Govt Should Explore Alternative Energy Sources -Don

After spending more than a decade in the field working for some reputable multinational firms, it is hardly the case that any Nigerian would willingly opt to join the faculty of any of the nation’s beleaguered tertiary institutions where teachers are in a near perennial tug-of-war against the government over salaries and poor funding.

But that was the exact path toed by Dr. Chibuogwu Eze, an Enugu State-born scholar and senior research fellow at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Port Harcourt.

In this interview with The Tide’s Business Editor, Ibelema Jumbo and Senior Reporter, Ike Wigodo, the varsity don advises government on non-fossil fuel resources and better waste management methods, among other issues. Excerpt:

Professional Background

My name is Dr Chibuogwu L. Eze. I have a Ph.D in Applied Geophysics. I read Geology first degree and read Applied Geophysics for my Masters degree and Ph.D.

Every of my degree is from Nigeria. My first degree is from the University of Calabar. I started my university education in 1978 and got a degree in 1982, then in 1985, I got a masters degree from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and in 1999, I got a Ph.D from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt.

I started working after obtaining a Masters degree. My first work experience was in a solid mineral exploration company, Rock View Nigeria Ltd, with headquarters in Paris but had a local office in Jos, Plateau State. I later left Rock View and joined a sister company, Rock View-Slovak. Rock Slovak was a joint venture with Rock View. It was owned by the Czech government.

The good thing I had during the time I worked was that I stayed briefly in 35 out of the 36 states of the federation. I think as a geologist, I have had so much experience in solid mineral exploration; I wished and prayed that I could also have experience in the oil mineral industry. In 1992, I was able to actualise that, when I joined an American oil exploration company, Western Geophysical, based here in Port Harcourt. I had another wish and prayer that I could take the skill back to the university and train younger geologists. Again, in 1995, that was actualised. On my own, I left oil exploration and joined the Rivers State University of Science and Technology where I still work as a senior research fellow in the Institute of Geosciences and Space Technology.

I joined Western Geophysical Oil Services in 1992 and we started oil exploration and I did that extensively. There is hardly any creek in Rivers and Bayelsa States that I have not stayed.  I am yet to see one, but the quest for oil in the Chad basin was not significant. In 1992 when I joined Western Geophysical as an explorer, people were not having this interest in the Chad basin as we have it today, so there were virtually no activities then.

The Chad basin oil explorers came later when we had left. Now, I think of going there also because a lot of younger ones I have trained are exploring there and I feel for two reasons to go to Bornu, so that I can complete the states. I have been to 35 states of the country except Bornu State. In respect of where oil activity is going on I would like to be there.

Possibility of oil find in Chad Basin

Every sedimentary basin in this world has a potential of having oil. So, once you have a sedimentary soil don’t ignore it, do oil exploration there, but among the sedimentary basins, the deltas have the highest potential and so if you have so many sedimentary basins, the good wisdom is that you start with the deltas and, in Nigeria, we have the Niger Delta. Nigeria has about seven sedimentary basins, so from the time we move from Chad basin, we have others; for example, the Anambra basin. And as I speak to you, we have many oil connections on these basins, so there are possibilities of finding oil in the Chad basin and there are possibilities of finding oil in the remaining five or six basins.

Founding of Transparent Earth Nigeria

In 2000, I founded a company called Transparent Earth Nigeria Ltd. The company does just basically two things: carry out environmental studies and safety training. And up till this moment, I’m still the chairman of this company and my wife, Dr. (Mrs) Evelyn Eze who also is a university teacher like me is a director. My wife is a lecturer at Madonna University. We have four directors which means that these people have contributed their monies to get this business started. So, the company is not just me and my wife, but I mentioned my wife because she is my wife and secondly, she takes active part in the day-to-day running of the business and since we started, God has blessed us. Our clients are numerous and run through the oil industry, mainly.

Government patronage

Honestly, Transparent Earth has not received any direct patronage from the government. Whatever we got from the public sector may have been from indirect sources. However, as a university lecturer, I have done a work that should serve this country.  I did a research on alternative ways of getting energy, because energy is a critical issue for our country. The research took me 11 years and I came out with a book published by Macmillan. The book is called Alternative Energy Resources (with comments on Nigeria’s position) and the forward of that book was written by the then Minister of Power and now Governor of Cross River State, Sen. Liyel Imoke. He wrote in his capacity as a minister because it was a national issue. And the then Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi (now governor) also played a very significant role. He was the chief host. I will never forget it. In fact, I wish it would have been possible for me to physically go and thank him.   But outside this, it was Sen. Imoke who wrote four personal letters to encourage me. And for me, a university teacher, reading such letters from people who were more highly placed than me was an encouragement, which is why I spent 11 years doing this research with my own money.

On alternative energy sources

We can get electricity from any of the eight alternative energy sources mentioned in my book; namely, Biomass, Geothermal Energy, Hydropower, Nuclear Energy, Solar Energy, Tidal Energy, Wave energy and Wind Energy. But I advised that we should start from the simplest, the one called Biomass. Biomass is getting electricity from what we call rubbish, the very type that blocks our drainages on Ikwerre and Aba Roads here in Port Harcourt. If you go to Sau Paulo in Brazil, the fuel sold at the filling stations is not from crude oil, it comes from rubbish.

After this research publication, the onus now lies on the government to actualise this dream. And I’m still challenging them to do something.

In fact, when I wanted to demonstrate the simplicity of biomass as an energy resource, I looked around and there was this young man who was interested in getting things done in Rivers State. I’m talking of Ipalibo Harry, a one-time chairman of the Rivers State Environmental Sanitation Authority.  He has a Ph.D now and he was going to do a research then, so I tried to talk him into at least joining me to demonstrate to the world that what I did here is true. But I lacked the money to do it alone.

I told Ipalibo Harry, I know you are a very resourceful son of this state and I had already designed how this project can be done. And he spent a whopping two million naira to construct it the way I wanted. When we did what we did we were able to get fertilizer to grow corn. I invited people to come and see the fertilizers and the big people who came to see the fertilizer appreciated it so much that they could take it and start playing with it in their hands until it was question time. They were still holding and admiring it when they asked to know what it was made from. And as I said the word shit, they so much threw it away that some of it fell on me.

But I can tell you, I am talking about practical things. What is Biomass? Biomass is energy from plants and animals.

With money now available, I suggested that we start by putting to use the human faeces which we pass out on daily basis. I said to him, let’s put it into use and demonstrate to this country that it is possible. It was then that I realized that Rivers people, and this is not peculiar to Rivers State only, that Nigerian government approves areas for the dumping of shit.

Port Harcourt has four approved shit dumps. Then, why do we waste money building septic tanks if at the end of everything, such waste is evacuated to a dump in the bush. That is why I said in one of the conferences I attended that every Nigerian shits in the bush, including top government officials.

Waste-to-Wealth

The waste coming out in tonnes is being wasted and we are using it to kill ourselves. My appeal to the Rivers State Government is that collectively we can do something with this waste. I am willing to contribute; knowledge does not belong to one man alone. Then coming to the other, as a university teacher, I train students on waste management which is not confined to the one in my book. This is not a classroom, but I will give you the two ends of it.

In waste management, the worst thing to do is what is now being practised everywhere. It is called the Open Dump system. The best thing to do is to reduce waste. Reduction means trying not to generate waste at all. And if you ask me how this is possible in this part of the world, I will simply say that we cannot eliminate it, but we can reduce the waste we generate by an appreciable quantity. When I teach my students in the university, I usually ask if they had ever bought a bucket of custard. If you buy custard, by the time you open it you will discover that the quantity of custard hardly justifies the size of its container. That is not in the spirit of waste reduction. I am just giving an example, the international community has advised that we have fit packaging, so that whatever you use in packaging a product should be almost the same size with the product itself.

The second stage is recycling. When you see people coming to buy scraps, what they are doing is a form of waste management. Converting waste to wealth is recycling those scraps. Waste recycling is practised in every part of the world and it is very, very important.

Even at the home level, you practice waste reuse which is the forth ladder, waste reuse is when you store water in a drum which had been emptied of its original content. This means that an empty drum which ordinarily should have become a waste is now serving another useful purpose.

There is a caveat, however. Eating food is something good, but you shouldn’t eat poisoned food. The public must be educated on the kind of things that can be re-used. If a drum, or any other container for that matter, had been used to import toxic chemicals, the importer should be kind enough to, after removing the chemical content, perforate the drum. On this particular issue, I wish I can go to Government House, not to be a governor, but to have the power; I need it for one week, because I am angry about this issue you raised, but for one reason or the other, these are not being implemented, so you asked a vital question, not every container should be re-used. And, it lies on the experts   I am also one to know which that cannot be used and the proper thing to do is as you remove the container, you perforate and send to the people who should dispose of it.  Hazardous items should not be disposed the way we dispose of other things. There are people licensed to dispose of hazardous materials. Government gives them licences and such things should not go anywhere except to those who are licensed to dispose of such wastes.

On kerosene explosion

Thanks for giving me this opportunity. Some people may be angry with my position, but you said the other causes of kerosene explosion are already known. Moving your stove when it is on can cause kerosene explosion. Don’t move your stove when it is burning.

Another cause of kerosene explosion is mixing kerosene with a more volatile component of hydro carbon which, in many cases, does not happen in the house of the victim.

The mixing of kerosene with a more volatile component happens somewhere at a higher level and, in some cases, when it happens at such level, someone in authority knows what has happened but decides to ignore it for financial reasons.

Assuming your business is to import petrol, kerosene and diesel, you have imported and you want to load them differently into their respective tanks and something happened along the line where the tank used for  petrol was loaded with kerosene, this mix- up at this stage would be a sufficient reason  to condemn the entire product; but being a businessman, you wouldn’t want to waste millions of naira, all you are likely to do is pray over it and push the product to the market, and because these products have different distillation  points, it is sold as kerosene.