A Professor Emeritus in Petroleum Economics, Wumi Iledare, has expressed confidence that there would be many positive impacts from the decentralisation of the Nigerian energy sector.
Prof Iledare, who was a guest on Channels Television’s end-of-year special review on Monday, urged Nigerians to dissipate their fears on the decentralisation of the energy sector as well as other sectors in the country.
According to him, decentralisation will encourage competition among Nigeria’s federating units and as well engender development in so many areas.
“We have centralized too many things in Nigeria which have limited the ability of Nigeria as a nation to attain its potential and this is where I call for public education because you can see what is going on with the debate on tax reform.
“People should not be afraid of decentralisation; we were there before, and regions were competitive and developed. Even when we were 12 states, we competed against each other and what was good in one state is copied in another.
“We have stayed in the part of centralisation too much centralised planning cannot work without dictatorial authoritarian, and we don’t have one, so we need to work on that,” Prof Iledare said.
Re-emphasizing that decentralisation is the right way to go especially in the energy sector, Prof Iledare said that the government has started going in the right direction by allowing states to generate and distribute electricity.
