Nigeria can replace petrol with solar energy, palm oil - Sowore

The African Action Congress (AAC) Presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has said that the Nigerian economy can achieve full diversification from crude oil resources through the generation of solar energy in the northern part of Nigeria and other products like palm oil from the South.

Sowore made the proposition while contributing to a discussion on the distribution of resources on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

The AAC Presidential candidate also noted that technology had taken over across the globe, and has now become the "new resource.”

He argued that crude oil would soon cease to be a major source “because people are moving away from the consumption of fossil fuel.”

Sowore also suggested that Nigeria's diverse nature must be well understood before the issues around wealth distribution can be effectively tackled.

Sowore's words: “If the northern part of Nigeria starts producing solar power for the rest of Nigeria, don’t be surprised that they might be more valuable than oil. The sale of palm oil in the international market today is more profitable than crude oil,” he said in the Friday interview, according to a statement obtained Saturday.

“Geopolitically, Nigeria is divided into six regions and we have resources located in each region. It is not that resources have been scarce. Nigerian leaders once made it openly clear that they have money but their problem is how to spend it.”

Sowore talks plan for presidency: The AAC presidential candidate said, if elected, he would ensure there is commensurate allocation of resources to every Nigerian region as well as ensuring that every part of the country gets the largest share of the resources they produce.

Sowore's words: “There are structural and institutional problems of who should get what, and this will be addressed by the AAC’s strategy of creating a brand new constitution for Nigeria which would fundamentally and foundationally address the issue of resource ownership, distribution, allocation and percentage for who gets what.

“The most important thing is every citizen will count and they will get what they deserve, and put together, that will eradicate and erase that vocabulary called marginalisation.”