From Damian Duruiheoma, Owerri
House of Representatives member for Nnewi North, South and Ekwusigo constituency, Hon. Chris Azubogu, and an oil and gas expert, Sir Barth Nwibe, said at the weekend that Nigeria has the potential to be great again in spite of the current challenges.
They said although the world is going green, one of the ways to move the country forward, according to them, is to increase her oil production and resuscitate ailing companies in the land.
Azubugo and Nwibe spoke during the Fourth International Conference on Engineering Adaptation and Policy, Reforms For Industrial Development (ICEAPR) with the theme: “Nigeria, Beyond The Oil” at the Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Uli Anambra State.
The event was attended by many professional bodies, academics and students from various institutions.
The two speakers said the country was too big to fail, adding that the reason policy makers were not sleeping in getting it right for Nigeria.
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Nwibe, who is the Group Managing Director of Segofs Energy Services, said one of the challenges being faced by Nigeria was low Exploration, Drilling and Production activities.
He said the country had become the poverty capital of the world today, adding that Nigeria today had only 17 rigs while in the 80s she had 40 rigs.
The oil and gas expert said if nothing drastic was done, in the next 30 years the country would be having one million barrel of oil each day.
He noted that Nigeria needed the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which he said had been lying there in the past 12 years without passage.
He said the cheapest way to raise funds for the country was to increase the oil production to five million barrels a day, adding that the country needed to embark on urgent agency reforms to increase exploration.
He advocated an active participation of engineers in governance while frowning on the contradiction in appointing non-engineers to man purely engineering portfolios by the government.
He called on the academia to review the curricula to ensure that young graduates were equipped with the necessary skills such as robotics, artificial intelligence to drive the 21st century economy.
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