At a recent meeting of OPEC member states it was reported that Nigeria's President Umaru Musa Yar'adua stated that the developed nations may be conspiring to push for alternative sources of energy and as such would negatively affect the economy of oil producing and exporting states since they are the ones benefiting from the high oil prices right now.

While I agree that crude oil will remain a major source of energy for quite some time it will be dangerous for anyone to assume that alternatives cannot replace crude oil supply because those who do not want to adjust, prepare or acknowledge change may be consumed by the change itself.

Energy and power drive the economy of so many nations especially the developed nations. Non oil producers and unfortunately some oil producing and even oil exporting nations like Nigeria must buy crude oil at the international prices which is at least $100.00 per barrel.

Power plants especially gas fired ones, factories, industries, automobiles all require one form of fuel or the other to run and for now the bulk of the energy requirement is met by crude oil.

But things are changing, albeit slowly but surely. Distributed systems are becoming common place in some parts of the world today, individuals can generate their own electricity by using solar panels or wind turbines. As more and more people generate their own power the revenue of power generation companies will reduce and the need to generate energy that may not be purchased will reduce as well.

In other words, distributed energy generation systems are enough to case a major change in the way people demand energy from power generating companies which have a direct bearing on the cost of crude oil vis a vis the economy of nations that depend on crude oil revenue to survive.

Do not forget the fact that if individuals can generate their own electricity, companies with more financial base can as well.

Automobiles are yet another major consumer of oil whether in the form of fuel (PMS) or diesel. Even though the use alternative source of fuel for automobile is not common here in Nigeria we must realize that in some countries today bio ethanol is already being used by individuals and government programs like mass transit systems like what Brasil is doing today.

Hybrid cars are already on the roads today and many automobile makers are thinking in the direction of manufacturing cars that would utilize alternative sources of energy.

If I generate electricity using solar panels or wind turbine and my car runs on bio ethanol (used vegetable oil plus methanol and caustic soda are enough to produce cheap fuel for diesel engines) then I may as well not give a damn what PHCN charges per kilowatt of electricity consumed or what the price of fuel or diesel is at the petrol station.

If gradually people embrace these alternative sources of energy what becomes of our crude oil that we depend on for our survival? What will happen when the demand for crude oil reduces? Many argue that the demand will always increase due to population increase and industrialization though.

Unfortunately, those that are seriously seeking alternative sources of energy are the same people that will spend time and money on research, they will do all they can to find alternatives that make economic sense.

Put differently, we are not in any position to decide whether they will depend on us or not, we simply have to hope and pray they do or we begin now to weigh our options because the change or shift in the current energy regime may come sooner than expected or anticipated.

Considering the abundant quantity of renewable energy sources like wind and sun in this part of the world it is still surprising that we are not at the forefront of research into these viable alternative sources of energy even if only to guarantee steady power supply to Nigerians.

By the way, why are we making so much money from crude oil today and yet the majority of Nigerians are living in poverty? It seems we have a way of rubbishing all known economic theories and postulations.

If Nigerians cannot benefit from the current high price of crude oil today, is it when the price crashes or when the world must have found alternatives that we will benefit?

The only constant thing in life is change and we must either prepare for it or be consumed by it.

In the past the media was controlled by governments, information used to be properly vetted and filtered by governments, today just about anyone can set up an information system by owning a website or a blog and immediately begin to publish information thanks to the power of the internet. Today, governments are even forced to react to issues raised by individuals who publish information that would never have seen the light of the day in the past.

If the people in Nitel were told some 10 years ago that one day mobile phones will be in the hands of practically every Nigerian and that people would be able to communicate without running wires from their homes or offices to telephone boxes or poles across the streets I am sure they would have laughed off the idea, today we know better.

Though patriotism may make one dismiss anything that appears not to be in our own interest we must remember that there is a thin line separating reality and perception of reality. It is very possible to replace crude oil as a major source of energy, the earlier we believed this the better for us.