The Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission
recently revealed that the country has
signed a deal with Russian nuclear group,
Rosatom Corporation, to build four power
plants in the country with each costing
$20billion. This is a follow-up to
President Goodluck Jonathan’s disclosure
at the Nuclear Security Summit at The
Hague, the Netherlands, that Nigeria will
develop a nuclear energy industry and
where he expressed the commitment that
negotiations will be multi-lateral and in
line with the internationally and effectively
verifiable treaty banning the production of
fissile materials for nuclear weapons.
Though the idea of a nuclear programme
for the country was first mooted in 1976,
it was not until 2007 that Nigeria’s
civilian nuclear energy aspirations were
given any real thought by the
administration of then president, Umaru
Yar’Adua, who said that the country
planned to add nuclear power to the
national grid by 2017, a mere two years
from now. Already, research efforts on the
programme are ongoing in some higher
institutions in the country.
If this agreement with the Russians scales
through, the project will generate and add
to the national grid an extra 1,200
megawatts. This will, no doubt, enhance
the country’s energy supply, with the
attendant positive effects on economic
and industrial growth. But because of the
delay in giving the programme the urgent
attention it deserves, a few issues that
are important for its actualisation are
beginning to emerge, such as the
shortage of specialists in the field and
funding issues. The few professionals in
the country are migrating to other
countries where their services are in
urgent demand.
We are, however, encouraged to be
optimistic that this fresh agreement will
chart a new course for the country’s
nuclear aspirations. We are persuaded to
express this hope, because of the
probable impact of a joint committee
already established to facilitate the
process as well as the advanced
negotiations, particularly in the areas of
financing and planning. With these, the
programme may possibly have a chance
of taking off. But there are other concerns
and they are genuine.
With the existence of the Boko Haram
insurgency and considering the
vulnerability of the country’s uranium
stock, it is our opinion that any
discussion on the subject must address
issues relating to the security of the
facilities when they are eventually put in
place, especially with what happened in
2013 in neighbouring Niger Republic
where al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
(AQIM) suicide bombers attacked a
uranium mine owned by the French
nuclear company Areva, killing 26 people
and injuring 30. AQIM is known to have
ties with Boko Haram. Besides security
concerns, would the country be able to
handle the fallout of a nuclear leakage?
We call to mind the Chernobyl disaster in
the Soviet Union and a similar challenge
in Japan. These are countries advanced
in nuclear science and technology.
However, regardless of the obvious fears
and anxieties associated with the
programme even in advanced countries,
we recommend it, bearing in mind its
benefits.

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