Which of Nigeria's 36 state governors in going to cash in on this petrol shortage crisis with a long-term strategy of building a green industrial city

Ayo Akinfe

Among the products, whose manufacture I expect to dominate this industrial city, which will be wholly free of fossil fuels, include:

[1] Solar panels

[2] Electric cars

[3] Turbines

[4] A waste-to-power plant

[5] Biomass boilers

[6] Solar batteries

[7] A faeces-to-power plant

[8] Inverters

[9] An ethanol plant

[10] Windmills

[1] So far, no country in the whole has a wholly dedicated green city

[2] Why should Nigeria not take the lead on this matter and build a greenfield city where it manufactures nothing but renewable energy products?

[3] My take is that such a city needs to be along the coast so that windmills can easily be transported offshore. They are very heavy so building them close to the Atlantic coastline will save transportation headaches.

[4] Our green city in my opinion has to be in either Lagos, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom or Cross River states

[5] Just imagine the number of jobs such a city will create, the amount of energy it will generate and the way it will boost Nigeria’s international profile

[6] If we name this city Greenville, it will be a global first. Ultimately, it will need a seaport, airport and railway line linking it with Abuja and Lagos

[7]It is initiatives like this that will end our dependency on crude oil, address our power woes and create employment

[8] It maybe that the governors of either the southwest or south-south geo-political zones combine their forces to launch such a programme

[9] Maybe the Southwest Governors Forum and the South South Governors Forum should meet to draw up a joint programme and masterplan. Even if one state hosts the facility, nothing stops the others from having a stake in the venture

[10] Historically it has been crises that leads to innovation and new ways of doing things. Just look at how Covid-19 led to the expansion of Zoom for example

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