The four-day South East Vision 2050 Stakeholders` Forum which was put together by the South East Development Commission (SEDC) in conjunction with the office of the Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and governments of the five South East States, ended on an optimistic note in Enugu last Friday. The forum was convened as a critical step towards forging a shared long-term development pathway for the South East.
In practical terms, the high-level programme which drew participants from the South East, different parts of the country and diaspora, was essentially meant to harness and harmonize the views of the people of South East towards having a unified approach to regional development. The forum was open and inclusive, and was designed to enable all stakeholders in the region to make contributions to the final 2050 Vision. Such shared contributions, it is believed, would make the Vision binding on the people of the South East Region and subsequently confer collective ownership.
Governor Alex Otti of Abia State was one of the speakers at the conference. He dazzled the audience with his brilliant presentation titled, ‘Powering Industrialisation in South East: Case for Regional Energy Strategy’. He argued that the South East would be better off in tackling its energy challenge if it adopted a unified approach, rather than the current situation in which efforts were being fragmented by the individual States in the search for enduring energy solutions within the region.
Otti stressed the strategic importance of acting as a collective in addressing common challenges in the zone rather than confronting such challenges individually with minimal impact.
His words: ‘Expectedly, the conversation has rightly shifted from the mundane to the sublime; it is no longer about the glory of individual states and communities but the destiny of the collective. It is interesting to see that after a long run of missed opportunities, we are now turning our attention to the untapped potential that abound in the region and how we can begin to leverage the immense human and material resources across the land to create oceans of opportunities for our people’.
Otti noted that the South East is blessed with enough strategic mineral deposits, which if collectively exploited and properly utilized, the energy needs of the region would be greatly satisfied. He noted that Imo state alone ‘holds about the largest reserve of natural gas in West Africa with experts estimating the size in the trillions of cubic feet (Tcf)’. He further observed that fossil oil exists in substantial quantity in Abia, Imo and Anambra, while coal deposits are found in commercial abundance in Enugu and Ebonyi states in addition to other strategic natural resources. Otti informed the audience that the existence of huge gas deposits in the Ukwa axis of Abia state informed the siting of the Abia Industrial and Innovation Park (AIIP) in Owaza.
Otti told the gathering that it was not just enough to have these resources, but deliberate efforts must be made by the governments and people of the zone to harness them with a view to achieving an optimal industrial output. Otti went further to advise that the coal deposits in the South East should not be abandoned because of the current global campaign for energy transition, considering the fact that the contributions of the African continent to global emission is less than 5 per cent.
Otti’s argument in this regard is unassailable:
‘If the developed countries of the world are still firing their coal plants to meet industrial energy demands, would it not be reasonable for us to also develop our coal deposit to meet the development aspirations of our people? Again, while it is OK to join the global energy transition crusade, we must never lose sight of our development reality as a people. In the final analysis, nothing in my estimation, should be taken off the table in the push for industrial energy sufficiency for our region, so long as there are no ethical or legal restrictions’.
He highlighted the importance of continuous investments in the power sector, especially with respect to infrastructure expansion and restoration, technology deployment and upgrades and all other layers of support required to keep the system in continuous operation across the frontiers of generation, transmission and distribution. Otti noted that the whole idea is to de-risk the sector which would make it attractive for the private sector to come in and run the system as an on-going concern.
The road-map Otti provided at the Enugu conference is strategic and pragmatic as it points the way to a sustainable path to shared prosperity in the South East.
May the South East succeed in its mission to reassert its greatness and recover its lost glory!
Dr. Nwosu is a Public Affairs Analyst, writes from Umuahia. He can be reached cdnwosu2@gmail.com
