Electricity From Nuclear Power – Is Nigeria Ready?

Nigeria’s quest to finally solve its incessant and nationally embarrassing power problem with nuclear technology caught my attention. I believe everyone would have different opinions as to how this technology may be a panacea for the colossal failure our power generation has been over the years.

Regardless, after long hours of research and thinking, I decided to share some of my views and I hope other Nigerians will contribute their opinions to this important issue. This, I believe, is one of the very vital ways a nation can rally creative and constructive ideas to better its citizens and country at large.

Nigeria, unarguably, is a country that is blessed in every possible way, but when blessings seem to have turned to curses, what should we do? Do we ‘siddon look’ and wait until God will come and change these curses back to blessings? Why can’t we get our priorities right? Why does Nigeria keep putting the cart before the horse? What wicked master will blame the horse after making a stupid error of putting the cart before the horse and will seek to flog the helpless creature to death? This has been Nigeria’s master strategy over the years but yet the elders say we cannot all sleep and face the same direction!

Unfortunately, Nigeria’s case seems as though we have all faced the same direction and refused to turn even when our approach is not only unproductive but amounts to wasting away our resources. In the end, we only have losses and more losses to show for our lopsided approach to solving problems, lack of objective and long-term planning and painstakingly wasteful efforts!

Power from nuclear technology sounds very lofty and great, but is Nigeria ready for nuclear technology? A simple YES or NO answer would suffice from the reader at this point. What is the basis of Nigeria generating power from nuclear technology when it has failed woefully to generate and maintain steady supply from more basic technologies? Is the power from nuclear sources different from that from hydro (water), natural gas, solar, wind, coal, etc? When I switch on the light, there’s nothing that suggests what primary source of energy the electricity was produced from! Has Nigeria been able to master any technologies or engineering concepts till date and use same in production? What would Nigeria gain from deceiving itself by spending billions of dollars on another wasteful project it knows nothing about? Or is it the gazillion dollars which this huge project will gulp that will generate only ‘1,000MW by 2017, and 4,000MW by 2027’ the ultimate target?

Let’s probe deeper with more soul-searching questions: is Nigeria trying to copy the West with ‘our’ nuclear technology? Are we trying to show to the world that we can afford to build a mere 4,000MW nuclear power station in about 20 years from our oil money which is daily plundered and wickedly stolen? With this project (perhaps one of the all-time biggest projects in Nigeria), will Nigeria not provide its leaders (the custodian of the treasury, the key persons on the project) and their unborn children more stolen money than ever? What is the government doing, again, with building a multi-billion dollar power plant which it may eventually abandon or continue to build ad infinitum while the country is, again, looted into utter insolvency? Nigerians know our experience with Ajaokuta steel project, hospitals, schools, roads (over a 1000, valued at N1.4 trillion) and the several thousands of abandoned projects from which we only get stories and explanations until they are sold at some ridiculous price.

The government has not delivered on any of its promises, in spite of the petro-dollars being paid to our elected (and selected ones too) leaders. Healthcare, education, social welfare, roads, water, security and so on continue gulping money but all we hear is unending explanation and pleas to be patient and wait. When will this waiting period come to an end and Nigerians can see something done with their money? Would any right-thinking person keep pumping water into a leaking basket even when he sees evidence that he is achieving no result? Must Nigeria keep investing money, time and valuable resources into eternally wasteful ventures?

Nigeria does not know anything about nuclear power. The mere fact that there’s a Nigerian Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC) and a thousand of such ‘clubs’ does not confer knowledge or technology on a people. This, of course, does not only apply to nuclear technology but also other technologies Nigeria has been trying to import without any meaningful result.

Source: Tribune