A university don, Prof. Olawale Ajibola, on Saturday appealed to the Federal Government to explore the nation’s huge coal deposits for power generation.
He said this could help to achieve energy sufficiency while gradually transitioning to clean sources.
Ajibola, Director, National Centre for Energy Efficiency and Conservation, University of Lagos, made the call at the third annual conference of the Society of Energy Administrations of Nigeria (SEA) in Ikeja.
Making slide presentations, he gave statistics and enumerated the vast qualities untapped in the nation’s coal belts and the quantum of electricity that it could have generated.
He explained how power could be generated from various other energy sources and stressed the need to utilize the nation’s huge coal deposits first like other advanced economies, before pursuing clean energy alternatives.
The guest speaker said South Africa, Germany, America, Japan and UK generate 70 per cent of their electricity from coal and Nigeria should give it a try.
“If a cubic kilogram of coal can produce such enormous amount of energy, you can imagine the results if we invest in coal. Within short period of time, we will be energy sufficient in Nigeria,” he said.
Ajibola called on Nigerians and all tiers of government to declare total war against power failure and begin generating electricity to make the nation energy sufficient.
He said stakeholders could leverage enabling environment created by the recently signed 2023 Electricity Law which empowered everyone to generate power.
He said it takes engineering to extract energy and explained application of best practices for conservation of the environment.
“What we have to do is to declare war against failure of energy. All of us must be involved, if we face it religiously, in one year we shall overcome this problem.
“The war is for all of us, especially with the newly enacted law that individuals, companies, states and local governments can generate electricity. So the little we can do in our own corner will go a long way,” he said.
He said Nigeria should gradually adopt gas without missing current opportunities of cheap electricity from coal.
“The advocacy is that we should stop using fossil fuels and coal is part of it but then, they (developed countries) are using it.
“They are telling us to go green but they are going black.The whole world is saying let’s go green but they are going black,” he said.
However, another guest speaker, Benjamin Abamba, disagreed with him, explaining why carbon dioxide negatively impacting the atmosphere should be removed through photosynthesis.
Abamba, who is the Head, Lead Carbon Reduction in NNPCL said tree planting and reforestation could help decarbonize the atmosphere.
He listed various other methods where carbon dioxide could be trapped through machines, reused and the remnant safely disposed back to the environment.
He, however, called for political will on the part of governments at all levels, citing example of a laudable tree planting initiative started by former Lagos Governor, Mr Babatunde Fashola, which was not sustained by his predecessors.
Dr Babatunde Adeboye, President, Society of Energy Administrations of Nigerian (SEA), while making his opening speech, stressed the need to build safety into all stages of projects from inception till post construction.
Adeboye, who is SEA’s Project Director in Nigeria, explained how to prevent losses, the principles of preventive and corrective maintenance while listing efforts of SEA towards enforcing standards in all sectors.
SEA Lagos State Coordinator, Oluwaseun Olukoya, said the theme was apt to address the current realities which provides opportunities for improved electricity supply.
Olukoya, who was the Chairman Planning Committee for the 2023 SEA conference, said competition would force down energy price, while commending President Bola Tinubu for signing the Electricity Law.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that awards were given to deserving industry players in shipping, transport logistics, construction, oil and gas sectors for compliance to health, safety, environment standards.
Also, new members were inducted and graduate members from the Lagos State University were absorbed.