Stopping Jonathan From 2015

 “This New Nation called Nigeria should be an estate of our great grandfather, Uthman Dan Fodio. We must ruthlessly prevent a change of power. We use the minorities in the North as willing tools, and the South, as conquered territory and never allow them to rule over us, and never allow them to have control over their future” (The Sardauna of Sokoto and the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello in The Parrot of October 12, 1960)

G

oodluck Jonathan Is the first Nigerian to emerge president of the Federal Republic by defeating the entrenched Hausa/Fulani oligarchy in an open political contest. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, notwithstanding the fact of his birth and breeding in Zungeru in the north, spoke Hausa fluently and became the symbolic leader of the fight against British colonialism for Independence of Nigeria, could not penetrate the in-breeding Fulani oligarchy for electoral acceptance. Again, Obafemi Awolowo, who earned the plaudits of everyone for his development ideas which he put to practice even before Nigeria’s independence, did not enjoy electoral success in the Fulani dominated north.

President Goodluck Jonathan

But Goodluck Jonathan, the man of providence, portrayed by the Tinubu Press as an effete, provincial academic and politician with a boyish cluelessness, took on the deeply entrenched northern traditional and political establishment, creating a division rooted in public conscience and defeating the entrenched northern politicians Ibrahim Babangida, Adamu Ciroma, Ango Abdullahi,  Abubakar Atiku and Muhammadu Buhari in resounding electoral victories.

It is clear from the lessons to be drawn from this epochal victory that the ongoing effort to browbeat President Jonathan to submit to blackmail and surrender his constitutional right to re-election for a second term particularly from the trenchant Hausa/Fulani north and the mischievous Tinubu Press will amount to asking the victor to deny his historical accomplishment and give away what was earned by the nation through the man of providence. Freedom for Nigeria beckons from what was gained through the electoral victory of Jonathan and this freedom is what is being asked of the man to throw away by requesting him to foreclose his constitutionally guaranteed second presidential tenure. This, my compatriots is tantamount to snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Hausa/Fulani north is as things stand today under the benign benevolence of Goodluck Jonathan for regional security and economic progress. Their elite will however not acknowledge this dependence nor will they want to take supportive actions to sustain his regime for their own good. The deeply ingrained sense of entitlement to political supremacy, patronage and economic benefit against the larger interest of all other ethnic groups in the nation has conditioned the Hausa/Fulani to become dependent, arrogant and unthinking of the need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. For nearly forty years of their pillage of the Nigerian economy including the license to allocate other people’s resources to themselves, it never crossed their provincial minds that all era must come to an inevitable end and that the ascendancy of Jonathan signals the end of the age of ethnic supremacy and Hausa/Fulani dominance.

Ahmadu Bello

 

It is paradoxical that the Hausa/Fulani domination of Nigerian politics and economy was not based on any superior indices, either of numbers, skills, enterprise or military conquest but on a single day’s display of bravado and Dutch courage in July 1966 when the northern political establishment recovering from the January 1966 failed putsch, recruited Northern Minority soldiers to decapitate their Commander-in-Chief, General J.T.U Aguiyi Ironsi and complete an ethnic cleansing of Igbo officers in the Nigerian armed Forces. From thence onwards until Goodluck Jonathan in 2010, they sustained a succession plan which guaranteed that a Hausa/Fulani or their crony occupied the presidency of Nigeria.

Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo and Ernest Shonekan are the surrogates they used at different times. They needed the charm of Yakubu Gowon to win over the international community particularly the British, and the southern minorities to accomplish the routing of Biafra in the Civil War. Obasanjo was the lackey they recruited to hold down the rambunctious Yoruba and the south during the times of rebellion to their dominance. Shonekan was the failed lap dog deployed to assuage the Yoruba over the betrayal of Moshood Abiola.

In the period of dominance, the Hausa/Fulani developed a survival strategy that ensured that southern wealth was moved up North to service the gluttony of technocrats, the pageantry of northern aristocracy and for the development of Northern infrastructure. In 1969, the petroleum decree was promulgated to place the control of the burgeoning oil wealth in the hands of Northern Military officers who controlled the federal Military Government and allocated the resources according to their whims. The 1969 petroleum decree changed the economic relationship between regions in Nigeria and helped sustain even for the oil producing states, a subsisting dependence on the federal government for “allocations”, a reverse form of federalism not known anywhere else in the world.

Import licensing, a diabolical practice introduced by the Shehu Shagari Government in 1981 was enacted to subdue the business class and put the lucrative import business under the control of President Shehu Shagari and his kinsmen. Mahmoud Tukur, erstwhile Vice Chancellor of Bayero University Kano and later Minister of Trade and Commerce became the point man. He was the star of the Shagari administration, courted by the mighty and the lowly alike, not for creating value to the economy but for issuing permits to import goods of any kind into Nigeria. It is this process of pre-bended import licensing and benefits allocations that created the Hausa/Fulani champions of business and enterprise of today.

Fulani

It is public knowledge how the Hausa/Fulani also used ethnic control of federal power to leverage the commanding heights of the economy and allocate resources and benefits to their kinsmen. The allocation of 87% of all oil blocks - the underpinning reason for the dog-fight for the presidency in 2013 - in the South-South oilfields to Hausa/Fulani and Kanuri is a vexatious case in point. So also is allotment of certain federal posts to only their kinsmen, another irksome issue open for ethnic contention, particularly the headship of Customs and Excise and certain Federal Ministries and Agencies.

Boko Haram is not an unprecedented phenomenon in Northern Nigeria but a replication of the same Islamic fundamentalist revolutions and ferment that swept through the Western Sudan in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. One of these Islamic Champions was a Fulani cleric named Usuman dan Fodio who led the conquest of the Hausa Habe dynasties and the violent takeover of their empires across what was once Hausa land. It is this historical conquest of Hausaland and Oyo that make the Fulani believe that Nigeria is their conquered territory and their ethnic inheritance.

Boko Haram in Procession

Boko Haram’s present day practices are a reproduction of the overwhelming brutality that attended that conquest. Contributing least of all Ethnic Nationalities North and South of Nigeria to the national Purse, the Hausa/Fulani maintained a political and economic control far beyond their productive or military capabilities. They took covert control of the Armed Forces and maintained a glass ceiling preventing non-Hausa/Fulani officers, particularly the Igbo and southern minorities from rising to significant command positions.

For instance in August 1982,fearing the coming together of the Progressives and foreseeing the clear possibility of Shehu Shagari losing in the pending presidential election of 1983, the Hausa/Fulani establishment met in Kaduna and recommended to  Shehu Shagari the retirement of the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the strategic 1^st Division, Kaduna and the promotion of five named Hausa/Fulani officers to Generals to forestall power falling into the hands of “infidels” in the eventuality of a coup de etat and the toppling of Shagari’s Government.

Thus Alani Akinrinade was forcefully retired and Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Muhammadu Jega and Garba Wushishi were promoted to Generals. A coup did happen to remove the deeply unpopular Shehu Shagari and the NPN government in December 1983 but it was a palace coup dominated by the strategically promoted officers which as planned, did not change the ethnic hold on power by the Hausa/Fulani.

An obverse side of the choices available to Goodluck Jonathan in the fight over 2015 presidential election has not been properly considered by anybody particularly the people determined to pull the entire nation down to secure the Aso Villa. What if Jonathan decides not to run for re-election and refuse to deploy the massive goodwill and resources of the presidency to support PDP, the ruling party? Can the denizens of the ruling party hope to sustain their present slippery hold on power after the 2015 elections? PDP will explode and the resulting fragments will be minority parties or junior partners in existing parties with no commanding presence or capacity to contest a presidential election.

This is the major reason the seven rebel Governors in PDP cannot move in to their pre-registered political party PDM. If the All Peoples Congress (APC) wins the Presidency by any chance, can a Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, Ango Abdullahi,  or even Adamu Ciroma live with an intemperate and bigoted Muhammadu Buhari for four years? Will the Yoruba continue to allow Yorubaland to be used by Tinubu and his Afenifere deserters to pursue an Islamisation agenda? To every right thinking Nigerian, Goodluck Jonathan holds the vital aces required to hold Nigeria together post 2015.

Why do we hold that the Far North owe a world of gratitude to Goodluck Jonathan? Because we believe to be true that If President Jonathan for mischief, want of resources or any other reason scales down the deeply sabotaged military operations against the Boko Haram in the North, the forces of darkness as represented by the Terrorists will be unleashed on the entire Far North and the Northern political, traditional and religious establishment will be overrun and replaced by persons and institutions that hold allegiance to Boko Haram under a fundamentalist Islamic theocracy. Can whatever will be left of the northern establishment live with that?

Boko Haram is a Frankenstein’s Monster created by a Northern elite implacably infuriated by the loss of power to a minority politician, never mind that Jonathans people have been supportive of the political interests of the north and are the owners of the bread basket which sustains the entire Northern Region. Now the Boko Haram monster has grown beyond the capacity of the Northern irredentists to manage and are now poised to eat up its creators and replace the establishment with its own implacable and irascible kind.

 

 

 

Goodluck Jonathan in the Presidency embodies and holds the hopes and aspirations of all previously denied and sidelined ethnic peoples in Nigeria and they watch keenly the macabre dance that is going on to seize the Aso Villa and make it a permanent abode of the Hausa/Fulani. It will be foolhardy for any group in Nigeria to make little of the determination of the Peoples of the South-South to hold on to their chance at the exercise of presidential power for the public good and the rebirth of the Nigerian nation.

Basil Okoh

 

NIGERIA: HOW WILL AGRICULTURE FARE UNDER A NORTHERN PRESIDENT?

Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture

Minister of Agriculture Dr. Akinwumi Adesina is laying foundations and bringing new and exciting thinking into re-building Nigerian agriculture, but what happens to us when he and his principal Goodluck Jonathan leave?

Nigerian officials have historically maintained a dubious attitude to agricultural development and farmer welfare. What is said at public places do not usually reflect what is practiced as policy. Nigerian bureaucrats choose always to splash huge sums on grandiose projects with high decibels in publicity but with little or no impact on actual production and development in the sector. Farmer welfare comes last in government considerations.

Huge sums are lost, always, on overpriced contracts, the importation of useless equipment or payouts to Multilateral Agencies and Western Consultancy groups who mean no good to the development of Nigerian agriculture. We bear witness to the cesspools that the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDA) and the Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) championed by the Federal Agricultural Coordinating Unit (FACU), Ibadan, then headed by the zealous Professor Francis Idachaba and sponsored by the World Bank turned out to be, legacies of the “Integrated Development” model of Dr. Robert McNamara, president of the World Bank in the Seventies and Eighties.

Abandoned Rice Processing Plant, Omor, Anambra State.

Agricultural development was to be built around farmers in clusters surrounding the major rivers of Nigeria, the rivers themselves offering irrigation water and drainage all year round.

Fine policy that appeared to be. Trouble was that the billions of dollars offered by the World Bank in credit never got to Nigeria. A full sixty percent of the money was expended on the purchase of overpriced equipment and materials that were unsuitable for Nigerian agricultural practices and farming systems. The requirement to purchase Euro- American equipment was written into the fine prints of the contracts with the World Bank which was the first warning for failure. The balance 40% was mostly purloined by Nigerian officials.

The farm extension services personnel recruited for the projects were ill trained, unsupervised and preferred to gallivant around town with the motorbikes bought for the purpose rather than moving into farming communities as trainers of the farmers in the so-called modern practices.

Something shameful will be remembered of President of Nigeria at the time, Alhaji Shehu Shagari (1979-83) and his political Party National Party of Nigeria (NPN). They clutched at the World Bank projects like life rafts to save a failed agricultural policy. The prop slogan “Green Revolution” ended up creating a huge food deficit and a food import monopoly for party big wigs who brawled over import licenses.

The combined result of the World Bank sponsored projects and the food import license bonanza for the NPN mandarins was to effectively destroy the burgeoning growth in the agricultural sector particularly rice cultivation in Nigeria. Rice, sugar, wheat, corn, etc were labeled “scarce commodities” and put on the special import license list granted only to the NPN party moguls who went on to import these products with graft money from pre-bended contracts. A tidy monopoly was thus created for the few and the cost foisted on the rest of the Nation and its farmers. Thereafter, a dire import dependent food policy and a growing debt burden defined the national economy for the next three decades.

It must be remembered that Shehu Shagari and his NPN nurtured Nigeria’s imported rice dependency syndrome which will be near impossible for the Nigerian population to kick.

Shagari’s successors, Buhari, Babangida and Abacha all military despots and lacking imagination and patriotism and owing no obligation to Nigerians having come to Government through coups d’état, sustained Shagari’s practice of licensed food importation, creating a few billionaires in the midst of an increasingly impoverished farming population, a dangerous dependence on foreign, particularly Asian rice and now a devastated agricultural sector, lacking investment, infrastructure and a disorganized market overrun by imports from Asia.

Typical Rice Mill in Nigeria 2013.

Babangida did worse. He fashioned and implemented an ethnic economic agenda banning wheat importation (a crop not cultivated in Nigeria) to effectively put the

Flour Milling and brewing companies out of business, leading to the loss of nearly a million jobs in the milling, brewing, bakery, pastry and ancillary businesses. He then sold the entire country down the river with a dubious harmattan wheat cultivation project in Northern Nigeria paying out unbelievable sums to Hausa/Fulani contractors who after three years could not have a single bushel of wheat to show for all the tonnes of money.

Determined to crush the thriving poultry industry in Southern Nigeria, Babangida placed an absolute ban on corn and Feed imports into Nigeria, again destroying the Feed Milling industry and sending the entire poultry stock based mostly in Southern Nigeria to forced fire sales and closure.

Accusations of an ethnic agenda to destroy southern agricultural investments and force a dependency on Northern food products were mostly ignored by the Babangida Government. Neither could Babangida deny that Southern dominated poultry meat production was being forced to closure in order to open up a monopoly for Northern cow beef business.

What then will happen to southern agriculture under another northern president? Wait please for the next instalment…………….

'DO ME I DO YOU', ANOTHER KIND OF 'WAR' IN NORTH-EASTERN NIGERIA

LOCUST RITUAL

In Nigeria's far North eastern Borno State, another kind of war is on, man is biting back against the desert locust. Swarms of migrating locusts seasonally strip the semi-arid region of its scanty vegetation and crops. But Gambo Ibrahim, 27, a locust hunter, says the people of Borno have found a way of converting the desert locust's assault into an annual banquet. They eat the locusts which they call "desert shrimps".

ONE BAD TURN

"In Pidgin English, we say 'na do me i do you'," says Mr. Ibrahim, who has been hunting locusts for 8 years. I mean, yes, the locusts are eating up our crops, but we are also eating them up and making money to boot.

"So both man and locusts are losers, but i think they are worse off because we are eating them. I guess you could say one bad turn deserves another," he says with a chuckle.

HUNTING

"Since the locusts fly and man cannot fly, then if man must catch them, he has to figure out a way to engage the locusts on familiar territory - ground. "The locusts tend to fly at night because it is really cold (temperatures drop to 9 degrees Celsius) and dark. That's when we go after them.

"You need safety boots like these ones I have on, which are actually my dad's cast-off military issue and they serve the purpose well" Mr Ibrahim says.

LIGHT TRAP

"in addition to the safety boots and a minimum of three layers of clothes - jeans is the best - you also need a very powerful torch" Mr Ibrahim explains. You use it to see your way in the sahara at night. The torch is actually also a trap. "The locusts are attracted to it and they literally just come flying into your face and all you really have to do is just pick them off.

MONEY SPINNER

"We then put them in bags and head for the market. A bag of live locusts fetches between $26 and $30. Locusts are simply money spinners", Mr Ibrahim says. Most of our buyers are women who in turn dress the locusts, fry them and sell them to members of the public.

SNACK

"We buy the locusts from the boys,"says Esther Daniel who sells fried locusts in Maiduguri town. After that we remove their wings so they can't fly", she says.

Agribusiness-Nigeria: INVESTING IN SHRIMP AND PRAWN PRODUCTION

Agribusiness-Nigeria: INVESTING IN SHRIMP AND PRAWN PRODUCTION: Blonde Prawn No 4 It is time now for the Nigerian Authorities to wake up to frightening realities in the marine fishing i...

INVESTING IN SHRIMP AND PRAWN PRODUCTION

Blonde Prawn No 4

It is time now for the Nigerian Authorities to wake up to frightening realities in the marine fishing industry and begin to enforce regulations governing fishing and trawling activities in the Nigerian waters. The fact that hitherto abundant tropical fish like Croakers, tuna, snappers, shrimps and prawns are now imported into Nigeria by the same Asian companies that over-fished our waters to the death should be sign enough that a serious crisis is on the Nigerian plate in the marine fish industry.

Investments and attention should now begin to move towards evolving a homegrown cultivated shrimp industry while placing and enforcing a five-year ban on fishing and shrimping in Nigerian waters to allow the re-population of seriously depleted marine life. A cultivated shrimp industry located along the large network of estuaries and creeks of the nine coastal states will open up a new frontier for business engagement and mass employment for shrimps and prawns, internationally tradeable products of insatiable demand.

Tiger Prawn No 4

Figures emerging from worldwide trade on cultivated prawns is enough to cause the nation to salivate. Since the 1990's the total production of cultivated prawns have grown at a faster rate than any other agricultural product in the world. 

Shrimp

Since then global shrimp and prawns production has increased by 75% from 2.4 million Metric Tonnes to over 4.2 in 2004 with an annual average growth of 8% since then. Aquaculture i.e cultivated or farmed shrimp currently account for approximately 25% of total world production, a worldwide market valued at USD6 billion at the farmgate and over $20 billion in retail.

REVIVING FISH AND SHRIMP TRAWLING IN NIGERIA 1

Before the new millennium  Nigeria was a significant exporter of seafood particularly prawns and shrimps to Europe and North America from the catches made by fish trawlers on the Nigerian coastal waters.This is not so anymore. Nigeria actually imports shrimps and prawns now to meet its domestic demand.

The depletion of the crustaceans from the Nigerian ocean floor did not happen without warning to the Nigerian authorities. About three decades back, Indian and other Asian businessmen invaded the Nigerian waters with trawlers equipped with gadgetry to comb banned juvenile fish and shrimps from the sea bed with absolutely no control or enforcement of regulations from Nigerian Maritime Authority. The companies deployed illegal nets and other equipment to plunder the coastal floor hauling up juvenile fish, sea horses, turtles and tonnes of other marine life along with the shrimps and prawns they craved.

Fish Trawler

The biggest culprit in this immensely lucrative racket was without a doubt Ocean Fisheries Limited, then the backbone of the Churchgate Business Group. In its heydays Ocean Fisheries cavorted with the high and mighty in Government, owned 52 trawlers prowling Nigerian waters and was permitted to be the sole occupant of the Ikorodu Light Terminal Port in Lagos. Ocean Fisheries also operated the largest seafood processing facility at Odogunyan, 20 kilometres Northeast of Ikorodu.
Here Ocean Fisheries employed more than 5000 women and girls to process fish and shrimps for export to France and the United States. These workers were paid less than a dollar a day. Not only was the fish and shrimps caught free in the Nigerian waters without obeying international regulations, Ocean Fisheries would not pay tax to the Nigerian Government even on the seafood exports. Mr. Mike Hartley, an American and then Managing Director of Ocean Fisheries did say that "Nigeria offers the best free lunches". 

NIGERIA YET TO INVEST IN THE $20 BILLION WORLD PRAWNS TRADE

 The Gulf of Guinea lapping nine (9) states of the Nigerian Federation offers best-in-the-world spawning and breeding waters for shrimp and prawns. Lying so close to the equator in the middle of humid Africa and abutting the largest tropical mangrove swampland, temperatures average 30 degrees Centigrade. The warm tropical water and its vast creeks and ravines habour rich and wild undergrowth's that offer natural  spawning ground for crustaceans and these can be easily adapted for both small and industrial scale cultivation.

 

Despite shrimps and prawns literally popping out of the Nigerian coastal waters even up to the middle seventies, the Nigerian coastal communities never developed the culture of shrimp farming inspite of the worldwide booming trade in the product and inspite of the fact that shrimp and prawns cultivation remain one of the most lucrative farming enterprises in a modern world that has become insatiable for its consumption.

 

 A reason for this cultural and investment failure may be the disruptions and pollution of the waters that oil exploration and production caused in the Niger Delta and the fact that there was no encouragement from the Federal Authorities that had become so unhinged and covetous of Petro-dollars from Crude oil.

BIOGAS PLANT FOR AGBOR DELTA STATE

Dateline: Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria. May 6 2013.
Report by Joshua Ndobu

Agbor, the biggest town of Northern Delta State will soon host a novel investment in the area as a bio-energy firm, BioPower Nigeria Limited prepares to invest N7million on a locally fabricated biogas plant in Ime-Obi along the expressway of Agbor town. The firm plans to harness the abundant animal droppings and waste generated from the many poultry and other livestock firms in the neighbourhood. 

Agbor is home to Phed Breeder Farms, one of the largest poultry companies in Nigeria, and numerous other poultry and piggery farms. Agbor also thrives as the biggest meat processing town in Delta and Edo states with large consignment of cattle, goats and rams and including donkeys transported there by heavy laden trucks daily.
Alhaji Abdulkadir Idris one of the cattle traders at the thriving Agbor Secretariat cattle market claims that nearly 100 animals are slaughtered daily at the market, one of three abattoirs in the town. He said that over 300 donkeys are slaughtered in the abattoirs in Agbor daily with innumerable sheep and goats. 

Biogas model design

Mr. Stevens Umore of BioPower and Project Manager of the proposed Biogas facility expressed the confidence that the company can harvest 20 metric tonnes of bio-waste daily in the town and its environs and that will be more than enough to serve their needs to produce 500 cubic metres of biogas and  more than 10 tonnes of bio-fertilizer daily. The biogas will be sold to the public in metal gas bottles at half the prevailing price of bottled LPG gas.

Mr. Umore said that the land for the plant has been acquired and that plant fabrication and installations will commence in September and test-runs of the fabricated plant will start early in January next year.

INVESTMENT GUIDE ON BIOGAS PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA

Clean Energy Series:

INVESTMENT GUIDE ON BIOGAS PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA

INTRODUCTION TO BIOGAS

Biogas is gas released as a result of the anaerobic digestion of biomass. All organic matter must by natural phenomena decompose and when the process occurs in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic), biogas which is essentially composed of methane, carbon dioxide, trace hydrogen sulfides and other trace compounds are released.

The replication of this natural phenomenon in a controlled environment and on a commercial scale leads to the harvest of (1) biogas, a renewable energy source that could be deployed for domestic and commercial use and (2) bio-fertilizer, a cheaper and more wholesome farm and horticultural alternative to chemical fertilizer.

An investor harnesses the biogas from this natural occurrence by investing on the equipment and resources that enables the phenomenon to be replicated on a large scale and in a controlled environment and by utilizing substrates or organic matter that would otherwise be wasted and cause environmental and health hazards.

These organic matter could be wastes from vegetable or animal sources like energy crops e.g. cassava peels, corn silages and husks or animal droppings like chicken droppings, pig droppings, cow dung or human excreta etc. This piece is focused on the utilization of cow dung and abattoir wastes as the basic substrates for industrial digestion to biogas and bio-fertilizer.

COMPARISON OF BIOGAS (70% METHANE) AND OTHER ENERGY SOURCES

Energy Source	Calorific Value of Fuel Per Unit	KW Calorific Value of Fuel Per Unit	MJ Price of Fuel Unit	Price Equivalent of 1m³ of Biogas	Biogas Equivalent Per Fuel Unit
Diesel/Kerosene (litre)	10	36	19.5	0.69/litre	1.44m³
Benzene (litre)	8.5	30	25	0.82/litre	1.44m³
Fuel Wood (kg)	4.5	16.2	8	1.5/kg	0.65m³
Dried Dung (kg)	5	18	0.15	1.4/kg	1.1m³
Dry Vegetation Waste (kg)	4.5	16.2	-	1.5/kg	0.65m³
Solid Coal (kg)	7.7	27.6	1.8	0.9/kg	1.1m³
Natural Gas (m³)	9.3kw/m³	33.5	3.1	0.75/m³	1.34m³
Propane in Balloons (m³)	12.8kw/m³	46	13	0.54/m³	1.84m³
Electricity kw	1	3.6	1	6.9/kw	0.14m³
Biogas	7	25	2.8	1/m³	1m³

BIOGAS USES

Biogas achieves a heating value of 5.5Kcal/M³and may be utilized for the following purposes:

1.     Electricity Generation

2.     Heating resource

3.     Cooking

4.     Replacement fuel for Diesel Engines

5.     Internal Combustion Engines.

THE MARKETING CHALLENGE

The business models recommended in this study are designed to surmount the problems that must necessarily confront a pioneering business and to emphasize the necessity for the development of a market for the products as a step prior to investment decision making. In this wise, the following issues must be concluded before forward planning for equipment purchases can be made:

A.    Institutional buyers of electricity generated in the biogas project must be found and price for purchase of constant electricity supply must be agreed and documents signed before proceeding towards investment in equipment and machinery procurement.

B.     A gas bottling and distribution license and all other relevant permits must be procured from the relevant authorities before proceeding to the next phase of investment actions.

C.     A distribution and sales plan for the disposal of the derivable bio-fertilizer must also be concluded and the market and sales channels activated prior to the investments on machinery and equipment for the biogas plant.

BIOGAS PROJECT

INVESTMENT ANALYSIS

The profitability of alternative energy investments depend unavoidably on the price of petroleum products in the world market. The world energy consumption is so tied to hydrocarbons that the benchmark for determining the profitability of investments in alternative energy is how lower in price the energy source is in comparison to hydrocarbon fuels.

The Biogas Project will be the first biogas project in the region and will by that fact be a major determinant of the future success of biogas investments in a region noted more for its massive production of hydrocarbons and natural gas. In order to be adjudged successful, the Biogas project must be able to achieve costs and production figures cheaper than both natural and liquefied natural gas and the company must also show a clear capability of deploying and sustaining uninterrupted supply to large scale strategic institutional consumers.

The products that will be derived from the installed Biogas Plant utilizing cow dung as substrates at the biogas project are as under listed:

1.     Biogas

2.     Bio-fertilizers

3.     Bio-slurries

The uses to which these products can be put will determine the commercial viability of the Biogas Project and these may be listed as follows:

A.    Electricity generation.

B.     Cooking and heating.

C.     Bio-fertilizers for farm uses.

D.    Bio-Slurries for Horticulture.

The benefits to be derived from a profitable biogas production as presented in this study will be to actualize both the investors’ profit interests as well as achieve the economic and social objectives of the institutions where the plants are to be situated and all neighborhoods where cow dung waste is to be collected and evacuated particularly considerations for improvement in public health and derivable ecological, health and environmental benefits arising from the removal of odorous and other waste.

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BENEFITS OF A BIOGAS PLANT

1.     Low cost production of energy.

2.     The ready availability of energy produced from non-depleting renewable sources.

3.     The improvement in the quantity and quality of agricultural production with bio-fertilizer.

4.     Improvements in the quality of life of the people through the use of biogas and bio-fertilizer.

5.     Creation of a participatory local energy business and market.

6.     Development of skills

7.     Employment generation particularly in the rural areas.

8.     Poverty reduction.

The deployment of the biogas product for the generation of electricity will require further investments in electricity generation machinery and electrical installations. The power output will require dedicated bulk buyers of electricity particularly institutions or factories in order not to be entangled in legal and engineering issues associated with public supply of electricity or infringe on electricity distribution laws.

Biogas that per chance may have to be sold as bottled cooking gas will also require additional investments in gas bottling and pressure pumps and equipment as well as a large stock of refillable steel gas bottles to enable the biogas to access the retail market. It is possible to use hard plastic bottles to fill and distribute the biogas for home cooking but this will require investments in research, design and production of the plastic bottles that would take the required pressure.

Further, a decision to deploy the biogas yields to serve for both electricity and domestic cooking purposes will require investments in both facilities i.e. dedicated electricity supply to a given institution or community and biogas bottling for sale to home users for cooking. This dual application will require investments in machinery but will provide guarantee a for ready market and steady sales and income.

Biogas electricity generators ranging in power output from 1kw/h to the massive 2.5mw/h are available for sale in China. (see Picture) China has developed an advanced biogas production, utilization and equipment sales market. It will be novel to develop a biogas production and utilization market in your region and this will require the importation and sale of the biogas electricity generators as well as the production and sale of the biogas to keep them in domestic use supplying electricity to homes. Buyers of the biogas electric generators must be assured of the continuous supply of biogas to keep the generators working in order to be convinced to buy the generators.

Beyond the assurance of steady supply of biogas to power the generators and the continuous availability of gas bottles for home cooking, buyers must also be assured that prices for replacement gas at all times must be cheaper than bottled liquefied petroleum gas, petrol and diesel and that steady prices will be maintained. When all these are assured, a steady market will begin to grow for biogas as a strong alternative to generate electricity for homes as well as cheaper and cleaner option for home cooking. The bigger attraction will of course be that the Biogas Project will become a business prototype ready for replication across the region and thereafter a biogas industry owned and powered by the people will have taken root in Nigeria.

EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENT:

1.     Biogas Collection Tank.  

2.     Substrate Feeder Tank.

3.     Dung Storage Facility.

4.     Slurry Collection Tank.

5.     Gas Bottling and Pressurizing Equipment.

A modular design for a Biogas plant is recommended for the Biogas Project. This will require that basic biogas and factory facilities are provided in the initial factory design and installation while allowing for additional digesters and slurry tanks to be added as business develops. The digester is the processing centre for biogas and the focal point of most activity at the plant. The capacity and output of the digester determine the capacity of the biogas plant.

Local fabrication of the biogas plant lowers investment costs dramatically while also allowing for the development of local skills and technologies for onward sale to future investors as part of the new income streams of the Biogas Project.

A locally fabricated biogas plant will require the services of a Fabrication Engineer or experienced technician to accomplish. The inner walls of the steel tanks will be of galvanized steel or reinforced plasticin order to avoid corrosion from hydrogen sulfide for as long as possible.

There is of course the alternative of buying and deploying the largest possible sizes of plastic tanks. They are of lower capacity but Purchased in enough numbers they can do well to service an industrial capacity biogas plant.

If local fabrication of biogas plant will not be considered as a good option considering the pioneer status of biogas business Nigeria, the Chinese model will be a more viable and workable option. The advantages of a Chinese plant purchase are as follows:

1)    The Chinese plants have a huge comparative price advantage.

2)    The Chinese model can be acquired with portable gas holders (membranes and gas storage tanks pp17.

3)    The Chinese models are purchased with filters which remove the smell in the biogas and dry it of all vapors.

4)    The Chinese have a bigger and more active biogas industry and can therefore offer long term support at cheaper cost.

OPERATION OF A BIOGAS PLANT

The two basic products of a Biogas plant are:

1.     Biogas

2.     Bio-fertilizer

There are other products but the only commercially useful one is bio-slurry which can be regarded as the liquefied form of bio-fertilizer. Bio-slurry can be sold to market gardeners and other horticulturists.

BIOGAS PLANT RUNNING COSTS

(NOTE: A 30 day stock of cow dung should be kept in the factory yard at all times.)

The internationally recognized guide for the calculation of the cost of running a biogas plant is to allow a margin of 4% of the cost of setting up the biogas plant as annual running cost and the elements of the annual running cost will include the following:

1.     Cost of acquiring substrates

2.     Water Supply

3.     Maintenance and repair of plant

4.     Preparation and bagging of bio-fertilizers

5.     Gas bottling storage and distribution

6.     Salary and wages.

The biogas plant to be located in the hot tropical climate will not require a co-heating system to achieve the required optimal operational Mesophilic temperature range 27-40 degrees Celsius in the digester (recommended operational temperature 35-37ᵒc). Construction cost of the digester therefore will be cheaper than in the temperate region where pre-heating and co-heating of the digester will be required to activate the digester microbes particularly in winter seasons. The basic and cheaper construction cost without an electric pre-heating system will lower investment and running costs.

The Mesophilic temperature range 27-40ᵒC allows for the optimum release of biogas from substrates resident in the digester, the preservation of nutrients in the effluent bio-fertilizers and the destruction of smell and pathogens in the ensuing effluents particularly the bio-fertilizer. The operation of a biogas plant will therefore be cheaper as the prevailing climatic conditions provide the natural temperature range for a more optimum harvest by volume of biogas and bio-fertilizers. Temperatures lower than 18ᵒC (Psychophilic temperature range) do not allow for normal bacterial activity that will lead to profitable release of biogas in the digester, so digesters have to be co-heated. Sustained temperature levels higher than 40ᵒC (Thermophilic temperature range) on the other hand stimulate intense bacterial activity leading to higher release of biogas but results in the destruction of plant nutrients in the effluent bio-fertilizers. In the course of running a biogas plant under mesophilic temperature conditions, care must be taken not to allow for wide and sudden fluctuating in temperature as the process of bio-methenation is very sensitive to sudden changes in temperature. A temperature fluctuation range of no more than ±1ᵒC may be allowed under the stated conditions.

SLURRY MIXING TANK

The slurry tank is the chamber where substrates are mixed in the right substrate/water ratio to achieve optimum biogas yield. The mixing slurry tank is also the place where a thorough mixing of substrate to break up lumps and achieve evenness is achieved. The mixing rate for cow dung for maximum biogas yield is 85-92% water to solid cow dung.

DIGESTER START-UP CONDITIONS

Cow dung contains the full range of bacteria and micro-organisms necessary to begin the digestion process to produce biogas in anaerobic conditions in a new digester tank as cow dung is ingested with all the micro-organisms in the bowels of cattle. Cow dung therefore is the best substrate to jumpstart biogas production in a new plant.

MIXING RATE: Cow dung needs to mix with 85-92% water to produce the perfect mix for optimum gas release in a biogas plant. A water supply system and a mixing tank needs to be installed.

TANK OPTIMIZATION: The digester tank needs to be filled to two-thirds of its volume and the balance one-third left for biogas accumulation and harvest. For fermentation and the production of biogas to begin, it is necessary to create anaerobic conditions in the digester tank by ensuring air tightness in the entire bio-digester and the piping systems. It is also necessary to ensure the absence of scum and other inhibitors to the digestion process.

FEEDING SUBSTRATES

Utilising cow dung as substrate under mesophilic temperature regimes, digester feeding practices are as follows:

A.    10% of digester volumes are fed daily. The substrates are divided equally and loaded onto the digester from the slurry mixing tank every 4-6 hours intervals.

B.     The time needed to liberate all biogas in cow dung substrates is usually 10-20 days under mesophilic temperature conditions of 25-40 ᵒC. As substrates are fed in from the slurry tank through the piping at the bottom of the tank, the older, resident, digested slurry escape from the piping at the top of the tank.

C.     AGITATION (Stirring): it is necessary at intervals of the digestion process in the digester tank to stir either by physical or mechanical means the substrates in the digester tank. This stirring and mixing action achieves the following purposes:

i.                    Frees already produced biogas trapped in the slurry.

ii.                  Evenly distributes bacteria in the digester for the inoculation of fresh substrate.

iii.                Preventing the formation of scum and sediments.

iv.               Ensuring uniform temperature in the digester tank.

v.                 Helps prevent dead and inactive spaces in the digester and avoid reducing volume and effectiveness.

Stirring and agitation of substrates in the digester tank should be carried out every 4 hours approximately.

BIOGAS YIELDS

1.     The start-up period of a new plant requires active bacterial action on the substrates. It is necessary to raise and maintain a temperature range of 35-37ᵒC in the first two weeks of digester activity and agitate frequently to intensify bacterial inoculation and spread within the digester.

2.     The initial period of gas production is characterized by:

i.                    Low quality (more than 60% CO2) and infrequent gas production.

ii.                  Smelly gas with low pH value.

Biogas may be improved by filtering it through limewater to remove carbon dioxide, iron filings to absorb corrosive hydrogen sulphide and calcium chloride to extract water vapour after the other two processes.

COW DUNG BIOGAS YIELDS

Cow dung is an average yield substrate for biogas production but the low cost of gathering and the high production from the average animal makes it the substrate of choice for biogas production. The cost for the acquisition of cow dung substrate for the Biogas Project will be nil. The raw material cost will be expended on the gathering and transport of the cow dung to the Biogas plant. The yield expectations for different substrates are as follows:

TYPE OF SUBSTRATE              BIOGAS YIELD                         METHANE CONTENT

                                                (CUBIC METRE PER KG)                     (%)

CATTLE                                    0.25 – 0.34                                          65

PIG                                          0.34 – 0.58                                          65 – 70

POULTRY DROPPINGS           0.31 – 0.62                                          60

SHEEP                                     0.30 – 0.62                                          70

Approximate yield values for under listed substrates at moisture content of 85-92%.

1 tonne of cattle manure                                         40 – 50 cubic Metre of Biogas.

1 tonne of Pig manure                                              70 – 80 cubic Metre of Biogas.

1 tonne of Chicken droppings                                  60 – 70 cubic Metre of Biogas.

VOLUME WEIGHT OF BIOGAS: 1M³ = 1.2kg

BIOGAS PRODUCTION: TECHNICAL DETAILS:

Step 1 MIXING TANK

Cow dung (substrate) is fed into the slurry mixing tank and the water taps opened to achieve the mixing rate of 92% water and 8% solid waste mix by volume. With continuous activity and practice, the approximate mixing rates can be achieved without actual measurements. For bottom fed biogas plants, mixing tank may not rise higher than the middle height of the digester. The mixed slurry is then transferred either through piping or by carts to the feeding tanks.

STEP 2 FEEDING TANK

The daily feeding rate of mixed slurry is usually 10% of the digester volume and divided into 4-6 parts and pumped into the digester every 4-6 hour intervals. Agitation should follow immediately after each feeding to create evenness in the tank and to remove trapped biogas. It is expected that an equivalent volume of digested slurry should flow through the discharge/outlet pipes at the top of the digester.

STEP 3 BIO-DIGESTER

The bio-digester is the processing plant of biogas production and where all chemical and bacteria inoculation take place to produce biogas and bio-slurry. There are three steps to biogas production in the digester. These are:

a)      Hydrolysis

b)      Acidification

c)      Methane formation

1.      HYDROLYSIS:

The organic matter is enzymolized externally by extracellular enzymes (cellulose, amylase, protease and lipase) of micro – organisms. Bacteria decompose the long chains of the complex carbohydrates, proteins and lipids into shorter parts. For example, polysaccharides are converted into monosaccharide’s. Proteins are split into peptides and amino – acids.

2.      FREMENTATION

Acid producing bacteria, involved in the second step, convert the intermediates of fermenting bacteria-complex organic compositions (proteins, fats and carbohydrates) into more simple compounds. At the same time in fermentation environment, there appear primary products of fermentation - Volatile organic acids, alcohols, amino acids, carbon-dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. These organic substances act as nutrients for methane-producing bacteria that convert organic acids to biogas.

3.       METHANE FORMATION

Methane-producing bacteria involved in the third step, decompose compounds with a low molecular weight for example, they utilize hydrogen, carbon dioxide and acetic acid to form methane and carbon dioxide. Under natural conditions, methane producing micro-organisms occur to the extent that anaerobic conditions are provided e.g. under water (for example in marine sediments, in ruminant stomach and in marshes). They are obligatory anaerobic and very sensitive to environmental changes. Therefore from the conditions created for them depends on how intensively they produce gas.

OPTIMIZATION OF DIGESTION PROCESS:

Acid and methane producing bacteria can be easily found in natural conditions, particularly in animal manure: for example in cattle digestive system, there is a full spectrum of micro-organisms necessary for fermentation of manure and the process of fermentation starts in cattle bowels.

That is why cattle manure is often used as primary substrate which is loaded into new digester where for the fermentation to begin, it is enough to create the following conditions:

·         Maintenance of anaerobic condition in digester.

·         Maintenance of temperature regime.

·         Availability of nutrients for bacteria.

·         Correct choice of digestion time.

·         Timely load and unload of substrate.

·         Observance of appropriate C/N ratio.

·         Correctly chosen proportion of solids content and proper agitation

·         Absence of inhibitors of the digestion process.

FEATURES OF BIOGAS FROM COW DUNG

Cow dung biogas is 55-65% methane, 30-35% carbon dioxide, with some hydrogen, nitrogen and other trace element. Its heating value is around 600BTU. Per cubic feet. Natural gas consists of around 80% methane, yielding a B.T.U. value of about 1000. About one cubic foot of biogas may be generated from 0.45kg of cow manure at around 28 degrees C. This is enough gas to cook a day’s meal for 4-6 people.

About 1.7 cubic metres of biogas equal one litre of petrol. The manure produced by one cow in one year can be converted to methane which is the equivalent of over 200 litres of petrol.

GAS HOLDERS (STORAGE): The medium for biogas storage depends on the volume of gas to be stored and the level of pressure requirement at the site of use. Higher pressure vessels require steel pipes for delivery and steel storage tanks. Reinforced plastics with polyester fabric are featuring in modern gas membranes that are elastic, tough, lightweight and can withstand higher pressures, easier to transport and fix directly to user inlets. They come in different sizes and capacities with standardized connecting pipes and valves. (PICTURE)

BIO-FERTILIZER

Plant nutrients are not reduced in chemical content as a result of any bacterial activity in the digester. Plant nutrients, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, including vitamins and micro-elements necessary for plant growth are left whole in bio-fertilizer.

Bio-fertilizer nutrient content (grams per kg of dry matter)

Feed	Phosphate	Potassium	Calcium	Magnesium	Nitrogen
	P₂O₅	K₂O	CaO	MgO	Na₂O
Manure	3.05	5.64	3.25	0.98	1.75
Manure and Vegetation Waste	6.37	7.98	5.15	1.95	3.37
Vegetation waste	6.66	8.88	5.18	2.22	3.70

BIOFERTILIZER PRESERVATION AND STORAGE

The nitrogen content of bio-fertilizer can be preserved by storing for a short period in closed vessels and then applied to soil shortly before ploughing. Storage can be in any of the following forms:

A.    Liquid: Pipe is connected to discharge channel from the digester and leads directly to collection vessels for onward transport to farms.

B.     Drying: A drying system can be constructed to dry the bio-fertilizer to 15% moisture content or less. Other drying technologies may include the use of separators and sieves. Drying offers opportunity for longer preservation but suffers loss of 90% of inorganic nitrogen which represents 50% of overall nitrogen content.

C.     Composting. To avoid such massive loss of nitrogen, the bio-fertilizer slurry can be mixed with dead vegetation and wastes and composted. The bio-fertilizer which has high contents of nitrogen, phosphorus and other chemicals quickens the composting activity and kills pathogenic micro-flora.

BIO-FERTILIZER NUTRIENT FACTS:

A.    Experiments conducted have shown increase in corn yields of 49%” “With single application of bio-fertilizer during pre-sowing period in quantities of 4 tonnes per hectare. Farmers have registered increases in corn yield of 1.8 times more than the normal yield.

B.     Tuberous plants and vegetables: Researches conducted on different types of crops have proven that the most dramatic yield effects of biogas are on tuber crops like cassava and tomatoes.

C.     Bio-fertilizer is a wholesome environment friendly soil enrichment and support fertilizer that does not result in soil leaching or degradation unlike chemical fertilizer. Bio-fertilizer contribute immeasurably to the stability of the eco-system by stopping the wanton destruction of the forest for firewood and by halting the leaching into the atmosphere of bio-methane from cow dung that contribute so destructively to the depletion of the ozone layer.

BIO-FERTILIZER PLANT NUTRIENT FACTS

Cow dung slurry is composed of 1.8-2.4% nitrogen (N2), 1.0-1.2% phosphorus (P2O5), 0.6-0.8% Potassium (K2O) and 50-70% organic humus.

OTHER USES OF BIO-SLURRY

Bio-slurry can be used as fodder for livestock and feed for fish. Micro-organisms present in the solid contents are a rich source of protein when the digested slurry and dregs are used as fodder. It can be used to feed fish and pigs to speed up growth and shorten the rearing period by 25%. With its high humic acid content it can be used to rear mushrooms or earthworms for feeding chicken. Chickens lay 15-30% more eggs when fed a sustained diet of earthworms.

FABRICATION OF BIOGAS PLANT (NIGERIA)

A modular design for a Biogas plant is recommended for the Biogas Project. This will require that basic biogas and factory facilities are provided in the initial factory design and installation while allowing for additional digesters and slurry tanks to be added as business develops. The digester is the processing centre for biogas and the focal point of all industrial activity at the plant. The capacity and output of the digester systems determine the capacity of the biogas plant.

Local fabrication of the biogas plant lowers investment costs dramatically while also allowing for the development of local skills and technologies for onward sale to future investors as part of the new income streams of the Biogas Project.

A locally fabricated biogas plant will require the services of a Fabrication Engineer or experienced technician to accomplish. The inner walls of the steel tanks will be of galvanized steel in order to avoid corrosion from hydrogen sulfide for as long as possible.

There is of course the alternative of buying and deploying the largest possible sizes of plastic tanks. They are of lower capacity but deployed in enough numbers they can do well to service a 250 cubic metre biogas plant.

REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE OF BIOGAS PLANT

Blocked Inlet/Outlet Pipe

Possible Reasons:

A.    Fibrous material inside the pipe

B.     Sinking layer blocking the lower end of the pipe.

CORRECTIONS

(a) Clean up the pipe with a pole

(b) Remove the sinking layer by frequent poking through inlet and outlet pole.

Sinking Sludge Level

Possible Reasons

A.    Digester not water tight (If cracks in the digester do not self-seal within weeks, empty digester and seal cracks).

B.     Insufficient gas storage: Gas store not gas tight due to cracks or corrosion.

CORRECTION

I.                   Seal Cracks

II.                 Replace corroded parts

BLOCKED TAPS

A.    Corrosion: Open and close several times, grease or replace taps.

B.     Gas pipe is not tight: Corrosion or porosity; insufficient sealing of connections. CORRECTION: (a) identify leaking parts (b) replace corroded or porous parts (c) re-seal connections.

SUDDEN GAS LOSS

Possible Reason

Crack in the gas pipe: automatic water trap blown empty.

CORRECTIONS

A.    Open gas tap

B.     Repair or replace

C.     Add/refill water

D.    Detect reason for over-pressure

E.     Check dimensioning of the water trap

F.     Close tap.

THROBBING GAS PRESSURE

Possible Reason

1.     Water in the gas pipe

2.     Blocked gas pipe

CORRECTIONS

A.    Check functioning of water trap

B.     Install water traps in depressions of piping systems

C.     Or eliminate these depressions

D.    Identify the blocked parts (start with gas outlet connections to appliances and bends).

E.     Clean the respective parts.

MATERIAL AND EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENT FOR FABRICATION OF A BIOGAS PLANT.

1.     Oil Storage Tanks in Galvanized Steel Sheets (10 no) Total capacity 250Cubic Metres

2.     Slurry Mixing Tanks

3.     Steel or PVC Pipes, Bends etc.

4.     Valves, Chambers, Locks, Gas Pressure Gauges, Metres etc.

5.     Gas steel storage tanks or gas plastic membranes, gas holders etc.

6.     Cow Dung Dump Tanks (or just plain ground)

7.     Bio-Slurry Tanks (Plastic)

8.     Sieving Equipment

9.     Drying Equipment.

10.                        Sack Sewing Machine

11.                        Bottle Filling Equipment

12.                        Jerry Cans, PET Bottles.

13.                        Tractors with Buckets (2 No)

14.                        Push Carts