A Peoples Democratic Party chieftain in Osun State, Dr. Ayoade Adewopo, has said that States should be allowed to explore their own alternative sources of energy to meet up with their electricity supply to drive their economies.
Adewopo said the present 6,000 MW of electricity generation capacity had become grossly inadequate for the country and had been slowing down economic growth.
This situation, he argued, had also been affecting the people’s economic well-being and their standard of living.
Speaking with our correspondent in Abuja, after collecting his intention form to contest the September 22, 2018 governorship election on the platform of the PDP in Osun State, Adewopo said one of the hindrances to the growth of Nigeria had been lack of sustainable energy to drive the economy,
especially industries and domestic economic activities.
He pointed out that lack of power had been one of the major reasons the nation’s economy had refused to grow because the problem had been crippling businesses at the local level, disrupting the means of livelihood of peasant farmers, artisans, market men and women, who should have been contributing meaningfully to the development of the country.
Adewopo also argued that the Federal Government should deregulate energy and give the states the opportunity to generate and explore alternative sources of energy for the consumption of their people on their own terms and at their own pace.
He said if elected the governor of Osun State, he would collaborate with stakeholders in other states of the federation, especially those in the South Western part of the country, to bring electricity supply to the populace.
According to him, since the attempt by the Lagos State to achieve this during the tenure of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu failed, no further and bold steps had been made by other states in the federation in this regard.
He regretted that since, what had held were mere talk shops on energy without concrete steps to actualize it, adding that he already had a blueprint on this and with his international contacts, he had discussed widely and was ready to take a bold step in this direction, which would make Osun State the envy of other states in Nigeria.
Adewopo said that if the state was able to generate and provide alternative
source of energy for the people, there would be a sharp departure from the ways things are done presently, adding that the world is moving away from the present methods of sources of energy.
“Presently, there are various alternative sources of energy, such as solar, wind, biomass, coal, aside hydro and gas, which we now depend on in Nigeria,” he said.
Adewopo , who is a legal practitioner, said he had been moving round Osun State in the past four years and had conducted survey on how to change things and move the state forward.
He gave assurance that the data he had collated from various sectors of the state had prepared him for the task ahead.
He said in the course of his intensive tours and study on generation
of alternative source of energy for the state, he discovered that the state could considerably expand the base of its energy resources because the state is strategically positioned to achieve such.
According to him, what is required as obtainable in other developing countries like Nigeria, is renewable energy sources, which would give everybody tremendous advantage and this could be found in solar, hydro, wind geothermal and biomass.
“I have studied the synergy presently going on among the
South West States, irrespective of their political differences, and I am
happy to say that what they are doing is in the right direction, especially the admission of Lagos State back into the fold, a gesture that has increased the share equity of Oodua Investments Company to N690million,” he said.
He made specific reference to telecommunication investments in Oodua states, which he said have their own telecommunication network, ‘Odua
net’ , that is now moribund, saying It would not, however, be out of place, if governors and stakeholders in the region could come together to resuscitate it and make it one of the best, to ease communication in the South west.
“I will move it as the governor of Osun State and the state would be a major stakeholder in the project,’’ Adewopo said.
