A Professor of Chemical Engineering, Adesoji Adesina, says Nigeria cannot continue to rely on fossil energy resources to drive its economic well being.
Adesina said this at the 2019 First Winners’ Award Lecture at the University of Lagos on Tuesday Night in Lagos.
The theme of the lecture is: Making the Case for Agro-Based Energy Development; A National Priority For Sustainable Economy.
According to him, there is a strong necessity to diversify the nation’s energy mix to include renewable components at a much higher level than the current participation rate.
He noted that electricity production from renewable sources offer greater flexibility for growth and hence consumption capacity with attendant improvement in the quality of human living.
“In contrast to fossil energy, renewable resources are significantly less carbon intensive and in many respects, reabsorb any carbon dioxide arising from electricity provision during the restocking process on a relatively short time scale.
“Indeed, renewable resources provide energy flow of about three orders of magnitude higher than current global energy demand.
“As a result, they offer a mere sustainable energy system with a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions while allowing for economic growth,” he said.
According to him, marked differences in accessibility and affordability delineates identification in different categories of the human developmental stage.
He added that the emphasis on and the benefits of green, agro-circular economy for sustainable development demanded a change that can only be initiated and led by collaboration among the Federal Government, private national stakeholders and international agencies operating in non- predator -prey relational mode.
The Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the event that the institution would step up efforts in looking at the possibility of escalating the recommendations of the lecturer.
“The lecturer has gone into details to showcase his research work, to tell us what we can do in this regard.
“Our expectations therefore is for us to see what we can do to bring this to focus in our own country too, in the area of energy.
“We will attempt to use agro based energy development, and this i know, our colleagues in the Faculty of Engineering will look into and see the possibility of building on that,” Ogundipe said.
The Chairman, Governing Board, Nigerian National Merit Award, Prof. Shekarau Aku, said that the award winners’ lecture was one of the most important programmes of the NNMA.
Aku explained that the award was designed primarily to assist in creating the enabling environment in which healthy and intellectual discourse and exchange of ideas are fostered.
