A professor of Mechanical Engineering, Kayode Adegun, has decried the mode of implementation of the Federal Government’s policies and roadmap for improved power generation and supply in the country.
Adegun told journalists in Ilorin shortly after he delivered the 2019 Public Lecture of the Ilorin branch of Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) that renewable energy remained the potent option to holistically improve power generation and supply.
The don, who teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Ilorin, explained that the global community had embraced renewable 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 could generate power without using the conventional method that had subsisted over the years
The don maintained that government needed to tap and harness available resource, 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 are 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 supply. The cost implication is not the issue. What should be of importance to us is long term 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,” he said.
Earlier, the immediate past Registrar, Council of Registered Engineers in Nigeria, Mr Kamila Wopa, had 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 problems that appeared intractable in the sector.
In his remarks at the lecture with the theme, “Renewable Energy: Panacea for Improved Power Generation and Supply in Nigeria,” the Chairman, Ilorin branch of NSE, Mallam Mashood Akanbi, said the forum was organised to seek solutions to the failure in the power sector.
