A Professor of Petroleum and Gas Engineering at the University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State, Sunday Ikiensikimama, has said that Nigeria should look into alternative means to grow the nation’s economy away from crude oil.
Ikiensikimama, who made this assertion in a chat with newsmen, noted however, that the country is not yet ready to phase out the production and use of crude oil.
He said Nigeria has to put in place infrastructure and other strategies if the country would transit to alternative energy.
According to him, “If we move out of this fossil fuel, Nigeria has to begin to put things in place”, explaining that it is something that needs to be done in phases and with strategic plans and infrastructure in place after much research has been done.
He said, “We cannot be linked immediately into that phase. Nigeria has to have a strategy as to begin to move from this phase where we are and we begin to do research and bring in the other phases where we now begin to even talk about solar.
“Moving into that phase also needs some infrastructure, it needs some investments as other countries did. They have grown in research to be able to bring up other greener areas where they are using as substitute”
He urged the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, implement the diversification plans of the country’s economy so as to phase out the use of crude oil easily.
“Diversification plan has been there for years. Even this is the year 2020 that has been so talked about that by 2020 we would have actually diversified into other areas. We have the policies on ground, but implementation has been the problem. Nigeria can move if there is a political will that we are going to develop our economy in this line.
“We have plans that would have actually taken us far away as to where we are, but the truth about it is that those who run the economy don’t see that as their focus”, he stressed.
He emphasised the need for policy makers in Nigeria to chart a new path for sustainable economic future as other countries were moving to greener energy.
“Government needs to be proactive enough, seeing where other economies are headed to, so that we can be part of what is happening. Truly, the idea of how much we sell, with the fossil fuel, it’s going to decrease. Since other countries who rely on us for fossil are trying to diversify and trying to go to greener energy, we need to follow suit”, he said.

Tonye Nria-Dappa