“Let us first begin to ask our President, Governors, and all those occupying or aspiring to occupy our government houses between now and 2020 what they will do if by 4:30 A.M on a national holiday period, an aggrieved politician sends a gang of criminals, militants or terrorists with killer or kidnapping mentalities to seize a nuclear power plant and threaten to cause Scientists at the site to compromise public safety.”
– Prof. Awa Uma, Expert, Electric and Power Technology
In August 2015, within 100 days in office, President Buhari and his entourage of a handful of Governors visited the United States with a broad agenda that includes attracting foreign investors and addressing Nigeria’s economic, security, and corruption problems. To his credit, a Nigerian President for the first time in history created self-reproached international awareness and visibility to Nigeria’s corruption problems, a move that many Washington and international observers, who usually depend on the Transparency International for such awareness, hope would aid directly or indirectly in developing the Nigerian economy including the power sector. Since the details and extent of President Buhari’s discussions with American representatives in the area of energy and power are not publicised, it is hoped by Nigerian Diaspora energy and power experts that the energy options brought at the table precludes building nuclear energy plants in the near future and focus on ideas that would result in using effectively the available natural energy resources of our land – gas, oil, water, coal etc. And as a policy matter, Nigeria should pursue incremental acquisition and transfer of clean alternative energy and participate in international primary research projects such as International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) which is cited in Southern France.
In contrast to Buhari’s predecessor, the interest of Nigeria to opt for nuclear power electric generation manifested itself during former President Jonathan‘s April 2010 visit with his own entourage to the United States for nuclear power summit. Interestingly, as the news had it, one of the President’s delegates, Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Barnett Holding Company of Virginia (USA) for the building of two nuclear electric power plants in Imo State. The signing of the agreement as we are told was witnessed by many other delegates including Professor Babatunde Elegba, the Director General of the Nigerian Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NNRA) who as any one would expect showed support for the deal. On the contrary, many Nigerians reacted differently to the news citing lack of due diligence and the downsides of nuclear power systems especially the safety implications as major concerns.
Apart from the issues of due diligence and safety, Diaspora Nigerians believe that any justification for nuclear power electric generation must consider economic factors such as the first costs, the operational costs, the maintenance costs, the material costs, and the decommissioning costs. The time and cost factors involved in power plant development are prone to corruption such as the $16 Billion Ghost Power Plants ($16 Billion was claimed to have been used to build power plants that never existed) that never existed during President Obasanjo’s administration. Other possible post development or indirect cost factors for nuclear power plants are incidental (within the nuclear plant establishment) and Chernobyl like accidental (originates from the plant to affect public safety) costs. In this respect, all possible risks and ramifications surrounding nuclear energy power plant option for Nigeria should be properly and thoroughly addressed using lessons from other countries and with input from all stakeholders at home and abroad. The MOU, if it had been actualized or turned into actual contracts and commitments, would have meant going beyond a pilot project to cite two nuclear power plants in Imo State.
In light of the foregoing, there is exigent need for Nigerians to advocate technology based on investigative journalism that would double as both effective infrastructure development watch dog and corruption fighting tool. This type of journalism though conspicuously absent in Nigeria’s government funded infrastructure projects is practiced in many countries. Buhari’s government, having eschewed political corruption is in a good position to embrace and facilitate “technological investigative journalism”. Because of the unique insightful nature of the use of technology which extends human capabilities in such journalistic investigations, it would possibly require legislative and judicial backings. The idea of “technology investigative journalism” is technology management extended to specialised journalism programs which the author practiced at the US Department of Labor, Washington D.C. and intends with the help of the SUN group, to passionately introduce as pilot programs at select Nigerian universities.
Just as we do not have vehicle proof accident, there is no safety proof for nuclear energy. Another major issue in nuclear plant development is cost. The government must also be a major party in ensuring economic viability of a nuclear power plant project.
Prof. Awa Uma taught Electricity and Power Technology at Ohio State University and Energy and Power at Bowling Green State University, Ohio. His experiences span many US manufacturing and construction industries. He has also provided vocational expertise as an employee and contractor to the US Department of Labor, Wash. DC.