It has ostensibly
become compelling for Nigeria as a country to look inwards towards discovering
her entire natural resources with a view to harnessing them for a greater
nationhood.
Some of the common natural resources on
earth are land, water, sunlight, atmosphere, wind, coupled with animal life and
vegetation. A natural resource may exist as a separate entity like fresh water
and air as well as a living organism such as fish, or it might exist in an
alternate form, which must be processed to obtain the required resource to
include petroleum, metal, ores, and most forms of energy.
It’s noteworthy that some, including air
and sunlight, can be found everywhere, and are known as ‘ubiquitous resources’.
Whilst, most resources only occur in restricted areas, and are referred to as
‘localized resources’.
There
are very few resources that are considered inexhaustible – these are solar
radiation, geothermal energy, and air, though access to pure air may not be
possible. The vast majority of resources are theoretically exhaustible, which
means they have a finite quantity and can be depleted if improperly managed; a
good example of this is petroleum. Such finite resources required a sound
policy and regulation, to be implemented by the concerned government, towards
their preservation.
It’s
pertinent to acknowledge that every manmade product consists of one or two
natural resources. Suffice it to say that everything required or used by
mankind constitute of, at least, a natural resource. In most cases, some of these
resources such as air and water, are directly utilized or consumed by man
without processing them.
The
above outlined phenomenon proves beyond doubts that humankind cannot survive or
strive successfully, as the case may be, without natural resources. This
assertion is not unconnected with the reason every rational government makes
frantic effort toward adequate use and preservation of the natural resources
found within its country.
In
Nigeria, hundreds of natural resources abound, in which each state including Abuja
is a beneficiary. Some of these resources are petroleum, tantalite, lead, zinc,
glass-sand, copper, gemstone, crystal, oil/gas, bitumen, phosphate, gold, coal,
clay, salt, gypsum, iron-ore, uranium, and limestone, in addition to sunlight,
wind, land, water, vegetation and air that are ubiquitous in nature.
Some of the aforementioned substances can
enable any country to massively embark on agriculture, and attain to any
desired height. Nigeria does not possess just land, but a well fertile land
that can produce crops in any quantity and quality. Its vegetation and
atmosphere is equally invariably good enough to raise every kind of animal
life, including wildlife.
Though crop and livestock farming used
to be the talk of the day in the Nigerian society, it’s sad to note that
currently such lucrative occupation is being relegated to the background owing
to over-reliance on mono-resource, petroleum. It’s really high time we as a
people desisted from this irritating high level of dependency that has eaten
deep into our socio-economic bone marrow.
Proper utilization of clay alone can take the
country’s tourism industry, that’s presently moribund, to enviable heights.
Same is applicable to the use of other similar compounds or metals that are in
abundance across the federation, to include uranium, limestone, and gold. In
the same vein, it is disheartening that an essential mineral resource like coal
has, over the decades, been swept under the carpet; coal can be used to produce
energy, both in the form of heat and electricity.
It’s mind-boggling to hear that a country like
Nigeria that can boast of abundant sunlight, wind and what have you, is still
battling on how to generate steady and reliable electricity, whilst countries
like U.S.A blessed with just limited amount of the resources, are experiencing
uninterruptible power supply. Away from energy; it could be observed that our
forest reserves that could produce enough timber for importation, are currently
wearing a pathetic physiognomy as a result of docile policies.
Indeed, Nigeria is densely endowed with
various lucrative natural resources, but it’s very sad that the governments at
all levels are not doing enough as regards the adequate use and conservation of
the resources; hence, this calls for drastic turnaround via deployment of
genuine political will. Now that the sale of oil and gas is no longer booming,
it’s high time we retraced our steps toward ensuring that each of the available
resources is thoroughly harnessed for the needed economic emancipation.
Crude
oil ought to also be regularly renewed. We can clean used oil by using pretty
conventional refinery technologies. The first step is vacuum distillation,
which dewaters the oil. Then, we do wiped-film
evaporation; this essentially separates out all the contaminants and
additives inherent in it.
Finally, it would go through a hydro-treating process, which infuses
hydrogen back into the hydrogen molecules and makes it very high quality
re-refined oil. This routine can be sustained via a sound policy, hence the
need for the government to concentrate on the needful.
The government really needs to ensure adequate
conservation and sustenance of these natural resources, through implementation
of strict and viable policies cum laws, and their proper enforcement. Most of
these policies such as Land Use and Forests Reserve Acts, which were duly
upheld in the past, are presently abused or overlooked in various quarters.
We need to urgently revive them, make apt
amends where necessary, as well as introduce new ones toward attaining a
greater nationhood. Think about it!
FDN Nwaozor
Executive Director, Docfred Resource Hub (DRH)
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