Effective Sustainable Development Strategy
Francis Isugu
Anti-Climate Change Innovative Ideas
Introduction
Out of 40 winners of the Zayed Future Energy
Prize, no winner has come from Nigeria from 2009 to 2015, whereas, USA has had
the highest number of winners, 8 out of 40 others making 20% of the Zayed
Future Energy Prize for recognized innovators.
USA is followed by India
having 4 winners, the UK, Germany, Romania, Tanzania, China, Japan, and
Australia have come third with 2 winners each; while Canada, Mexico, Brazil,
France, Switzerland, UAE, Kenya, Malawi, Swaziland, Maldives, Tonga,
Philippines, Bangladesh, and Denmark take the fourth position with 1 winner
from each.
The above list of nations with recognized
innovators winning the Zayed Future Energy Prize from 2009 to 2015 does not
include Nigeria. And I am prompted with concern to ask, ‘why hasn’t Nigeria had
a winner yet, if Tanzania, Kenya, Swaziland, Maldives, Tonga and Malawi have
produced winners from Africa?’
Until 2016, when I started writing
this discourse, spurred by the Agudabi Sustainability Week held in June 2016, 7
years have entered the annals of the history of the Zayed Future Energy Prize,
and the 8 was just been marked as I was writing this work on the 8th
of June 2016, yet Nigeria hasn’t come up with an innovator with the idea of
finding solutions to meet the global challenges of climate change, energy
security and the environment.
Another question is prompted
with deep concern, ‘what are Nigerians doing about making a recognizable
contribution to the need of finding solutions that will meet the challenges of
the global economy threatened by climatic, energy and environmental crises of
depletion, insecurity and degradation respectively?’
There are five prize categories for the 4
Million Dollar Annual Awards, while 22 Million Dollars were already awarded by
2015, this triggers another question: ‘isn’t such a prize an attractive
incentive enough for individuals, organizations and schools in Nigeria to begin
taking seriously the need of finding effective sustainable development
strategies with their innovative ideas?’
I have undertaken to write this discourse for
the purpose of speaking directly to Nigerians in a familiar way, believing we
understand each other’s dialects, in order to be challenged as one people, to
start conceiving innovative ideas for finding solutions that will meet the
global challenges of climate change, energy security and the environment.
I started writing after
watching and recoding the video of the opening ceremony of the 2016 Agudabi
Sustainability Week. Seeing the prizes won by innovators from other nations, I
felt Nigeria shouldn’t be left out, and if Nigerians are not aware, someone
needs to inform them, so I chose to pass the information. Even I had no foreknowledge
or precognition of what was happening known as the Zayed Future Energy Prize,
despite the fact I was always online every day.
I got informed when I
received an email prompt while browsing my email inbox after midnight of June
8, 2016. I was still awake by 1.00am when I saw this email flash on my mobile
phone and I took a quick dive of click to see the sponsor of the email
announcing the Zayed Future Energy Prize which caught my attention and got my
prompt response.
After clicking on the email link,
I was virtually teleported to the landing page of the Zayed Future Energy Prize
(http://www.zayedfutureenergyprize.com/en/?utm_source=GSP&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=Nigeria&utm_campaign=ZFEP)
showing the page translated in English, and even the link above shows that the
link was via a CPC and UTM campaign, hence was sponsored by the Zayed Future
Energy Prize, and must of caused some thousands of dollars to reach me, in fact
even my click was a cost on the sponsor (CPC means cost per click)
This shows that Nigeria was among the list of
places the campaign organizers wanted to reach, as shown on the link; that was
why I got the information. Otherwise, I would not have heard anything of it.
Moreover, such a campaign was time-bound, and if I didn’t go online at the
right time, I would also have missed the information.
This explains why I said Nigerians need to be
informed if they are not aware and I write this discourse for information
purpose. I only had the privilege of having data connection.
Data is quite expensive in
Nigeria and less than a handful of Nigerians can actually afford the data to
stay connected for email updates online on daily basis. My ability to use data
is because I have been working as a researcher and content strategist,
curating, developing and creating contents to earn a living.
Not all Nigerians have this
complex data-oriented lifestyle, so I can understand with those who miss such
sponsored information annually, and are unable to compete for the prize. But
with this book completed and circulated in Nigeria, I expect Nigerians will respond,
who become aware of the happening and will do something about bringing Nigeria
on the winners list of the Zayed Future Energy Prize for subsequent years, by
following the recommendations I have made here.
It was the information I
found on the Zayed Future Energy Price web site that inspired me to write this
informative discourse calling on Nigerians to do something about the cause the
prize was all about. Another privilege I had that made me interested in the
prize was my job experience in the energy sector, which not many Nigerians have
the privilege.
My entry into the oil and gas
industry in January 2016 exposed me to the energy crises of insecurity and
insufficiency, which made me quit my job only after 4 months, but with the
Zayed Future Energy Prize, the fire of my interest in the affairs of the energy
sector is re-enkindled, and I set out to rouse a similar interest in all
Nigerians through this discourse.
I know from observation that
many Nigerians are not well informed about the magnitude of the global economic
crises factorized by the challenges of climate change, energy security and
environment.
So, I write this discourse to
connect with the vision of the late Founding Father and President of the United
Arab Emirates, Sheikh
Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, who championed environmental stewardship, to call
Nigerians to follow the momentum of the Zayed Future Energy Prize as a stimulus
to innovations that will commit to finding solutions that will meet the challenges
of climate change, energy security and the environment.
I have made certain useful recommendations
here. Focusing on twelve issues, this discourse will drive innovations anew.
A Case Study of One Winner at a Time from 2009-2015
The Zayed Future Energy
Prize website gives access to candidates interested in the award to apply for
the SME, NGO or Global High School Category, or nominate a candidate for the
Large Corporation, or Lifetime Achievement Award.
This portends an
opportunity for Nigerians to compete at the global level of combating climate
change and other challenges to the global economy by bringing relevant
innovations into SMEs, NGOs and Education at particularly High School level.
How innovations can be
brought into each of the three categories that Nigerians can compete for the
Zayed Future Energy Prize is not to be conceived as the concern of a single
writer as I am. Instead, it should be a collective concern for Nigerians
operating in any of the categories of industry.
These players should be
concerned and thoughtful about bringing innovations into SMEs, for the needed
solutions, also in their NGOs for same solutions and make High School a
breeding ground for innovations to respond to the same challenges of global
climate change, energy supply and environment.
It is a matter of
interest and willingness to do the right thing that will make Nigerians think
of innovations when starting their SMEs, to solve real problems of relevance to
the ailing global economy.
Same concern is expected of and
should be expressed as well as applied by Nigerians founding NGOs or managing
sole proprietary High Schools in Nigeria. In fact, introducing innovations that
will solve human problems across all sectors, affected by the global economic
crises, is the responsibility of every Nigerian.
Today, the world supports the
vision of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late president and founding
father of the United Arab Emirates 1918-2004 because he pursued legacy now
evolved into the Zayed Future Energy
Prize, Nigerians need to be inspired by such an icon of sustainable development,
to pursuing sustainable visions in all they do.
I have taken note of the ways the legacies of
Zayed have been celebrated in lives of the winners of Zayed Future Energy Prize
since 2009, and this shall inform the content of the entire section of this
discourse that is meant to show Nigerians what to start thinking about and do
in the light of relevant innovations that would be recognized globally.
The first winner to be
highlighted among the winners and runners up of the 2009 Zayed Future Energy
Prize is Mr. Dipal Barua. This first section shall discuss the contribution of
Mr. Dipal in the light of making him a model for Nigerian innovators. Sections
following this will hone other models.
Mr.
Dipa Barua is the Founder & Chairman of Bright Energy Foundation. He’s been
dedicated to finding and developing sustainable, market-based solutions to the
social and economic problems faced by rural people, for over 35 years.
Being the Founding Managing
Director of Grameen Shakti, a clean energy company, and developing an innovative
installment-based payment plan for solar systems, as well as being able to
lower the monthly cost of solar to the equivalent of Kerosene made Dipal Barua
a winner of the 2009 Zayed Future Energy Prize.
I will first ask, aren’t there people
in Nigeria who can also do what Mr. Dipal did that will make the lives of
Nigerians easier? As a business idea, there will be lots of gain in doing a
similar thing in Nigeria, most investors in hospitality could diversify,
Nigerians who have the means should think of helping the government to increase
the supply of affordable power for energy sufficiency in the country.
It is now on record that 2.2
million people in Bangladesh benefitted from Mr. Dipal’s work of facilitating
the construction of 245,000 solar electricity systems in homes.
Here I’ll like to state
for note to Nigerians that solar energy system is a clean energy that can
substitute gas turbines if harnessed in the country. The solar system is
readily available and can be subsidized when locally harnessed for power
generation in the country suffering from incessant power failure. Business men
and women should invest in sustainable energy initiative to drive development.
Nigerian SMEs startup
founders can do like Mr. Dipal, bearing the cost he bore in Bangladesh also in
energy insufficient Nigeria. Dipal was a business man not a public officer, and
yet he had concern for development and Nigerian businessmen and women aren’t
bar from taking a similar initiative for sustainable development without
waiting for the government to do all the work required, lest Nigeria will
remain in darkness.
The Nigerian government is
currently unable to guarantee an effective sustainable development strategy for
the supply of electricity to the homes of 170 million Nigerians. I see no
reason why the same government should remain the focal point of power
generation and distribution in the country.
Private investors can do in
Nigeria what Dipal did in Bangladesh. I mean individual Nigerian businessmen
and women should learn from Dipal not to depend on the government for
guaranteeing supply of electricity to both rural and urban people in Nigeria.
Rural people need electricity
for development like the urban people, and this is a sector for SMEs to invest
their resources in diversification to include the generation of alternative
power through solar energy systems that will solve the perennial problem of
clean energy scarcity in the country.
Mr. Dipal takes credit for
the jobs created through Grameen Shakti for thousands of people including women
in his network of after sales-repair and maintenance services. Who will take a
similar credit of creating thousands of jobs in Nigeria, at a corporate or an
individual investment level?
Nigeria is a country with a
continuously growing population of unemployed graduates with unused
certificates and unharnessed talents piling up into a stack of latent
potentials amounting to wasted human capital and resources.
I encourage Nigerians to see
the many job potentials of maintenance services and so should take interest in
acquiring maintenance skills that will be of relevance to SMEs creating
maintenance jobs through the technical services they can offer.
If Nigerian SME startups
diversify to offer technical services like Mr. Dipal’s network of after sales-repair
and maintenance, they will help to create new job opportunities to hire and
train technicians for their network of repair and maintenance services in
Nigeria.
In this way the stack of
unemployed graduates will be cut into figments of hope, hence creating job for
more and more Nigerians to start rendering technical services and accepting
maintenance job offers to keep them busy and earning a source of livelihood for
themselves and family.
Replicating Mr. Dipal’s Accomplishments among all classes of Nigerians
An innovative biogas process was developed by
Mr. Dipal to convert cow dung and poultry waste into cooking, lighting and
electrical generation, and slurry for organic fertilizer. Any concerned
Nigerian rightly placed in business can and should try doing in Nigeria what
Mr. Dipal did, with a genuine concern for or interest in sustainable
development.
Mr. Dipal is credited for
constructing approximately 20,000 biogas plants since 2006. Such credit can be
ascribed to a Nigerian with the same concern. This would imply that the process
of doing what Mr. Dipal did wouldn’t become more challenging either because it
is being done by a Nigerian or because it is in Nigeria.
It would be even easier and
more necessary to attempt the same process in Nigeria if opportune Nigerians
will only learn and follow the example of Mr. Dipal or doing what he did not
do, but only possible when the right focus is firmly fixed upon sustainable
development, rural empowerment, community benefit and human capacity building
for the interest and wellbeing of all Nigerians.
Mr. Dipal’s development of
improved cooking stove program promoted low-cost, cleaner stoves in rural areas;
for the protection of women from indoor air pollution and reduction of
deforestation. This shows how interested Mr. Dipal was in protecting the people
and the human environment for sustainable development.
It is exactly the same
interest I am asking Nigerians to have when creating equal opportunity programs
with innovative ideas for sustainable development. I wish to see all Nigerians
who read this work start making contributions to better the lives of Nigerians,
protecting people and environment for sustainable development. The best place
to look to make such contributions is the rural areas of Nigeria.
Nigerians use kerosene-fueled stoves and
firewood mostly in the rural areas. Nigerians who want to make contributions to
better protect people and environment should first consider the impact of
indoor air population and trees felling associated with the use of kerosene
stove and firewood by the entire population of rural people in Nigeria.
This lifestyle can be changed
when alternatives are considered and innovative Nigerians start doing something
to protect the trees lost to the food cooking process in the rural areas where
firewood is used on daily basis. The alternative can look like what Mr. Dipal
did with cleaner and low-cost stoves in the rural areas.
I call Nigerian businessmen
and women to see a new business opportunity in these alternatives that can be
provided by also constructing improved stoves, and empowering the local people
in the process of getting them involved in production of these alternatives.
This will serve as a means to job creation for the rural people who will be
happy to be involved, especially women.
Mr. Dipal was able to
construct over 1,000,000 improved stoves since 2007 when the improved cooking
stove program which he developed was enacted. His success was because he got
women in the rural areas and less privileged people involved in achieving the
purpose of the program. I think he has set the right example for Nigerians who
will start thinking of doing something innovative.
I will emphasize clearly that
Mr. Dipal has become a very successful achiever even without being a public
officer. He wasn’t a governor, minister, commissioner, lawmaker, counselor or
community chief, yet he felt responsible for developing his society.
This is equally how I call
Nigerians to start feeling. Nigerians should feel responsible for the development
of Nigeria through whatever business they are succeeding with. They shouldn’t
think of their benefits alone, but think of the community benefits of all they
do as successful Nigerians.
What is needed the most is a
concern for others, for the environment, for people, for the community, for the
society and for the state of the nation. Sustainable development should be the
concern of all Nigerians as it was for Mr. Dipal.
Importation was not on the
agenda of Mr. Dipal, and shouldn’t be on the agenda of Nigerians who are
concerned about sustainable development. Importation does not enhance
sustainable development.
If Mr. Dipal’s program could succeed solely by
depending on local talent, Nigeria can develop sustainably by harnessing the
potentials of local contents. Mr. Dipal’s success proves the veracity of the
point. He did not import anything.
Believing that everything we
need must be imported is an error that I stand to correct in this discourse as
I did in my previous discourse titled “Effective Anti-Corruption Strategy”
available on Amazon online store. Mr. Dipal’s use of local talent should
challenge us to think differently about how we source the things we use in
Nigeria. Local content should feature majorly in our stores.
We can make the things we use
and need in Nigeria. This should be our new focus that will challenge us to
think innovatively for sustainable development. Mr. Dipal did not depend on
imported products for his program to succeed. Whatever he needed; he made sure
it was constructed by his team, and whoever he needed; he made sure to train
first. We can
construct local technology in Nigeria.
Nigeria should end the era of
importation of talents and technology. Local technologies should be developed
by training and equipping local talents to first understand the challenge, the
program designed and the needed skills to be acquired by everyone called to get
involved in innovations for sustainable development.
When Mr. Dipal developed his
program, he had only one thing in mind, to design, equip, train, construct and
create from local sources. Where talent was lacking his program sought to train
new talents. Where the educated was scarce he resorted to enlightening the
uneducated through his program. Where the number of able and strong men was insufficient or
unwilling, he co-opted women into his
program and made good use of their disposition to learn, their will to work and their ability
to grab new skills.
I see no reason why women
should not be given roles to play in Nigeria, if they are disposed to learn,
willing to work and able to acquire new skills. They are part of the population
and should be allowed to play roles that will enhance sustainable development.
Nigerian women should acquire technical skills also.
Every adult Nigerian is equal
to the task of developing local technologies, so if the educated are scarce,
the uneducated should be equipped and empowered. Importations should be buried
with the past, and the present should witness capacity building for future
inventions. Sustainable
development requires building local capacity.
The people in rural areas who
are able to acquire new skills should be empowered to acquire the needed skills
for developing Nigeria’s local technology with innovative ideas. Not only
should men be considered readily available, women should be included.
Women were actively promoted
by Mr. Dipal in renewable energy technologies. This should challenge Nigerian
women to pick interest in technology, and if men are not doing enough about
developing local technologies in Nigeria, women who use most of the imported
domestic technologies should come out with a program of empowerment to develop domestic
technologies in order to stop technology importations in Nigeria.
Women in Nigeria should see themselves as capable of
mounting the strong horse of innovative ideas and of competing innovatively to
win the prize of sustainable development for Nigeria, by becoming developers
and inventors of domestic technologies, for they understand the use of them better. They should pioneer technologies like cleaner
and improved stoves that are more sustainable than those imported and used for
their everyday domestic needs, among other technologies.
I will request at once that
industry should not be limited to only certificate holders, graduates or
educated people, even handicaps if trained can become industrious. Even the
uneducated if shown what to do can perfect crafts, and even women if included
in technology development programs can become powerful inventors. I insist on equal
opportunities to be created for all Nigerians, irrespective of gender, status
and privilege.
Mr. Dipal designed and developed village-based Green
Technology Centers – an innovative model to create women entrepreneurs in green
energy. Same initiative should be taken in Nigeria for women to be empowered in
villages to become entrepreneurs to compete with those in cities. Rural-urban
competitions should thrive favorably in Nigeria, based on entrepreneurial
innovative ideas.
Technology Development Initiatives don’t have to be
taken by foreigners or reserved for city-dwellers alone. It is, in fact, an
effective sustainable development strategy to take and support local technology
development initiatives; give equal opportunities for participation of rural
and urban people competitively.
Technology is not the prerogative of any culture,
people or nation. It is an equal capacity of the mind to take the initiative of
owning innovative ideas for sustainable development. It is for men & women
alike, who can acquire tech skills.
I call Nigerians to begin taking initiatives for the
development of local technologies based on innovative ideas about sustainable
development. This is my clarion call to Nigerians to become innovators of solutions
for economic challenges.
Rural areas should be viewed as the place were willing
helping hands can be sourced and new local technology development programs can
be based. More so, no one should be left out, all people should be included in
sustainable development programmes for a more prosperous integrated community.
All able Nigerian men and women should work together
for the cause of developing initiatives to combat menace of climate change,
energy security and the environment; and commit to innovative ideas for global
sustainable development.
3000 young women
received training in approximately 50 centers set up by Mr. Dipal in the rural
areas. Many of the women Mr. Dipal trained were from disadvantaged families,
yet they were trained to assemble, promote and repair solar systems. Let’s do likewise in
Nigeria. Let all Nigerians be included; women, rural and
handicapped people too. Together, Nigeria
will be poised for economic competitiveness with innovative ideas for sustainable
development
to triumph.
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About the Book
High quality information is
guaranteed in this discourse on the Effective Sustainable Development Strategy.
While writing the contents of this discourse I couldn’t avoid putting in magnanimous
tons of academic research and analytic commitment, evident in the ‘ZFEP’ folder
I created in the ‘Notes’ folder of the ‘document’ library of my PC on 10th
June, 2016.
Highly informative text contents worth 168 MB,
from different online local and foreign resources of white papers, were
accessed and perused to obtain the tips needed to make my recommendations
accurate, coherent and precise.
In fact, the largest single volume information
content I perused, worth 29.7 MB content size, was the Conference Proceeding of
the International Conference on Renewable Energy of 2012, held in Katsina, and it
totaled 972 pages.
Over 100,568 pages of contents have gone into
making the information in this discourse exactly what it is – a high quality
information content, not a curated content but a master piece of informative
and educative ideas on ‘Effective Sustainable Development Strategy’ for
Nigeria.
I reviewed the entire 75 downloadable contents
provided by the Energy Commission of Nigeria in fifteen linked web pages
featuring 5 downloadable contents each, as part of my research, along with the entire
contents available on the Zayed Future Energy Prize website which inspired and
informed the stories of innovators I analyzed in this discourse.
From the third article, after the introduction,
to the last article of this discourse, I have judiciously reflected the top
rated quality research status of this discourse, putting in quality time of research work, to create an
appeal for researchers, academics
and scholars at all level of education in Nigeria.
Hence,
this discourse is highly valued for knowledge transfer and is highly recommended
for all Nigerians who are enthusiastic about local and global sustainable
development. The Effective Sustainable Development Strategy is a real gem.
About The Author
External Resources:
The following contents links have been posted on different channels, and following them, you will learn more about the business and life of the author:
Francis.
Author's Contacts:
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Email: fbestman@weijicapital.com
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