The baseline survey on energy reforms in Nigeria was conducted in Visa Karena Hotel on the 5th of August, 2023. Natural Justice is an organization made up of team of lawyers and legal experts specialized in human rights and environmental law in pursuit of social and environment rooted in the struggles of communities. Natural Justices prides itself in exercise of rights, defense of rights and standing with communities to uphold communal rights and practices that are in line with equity, natural justice and good conscience. Natural Justice has offices in South Africa, Madagascar, Kenya, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
The session was facilitated by the country Director of Natural Justice, Barr. Mike Karikpo. He shared concerns on the energy sector in Nigeria. In the last 30 years, Nigeria’s electricity generation has stagnated within 3,000MV – 5,000MW of electricity, against experts advise of 25,000 MW of electricity. He also highlighted some points in the Electricity Act 2023 which includes the decentralization of the power sector and creation of state markets which will improve the energy access, delivery and supply of electricity to citizens within the state, ensure less reliance on the national grid and effectively capture the unserved and underserved areas in the state. The Act also prioritizes the development and utilization of renewable energy which introduces mechanisms to incentivize investment in renewable energy projects, such as feed-in tariffs. Mr. Mike Karikpo spoke on the need for government and private sector venturing into renewable energy, though gas is considered a good source of energy, but it is no doubt that it contributes to the increasing cases of climate change in the world and have greatly impacted the health of citizens. Renewable energy is known to be cheap, easy to install and does not contribute to climate change. He spoke on Natural Justice’s aim at supporting state governments with its capacity and skills to develop legal and regulatory environment required to develop the energy sector, which will attract investors to the state. The survey conducted is part of activities to gather information on the knowledge of stakeholders and community members on renewable energy, policies on power, status of power supply across communities in Rivers State.
Stakeholders present shared their thoughts and concerns on advocacy to the state government on renewable energy; insecurity in communities that can pose as a threat to infrastructures and facilities to support renewable energy. Some participants also called for continuous research in Nigerian higher institutions on renewable energy and called for higher institutions to be model centres for invention and innovation in the country.
