A Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Isaac Kayode Adegun, has picked a hole in the mode of implementation of federal government’s policies and roadmap for improved power generation and supply in the country.
He said the problem in the power sector persists in spite of the huge amount earmarked for the sector, insisting that the failure experienced could not be divorced from poor policies implementation.
Adegun stated this in Ilorin while speaking to Journalists shortly after he delivered the 2019 Public Lecture of the Ilorin branch of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
He, however, identified renewable energy as the potent option to holistically improve power generation and supply capacity across the country.
Adegun, who teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Ilorin, explained that the global community had gone in the direction of renewable source of energy, which he described as affordable and eco-friendly.
He said the success of the alternative source of power in other countries had shown that Nigeria can generate power without using the conventional method that had subsisted over the years
The don maintained that the government would need to tap and harness available resources, coupled with effective implementation of policies, to address the failure in the sector.
“The way to solve power problem generally, as it is now, is to move in the global direction that is more eco-friendly, which is renewable. By that and if we able to tap it very well, we can even generate power for Nigeria without using the conventional one that we are used to. If we tap the resources and harness them very well, we wouldn’t have problem of power generation and power supply.
“The cost implication is not the issue. What should be of importance to us is long time effect. After you have started using it, which is after installation, maintenance is very low. You don’t need to procure any fuel, particularly the hydro-kinetic, and the repair is of little cost.
“How to address the problem in the power sector generally is to have good implementation and execution of policies. Just of recent, there were billions of naira (earmarked for power sector), but the issue of execution are we honest with it? That has been my concern. If what we have on ground is well implemented even the hydro alone, we would not have much problem”, Adegun said.
The immediate past Registrar, Council of Registered Engineers in Nigeria (COREN), Engr. Kamila Wopa, urged the federal government to review its current policies in the power sector and toe the direction of renewable energy.
He stated that the renewable source of power was cost effective and would tackle the problem that appears intractable in the sector.
In his remarks at the public lecture themed “Renewable Energy: Panacea for Improved Power Generation And Supply in Nigeria, the Chairman, Ilorin branch of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr. Mashood Akanbi, said the lecture was organised to seek solutions to the failure in the power sector.
