025

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The 9th OPEC International Seminar was held in Vienna recently, wherein participants discussed energy security, investment, climate change, and energy poverty, with a particular emphasis on balancing these competing priorities.
According to commodity analysts at Standard Chartered, the summit, titled “Charting Pathways Together: The Future of Global Energy”, featured significantly greater engagement from international oil companies and consuming country governments, with discussions converging on a more inclusive shared agenda rather than non-intersecting approaches seen in previous years.
However, StanChart reported there was a clear mismatch between what energy producers vs. market analysts think about spare production capacity.
Unlike Wall Street analysts, who frequently talk about spare capacity of 5-6 million barrels per day (mb/d), speakers from several sectors of the industry noted that spare capacity is both limited and very geographically concentrated.
StanChart believes this erroneous assumption about spare capacity has been a big drag on oil prices, and the implications for the whole forward curve of oil prices could be potentially profound once traders realize that roughly two-thirds of the capacity they thought was available on demand does not actually exist.
This makes the analysts bullish about the general shape of their forecast 2026 price trajectory (Figure 32), i.e., a set of significant upward shifts as opposed to the flat trajectory seen in the market curve and in analyst consensus.
In other words, oil prices could have as much as $15/barrel upside from current levels.
StanChart is not the only oil bull here. Goldman Sachs recently hiked its oil price forecast for H2 2025, saying the market is increasingly shifting its focus from recession fears to potential supply disruptions, low spare capacity, lower oil inventories, especially among OECD countries and production constraints by Russia.
GS has increased its Brent forecast by $5/bbl to $66/bbl, and by $6 for WTI crude to $63/bbl, slightly lower than current levels of $68.34/bbl and 66.24/bbl for Brent and WTI crude, respectively.
However, the Wall Street bank has maintained its 2026 price forecast at $56/bbl for Brent and $52 for WTI, due to “an offset between a boost from higher long-dated prices and a hit from a wider 1.7M bbl/day surplus.’’ Previously, GS had forecast a 1.5M bbl/day surplus for the coming year.
Further, Goldman sees a stronger oil price rebound beyond 2026 due to reduced spare capacity.
EU natural gas inventories have climbed at faster-than-average clip in recent times. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data, Europe’s gas inventories stood at 73.10 billion cubic metres (bcm) on 13 July, good for a 2.31 bcm w/w increase.
Still, the injection rate is not enough to completely fill the continent’s gas stores, with the current clip on track to take inventories to about 97.9 bcm, or 84.3% of storage capacity, at the end of the injection season.
Europe’s gas demand remains fairly lacklustre despite extremely high temperatures across much of the continent in recent weeks.
According to estimates by StanChart, EU gas demand for the first 14 days of July averaged 583 million cubic meters/day, nearly 3% lower from a year ago but a 10% improvement from the June lows.
However, StanChart is bullish on natural gas prices, saying the market is likely underestimating the likelihood of more Russian gas being taken off the markets.
Back in April, U.S. senators Lindsey Graham (Republican) and Richard Blumenthal (Democrat), introduced “Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025”, with the legislation enjoying broad bipartisan support (85 co-sponsors in the Senate out of 100 senators).
In a joint statement on 14 July, the two senators noted that President Trump’s decision to implement 100% secondary tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and gas if a peace agreement is not reached within 50 days but pledged that they will continue to work on “bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation that would implement up to 500 percent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil and gas”.
StanChart has predicted that the Trump administration is unlikely to take actions that risk driving oil prices higher. However, Russian gas remains in the crosshairs, with U.S. LNG likely to see a surge in demand if Russian gas exports are curtailed.
StanChart estimates that the EU’s net imports of Russian pipeline gas averaged 79.8 million cubic metres per day (mcm/d) in the first 14 days of July, with all non-transit flows into the EU coming into Bulgaria through the Turkstream pipeline, with Hungary and Slovakia also receiving Turkstream gas.
There was also a flow of about 65 mcm/d of Russian LNG in the first half of July, with Russia providing 18.6% of the EU’s net imports. StanChart has predicted that we could see a strong rally in natural gas prices if Washington slaps Moscow with fresh gas sanctions.
By: Alex Kimani
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