If you have a car with manually operated windows, they can easily make them electric-operated in selected mechanic shops in Nigeria. For years, these mechanics have been converting petrol cars to go with gas. The latest one is more advanced: the vice president of the nation, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, drove an electric vehicle. Before that, in April, the federal government commissioned an EV charging station in Sokoto. That Sokoto location makes sense for many of us who have spent time in Usman Danfodio University and the energy center in the university. I also note that GIG Logistics is going all electric.
The question is this: what is going on in the nation’s automotive sector? Dr Jelani Aliyu, DG of Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), has noted that “No doubt Electric Vehicles are the future, maybe in the next five years.” Certainly, this sector can outperform except that we do not have electricity to massively scale adoption.
We have no EV national policy but most people are indeed open to disconnect from the mess of petrol, to the extent that we can start importing generators for the EVs. Yes, one generator for the house, and another for the car except that you need petrol to power the generator!
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So, if you use a generator to charge your EV – what has changed? Simply, EV or petrol, Nigeria needs to fix the electricity paralysis in the nation. Any ascension to preach EV for the environment is muted until we wean the nation of generators.
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We lack direction as a people, and that is very pathetic.
What is our education policy and how does it address today’s and future challenges in our society? Insecurity has become one more problem, how have we trained every young Nigerian to become security aware similar to giving first-aid to accident victims?
What is our exit strategy from crude oil dominated economy and within which timeframe?
Have we finally cracked the code on how to generate and distribute electricity at scale? We are talking about an invention that is over century old.
To introduce and scale EV here, what is the national policy and what percentage of the process is local content driven? Any original idea or we will be coupling just what others invented?
We are neither great at nor ready for any of these, yet we are too quick to make noise and then attract unnecessary attention and scrutiny. Nation building must be a complicated science.