The then government approved a contract worth 9.2 billion naira for the project.

The idea behind the project was to reduce the indiscriminate felling of trees which are used for cooking by rural women as well as protect them from suffering avoidable ailments rising from cooking with firewood as a UNDP report suggest that Nigeria is one of the countries where women suffer some ailments as a result of cooking with firewood.

Wonderbag is a slow, non-electric cooker invented by a South African eco-entrepreneur, Sarah Collins, seven years ago when she refused to be rendered helpless by a power cut and decided to keep her dinner cooking by surrounding it with cushions.

However, this once promising land mark step by the then government has since been terminated by the Nigerian ministry of Environment. The ministry alleged that the contractor did not meet up with the required supply demands attendant to the ministry's 15% mobilization fund as enshrined in the contract. The ministry before terminating the deal, said it had received some deliveries but won't commence distribution until the agreed number of initial delivery were made. But there are very strong believes in Nigeria that the federal ministry of environment under the leadership of the past minister had dubious intentions with the deal. It's reported that the ministry had ordered the contractor to supply less than the specified number of the wares as was on the contract and also tried to lure the contractor to "cooperate" with them- in an obvious attempt to divert money meant for the project to personal account-but the contractors refusal to play along is reported to be the major reason behind the termination of the deal.

Infact, an investigation by one of Nigeria's national dailies, Daily Trust, reveals thus, "The ministry started with the

inauguration of an implementation

committee made up of members drawn

from development partners, civil

societies, media, auditors and

procurement officers from the ministry

but the committee was disbanded on

the order of the minister after three

sittings.

Suspecting foul play, a non-

governmental organisation, Connected

Development (CODE) wrote to the

minister of environment on the strength

of the Freedom of Information Act

demanding a detailed breakdown of

how the N9.3 billion was used and how

the stoves and wonder bags would be

distributed.

CODE also converge a stakeholders

meeting recently on the clean cook

stove and participants at the meeting

were told how efforts to get the ministry

to explain to Nigerians when the stoves

would be distributed failed to yield

result".

Daily Trust further stated "Daily Trust investigation however

revealed that while only 15 per cent of

the contract sum was paid to the

contract, records at the ministry showed

that about 40 per cent of the contract

sum had been paid out.

Following the mobilisation, our checks

revealed that the contractor had

procured and brought into the

Velodrome at the National Stadium over

200,000 pieces of the clean cook stoves

including mini LPGs, Stove 80, Envirofit

among others.

The ministry was to follow up on the

issuance of waiver to the company for

the procurement but this was also

terminated and as a result over 500,000

pieces of the stoves are currently being

held at one of the ports in Lagos.

The ministry, in its bid to thwart the

contract, also wrote to the bank that

granted an Advance Payment

Guarantee to the company to stop

further transaction with the company as

it had failed to carry out the contract.

A staff of the bank who pleaded

anonymity told Daily Trust that, ?We

were shocked when we saw the letter

from the ministry but the contractor

was able to bring evidence to the bank

of work done so far and certified by

officials of the ministry.?

A directorate staff at the accounts

department in the ministry who also

didn?t want to be mention told Daily

Trust that the going on in the ministry

regarding the stoves showed clearly

that the stoves would never get to the

rural women.

?The contractor is subjected to all sorts

of abuses and ridicule because he has

refused to ?cooperate? and if things

continue this way, I?m sure they will

never be paid,? the source said, ?The

contractor was asked to bring in a little

less number of the stoves than what

was contained in the contract but his

refusal has pitched him against the

minister who has only few days left in

the ministry and the permanent Secretary who has taken charge of the whole affair".

Before this whole scene, the launch of the project, which was majorly attended by staff members of the environment ministry, rather than the proposed rural women beneficiaries further alludes to some dubious intentions.

Now, the matter is in court as the German contractor can't just let it go without a justified fight. He is seeking a court order to stop the government from terminating the contract.

It is really saddening that someone wanted to take advantage of an eco-friendly Nigeria in a corrupt way by thinking only about personal bank account balance other than the history that could have remembered her for good. But then, the obvious anti-corruption stance of our new president, Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, has kept everyone on their toes and I hope that it will help make this project a success. I will keep you updated on how this one goes.

Knowing that 50% of Nigeria's energy resources is used in cooking the success of this project will help reduce deforestation in Nigeria and help meet our energy demands in an eco-friendly way is the more reason why I want this project to be a success. I just hope it will.

Photo 1: en.wikipedia.org

Photo 2: Premium Times