Nigerians don’t seem to be disciplined in the use of energy, according to the Managing Director of Shangix Development Limited (SDL), Sam Coker. He said the use of renewable energy, aside protecting the environment from greenhouse gases (GHG), will help to instill such discipline in the citizenry.
Mr. Coker was speaking at a media session organised by the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) for an essay competition on renewable energy at the NCF secretariat, Lekki, Lagos on Friday, February 17, 2017.
The briefing is part of activities for the 2017 Energy Week with the theme: “Energy: Make it Nature-friendly”.
NCF and Shangix are collaborating to put the competition together for junior and senior secondary school students in District 3, Lagos.
The concept of introducing renewable energy education to schools, said Coker, was mooted some three years ago after his visit to the United States of America (U.S.A.), where he saw classrooms powered by solar energy.
According to him, children should be taught early in life the use of renewable energy and to imbibe the discipline involved, so that it becomes a lifestyle for them.
Earlier in his goodwill message, the Director General of NCF, Adeniyi Karunwi, stressed the need for the use of renewable energy.
Many nations of the world, he said, are embracing renewable energy, one of which is solar power, and dumping the use of foosil fuels which are harmful to the environment and human health.
The NCF DG noted that the use of renewable energy minimises pollution of the environment that causes the depletion of the ozone layer and climate change.
Environment education being one of NCF’s core mandates, the DG said the competition would help educate the public on renewable energy use.
Themes of the essay competition, which will take place on February 21, 2017 at two different locations in Lagos, are “Sun: Energy for the Future” for the junior category, while the senior category will write on “Energy Crisis: Conventional Energy versus Solar Energy”.
For Bolanle Akinleye-Opara of the NCF, the competition is a bid to “catch them young” in the campaign to replace fossil fuels with green energy.
Temituoyo Nzewi of Shangix noted that Nigeria, a country located near the equator, is supposed to make good use of the sun for its energy needs.
She disclosed that, in the past four years, Shangix has been installing solar panels in homes and offices, to replace conventional energy.
“We are trying to spread the consciousness of renewable power use down to the children. If children get orientation on renewable energy and the power use discipline, it becomes a way of life to them,” she said.
NCF, represented by Karunwi and a management staff, Mr. Saturday Okhueleigbe, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shangix at the end of the briefing, to consummate a relationship that will give birth to the education of the public on renewable energy as an alternative to the use of petrol, diesel and natural gas to generate electric power.
As the pilot edition only covers District 3, Lagos, because of logistics, the organisers of the competition called on interested individuals and corporate bodies to come on board, so that the competition will spread to other parts of the country.
