Should Government Leaders in Nigeria Embrace Renewable Energy Technologies?

Many developed and developing countries have taken steps to expand access to renewable energy, but according to the Regulatory Indicators For Sustainable Energy(RISE)  report from the World Bank, countries in sub-Saharan Africa are still lacking in this progress (Banerjee et al. 20). Of the 1.3 billion people in the world who do not have access to electricity, more than 300 million and 600 million come from India and sub-Saharan Africa, respectively.Also, 40% of the World’s population–that is more than 3 billion people– still use charcoal, wood, or animal waste to cook in their homes. The inhaling of the toxic smoke from these methods has led to the deaths of around 4 million people in a year. According to The World Bank, Nigeria is one "of the most populous energy deficit countries" (Banerjee et al. 20).This revelation was surprising to me because Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest producers of oil, yet 55% of their population or 95 million people do not have access to electricity and the ones who do suffer from frequent power outages. I thought to myself, "How could this happen?"That situation has become a blame game with the government blaming the oil distributors for hoarding the products with the intent on profiting from it while the citizens are blaming the government citing corruption and mismanagement. This crisis has many citizens developing mistrusting feelings towards the government. Your country has the opportunity to leave accusations of the corruption in the past.  On June 9, 2016, The New York Times published a letter written by Hakeem T. Balogun – the Chargé d’Affaires for the Embassy of Nigeria in Washington. This letter was written as a response to an opinion article titled, “Block the Sale of Warplanes to Nigeria” which was written by the editorial board at The New Times. In his letter, Balogun  writes that your President, Muhammadu Buhari, has made great efforts in his fight against the corruption in your country stating that he has demonstrated zero tolerance for it. Ensuring that everyone in rural and urban areas gains access to clean and affordable energy could  give your government the chance to prove that you are committed to the fight against corruption.The people in Nigeria need reliable access to electricity, but in a way that doesn’t put more burdens on their health and planet.