Buhari’s power policy must go beyond hydro power – Expert

A businessman and expert in oil and gas business, Prince Olusegun Aderemi, has declared that President Muhammadu Buhari’s quest to give Nigerians a stable power supply would be a mirage if the country depends  solely on hydro power as the only generating source.

Aderemi said time has come for Nigeria to diversify by investing heavily in solar and wind energy sources to generate more megawatts for Nigerians to drive the economy and create employment in terms of Small and Medium Scale enterprises development.

Aderemi spoke in Aramoko Ekiti, headquarters of Ekiti West Local Government yesterday during a N50 million  fund raising for community development in Glory Quarters and empowerment of 200 widows in the town.

The business mogul said: “No country can develop under a circumstance whereby over 150 million population are relying on power generation that stands at 3000 megawatts.

“President Buhari must invest in solar and wind energy like we have in other Asia countries. We have enough sunlight and power and that is what we need. So, time has come for our country to bring in expatriates to really boost our knowledge in these areas”, he advised.

He also appealed to the federal government to check the menace of vandalism of oil installations in the Niger Delta Region to revert this colossal economic loss being suffered by Nigerians.

Lamenting the two years power outage in that section of the town, Aderemi  said he will  partner with the Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters, Senator Babafemi Ojudu for the donation of a transformer to the community to shore up power generation.

Aderemi said: “As an entrepreneur and community leader, I understand that government can’t do it alone. We have to also contribute our own quota and that is why we are empowering these widows. It is our responsibility to make them happy because they are being neglected by families and government in most cases leaving them to bear the burden solely.

“Today, we are giving them  food and clothing materials  and the next stage which we are doing the feasibility studies will be financial empowerment for them to have their own businesses, so that the level of poverty in the state can be reduced.”

The Chairman of the Council, Mr. Kolawole Omotunde and a oil and gas expert, Mrs Sade Awe, called on well-meaning Nigerians to continue to contribute to their states to reduce the pressure on government.