A Professor of Energy and Power Engineering at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Osadolor Odia, has urged the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to declare a state of emergency in the power sector in order to address the nation’s energy deficiency.
Odia, who said this while giving the AAU 108th inaugural lecture titled “Exploration and Exploitation of Energy Resources: Implication for Man and the Earth,” mentioned that no country can achieve the necessary development without electricity or with a high level of energy shortage like what Nigeria is currently facing.
He mentioned, “I am asking the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to declare a state of emergency in the power sector to tackle the nation’s energy deficiency. Nigeria Electricity Power (Power) availability is terrible, as Nigeria is at the top of the list of countries with the longest annual outage duration in Africa with 4,600hours. This is 3,200 hours more than the next country on the list, Niger Republic.
“Nigeria is ranked as the world’s worst country with regards to access to electricity, with about 90 million (46 per cent) of the total population not connected to the grid. Where the grid is available, which corresponds to 54% of the total population, power is only available for between 4 and 15 hours per week.
“With only about 3GW availability, Nigerian power production falls far short of demand, which is the primary constraint to the Nation’s economic growth. Nigeria’s power situation is truly miserable compared to the huge population and the desired rate of development.
“With the population now in the excess of 200 million and with the present level of determination and desire for development, Nigeria needs a generation capacity of at least 60,000MW and an available capacity of at least 40,000MW in the immediate with a solid arrangement to double the generation and available capacities before 2035.”
Odia said the national energy challenge has not gone beyond redemption, but certain steps must be taken with all the required precisions.
Beyond calling for a state of emergency in the power sector as recommended, the professor of Energy and Power Engineering suggested that the Federal Government should consider “reversing the privatisation of the distribution sector and implementing prepaid metering system and monitoring it through remote modular connectivity,” highlighting that the privatisation exercise is harmful to rural development.
He added that the government should “decentralise transmission by dividing the nation into between six and 10 units and connect the units with gear switches to reduce the very common outages due to system failures and invest extensively in generation among other things.”
Acting Vice Chancellor of the University, Prof. Asomwan Adagbonyin, said the lecture could not have come at a better time than now that Nigeria is craving industrial development powered by constant energy.
Adagbonyin observed that the lecture addressed national development and growth in the face of energy deficiency while also making recommendations on ways out of the crisis.
He said, “Using, finding, changing, and using energy has results that affect people and the environment in many ways. If not controlled, it could seriously harm humans and the environment.”
