Electro-sagacity

 

 

The labor of fools weary them because they do not know how to go into the city. (Ecclesiastes 10:15)



I had a 3-hour encounter with Chuks and I was literarily dumbfounded by his grasp of things. This was in Alaba International Market (quite a distance from where I reside in Lagos). Alaba is what you call a "Mad House". The beehive of activities in this Market makes the Lagos Island Market (eko-idumota) a child's play. May I also emphasize its International status. Again, I can't help but salute the savvy entrepreneurial poise of my Igbo people. Alaba will convince you if you ever wore the cap of a doubting Thomas as to the industrious, resourceful and enterprising nature of this group. Igbo Kwenu!!!

Back to my encounter with Chuks. Chuks is a business man with passion for Energy Conservation. A subject so dear to him. He took time to explain to me and my Iyawo the folly he cannot stomach. This man spoke passionately of how much he disdains the Nigerian polity. The topic of discussion still bothered on the Energy road-map of the country. According to Chuks, the Barth Nnaji (Minister for Power) energy road-map is one that leads to an outdated future. Emphasis on outdated future.  He said the so called ivy agenda stinks.  I assure you that I couldn't but agree with after he illuminated my mind. This encounter is a golden moment of wisdom. The most profound in recent times. I will save you the highs and the lows of this conversation by telling the story he shared with me. It is a story you'd be surprised you should know.

The Ingenious Tale of Ashanti

Ashanti is Ghanaian. The story is about Ghana. Yes Ghana. Nigeria's timeless neighbor. Ghana (formerly known as Gold Coast pre-independence) shares a lot of antecedents with Nigeria. Ghana was colonized by the imperial British Empire. It gained independence in 1957. This country like Nigeria is a producer of Cocoa. 35% of Ghana's population is living on less than $1.25 per day

In 2007, the Government of Ghana distributed more than 6 Millions energy saving bulbs to the households in Ghana. Are you wondering why a government will do that? This was the self-same question I asked. The Government in a bid to solve the energy challenges decided to explore a rather unconventional approach to overcoming the challenges. The usual road-map in most nations with energy crisis is the emphasis on generation of additional megawatts to meet demand. The strategy has therefore been the need to increase capacity. This approach is the obvious. If a man is hungry, he wants to eat more.

Before Ghana got to this point, it also explored this path of least resistance. The obvious and easy way out was for the country to increase its generating capacity. Of course, this approach didn't crystallize. Need I say that this is a familiar spirit even in Nigeria today? Apart from the fact that we keep shifting the goal post on the time lines for the increased generation, we seem to be unsure of exactly how much mega-watts we need. That’s not too much of a problem. Thanks to the blessing of approximation. 

What Ghana did conforms to the 3-step philosophy of Richard Rumelt (Author of Good Strategy Bad Strategy). The first step was to carry out a diagnostic review the objective of which was to assess the current demographics and other social factors. Here, Ghana was able to get a handle on exactly how much its current capacity was, how much it needed e.t.c. The second step was that a list of possible solutions was drafted. The options included the usual increase in capacity. But, this wasn't the only option. Ghana knowingly or unknowingly got it right by asking the right question which we don't seem to be asking here in Nigeria. What are the options? Is generation the only solution? Well, Ghana went ahead and fulfilled the third step of a Good Strategy. It implemented its plan. Action is the third step in strategy.

By getting rid of the watt consuming incandescent bulbs, distributing 6 million energy-saving bulbs, Ghana significantly reduced its energy consumption so much that its needed capacity was more than halved. By year end of 2007, more than 80% of households in Ghana were using energy saving bulbs. What Ghana did was to simply leverage on technology. 

Ghana has celebrated a decade of uninterrupted power supply.

This is how it works:

An incandescent bulb (the common yellow light bulbs) consumes on the average 60 watts of electricity. Assuming there are 1000 homes with 3 light points, the energy consumption comes to about 180,000 watts (1000*3*60). If the 1000 homes switch to energy saving bulb that uses about 10 watts per light point, you save half of the total watts consumed by the homes. The implication of this is gross. For the government, the capacity needed is reduced significantly. For households, if you replace 25 percent of your light bulbs with energy-saving bulbs, you can save more than 50 percent on your lighting bill. 

Interestingly, there are even newer developments in the energy saving technology. We now have two types of energy saving technology. The first generation energy saving technology gave birth to Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). The latest technology is the Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) which is based on lower energy consumption. These LED bulbs use only one-quarter the energy of incandescent bulbs and last 8-12 times longer. This technology eliminates every health risk(s) that arises from the use of incandescent bulbs and the Compact fluorescent light bulbs. 

Conclusion

If this piece should achieve anything, it should be the fact that you my reader understand the wisdom in strategy which is essentially the need to never be fooled by popular conventions and solutions. Beneath the easy way out is a world of possibilities. Lay your cards on the table and you will discover a world unexplored. I pray that the labor of our heroes past will not be made a laughing stock as we keep basking in apparent lack of national insight.

The labor of fools is the portion of those that fail to chart a new course of action when the prevailing philosophy fails. The world new order of energy has since moved on from generation to conservation. Developed countries have since moved away from this stale talk of generation. 


Let us desist from pursuing a stale future which already is late on arrival.

God bless Nigeria.

 

 

 

Image Credit: Google