05 July 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja — Citizens Wealth Platform, a coalition of civil society organizations, Wednesday, advised the Federal Government to discontinue its planned nuclear power plant acquisition programme.
Speaking at the presentation of the 2018 low carbon budgeting framework in Abuja, Executive Director of CWP, Mr. Eze Onyekpere, stated that some advanced countries had commenced the shutting down of their nuclear power plants, while a few others had recorded disaster of national proportion.
He argued that Nigeria does not have the discipline and technology to manage a nuclear plant, as it is very complicated and poses a serious danger to any country.
He said, “The Federal Government should stop budgetary investments in nuclear power considering that we neither have the technology and capacity to run nuclear plants. Other countries like Germany are closing down nuclear power plants. The disposal of nuclear fuels is an issue that no one has been able to tackle.”
Onyekpere further called on the Federal Government to develop mini power grids considering the very poor state of the bigger national grid and the absence of plans to improve the national grid.
He advocated the use of off-grid renewable energy solution to increase rural electrification, especially with the poor state of the national grid.
Furthermore, he said the Federal Government should stop budgetary investments in coal harvesting or the use of coal to generate electricity, as coal mining heavily pollutes the environment and also, using it to generate energy further complicates the situate through the emission of Green House Gasses.
He added that “Initiatives like the Sovereign green bond of the Federal Government and projects of this kind should be encouraged. The Central Bank of Nigeria, the Bank of Industry should take the lead and set up similar initiatives with single digit interest rates to ramp up sustainable energy generation in the country.
“This will not only increase the proportion of Nigerians that have access to power but will also create jobs, stimulate the economy and can lead the economy out of recession onto a sustainable development path.”
Furthermore, in the transport sector, Onyekpere urged the government increase fuel efficiency and incentivize the use of public transport, while ensuring that overall vehicle efficiency should be improved through higher fuel efficiency standards.