Energy Expert Tasks FG On Comprehensive Power Audit, Alternative Energy Sources

MICHAEL AKINOLA

Bothered by the challenges currently confronting the energy sector in Nigeria and bedeviling its advancement to attain global status, Nigeria’s foremost renewable energy promoter, Prince Okedele Timothy, has lamented on the ugly situation and urged the Federal Government to fix the sector by first conducting a comprehensive audit of the sphere.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that Okedele shared this recently in Ado-Ekiti during the Ekiti State Microfinance and Enterprise Development Agency (MEDA) programme.
He pointed that it is high time the Nigerian leadership stopped groping in the dark and experimenting directionlessly with a very fundamental necessity such as power. He stated that the major bane, apart from unhealthy leadership of development in Nigeria, is energy, pointing that the scarcity of it has been behind the dearth of industrial growth.
On why the power sector has failed to respond to the huge investments injected into it by successive administrations, Okedele said that the proper things are not done as most times square pegs are placed in round holes.

According to him, people with the real know-how are sidelined; instead non-professionals with credentials and connections are given positions so vital. Talking on the way forward, he stressed that the government must immediately embark on a comprehensive energy audit of Nigeria to ascertain the exact energy demand of the nation vis-a-vis the present deficit or deficiency crippling the most vital sector upon which the vibrancy of other segments should revolve.
Okedele opined that the comprehensive energy summit if conducted will help forge a new paradigm for a lasting energy projects that will totally alter the status quo and provide a new lease for energy consumers and Nigerians in general, emphasising that he had suggested this plan to the Federal Government during the tenure of Babatunde Raji Fashola as Minister of Power through some national newspapers; a report he said yielded result as the Minister then took some steps in that direction.
He also advised that a full adoption of renewable and alternative power technology just as exists in other developed climes will do enormous good to Nigeria that needs clean, safe and environmentally friendly sources of power.

Okedele wondered why the government is giving the nuclear plant a thought when nations of the world are jettisoning the technology which is dangerous and uneasy to transfer to the nooks and cranny even though its production or generation is massive.

“Exploring the renewable energy technology is much safer than the nuclear approach. Renewable energy will open up the economy with new jobs, new opportunities that will grow the entrepreneurial/industrial base of Nigeria. This is apart from the clean energy it will bring.”
“The United States of America began the training of about 70,000 young Americans in various renewable energy businesses and this year they will be graduating and will start to contribute immensely to the development of their nation. I must also mention that the American government at a point charged relevant agencies on the manufacturing of solar panels and after a stipulated time America’s own solar panel was installed at the White House. This shows that when a government is determined, it would achieve its goal.”
“The political will is what I think is lacking and we cannot continue to do things the same way and expect different results” Okedele cautioned.

Continuing, the energy expert urged the Federal Governemt to as a matter of urgency begin to look in the direction of establishing the Ministry of Renewable Energy as a means to fast track the process of achieving stability in power supply, stressing that the issue of power epilepsy has embarrassed and impoverished Nigerians by forcing industries to close down and inflicting social pains.
“It is very unfortunate that for decades now, billions of Naira have been wasted on a sector that has never shown signs of recuperation. If renewable energy stakeholders with national development passion and patriotism are given the opportunity to contribute their quota to this pressing issue, a monumental impact would be made especially as most of them have foreign partners who are ready to invest money to make a head way” he noted.
On his personal readiness to offer his intellectual property (IP) and marshal fleets of technologists to combat this problem, Okedele said that no one can argue that he is very ready to sacrifice for the nation if invited. He stressed that since the year 2010, his life and resources had been geared to finding a panacea to certain problems crippling the various sectors of the Nigerian economy, especially the power sector.