TONY AILEMEN
19 April 2004
Yola — CHIEF Economic Adviser to the President, Prof. Charles Soludo, has predicted that Nigeria's crude may dry up in the next 35 years.
He called for research into alternative energy sources for the country amid the looming prospect.
Soludo, who spoke during the presentation of the document on the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) for the North East zone, also lamented the over-dependence on oil revenue.
Crude oil was discovered in Nigeria in 1956 in Oloibiri, Rivers State, while large-scale production commenced in the early '70s following the discoverry of more field with large oil deposits.
Nigeria's crude reserve is currently put at 34 billion barrels just as the country is believed to have an exploitation rate of one billion barrels per year.
Soludo challenged the North-East to harness the abundance solar energy potentials wasting away in the area for energy development.
The presidential adviser said similar efforts to harness energy resources in other parts of the country involved a partnership between the governments of Lagos, Rivers and Abia states with some private sector investors in developing Independent Power Project (IPP) for those areas.
Prof. Solsudo said President Olusegun Obasanjo is committed to encouraging private sector participation through executing laws to protect private property rights in the country.
The President, he said, will ensure the security of lives, adding that Nigeria is still better than many copuntries in the world in terms of crime rate.
Prof. Soludo allayed fears that NEEDS will terminate with the end of President Obasanjo's tenure in 2007.
The Chief Economic Adviser said the current sensitisation efforts on NEEDS were to ensure that Nigerians see the document as their own to attract support for its success, noting that no sane government will like to kill the initiative.
He expressed encouragement by the general enthusiasm with which Nigerians welcomed the policy and called for support from people of the North-East.
For the initiative to succeed, Prof. Soludo said, there has to be a reduction in taste for foreign goods so that the nation can have a healthy foreign exchange.
Government, he said, will pay attention to the development of a conducive environment for business, support infrastructural development such as education and value re-orientation.
Already, he said, government has implemented the NEEDS document to about 70 per cent with the provision of N53 billion for the energy sector and 65 per cent of the 2004 budget total expenditure devoted to health and social security.
Also speaking on the occasion, the Economic Adviser to the Vice President, Prof. Mike Kwanashe condemned the attitude of some Northern states in resisting the Federal Government reforms in some sectors.
He said since the NEEDS document has the Nigerian Child as the main focus, gains may be lost unless the children are allowed unfettered access to health development.
Prof. Kwanashe added that in any reform programme, there are losers and gainers and counselled losers to accept their fate in the interest of the nation.
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