Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has challenged African leaders to give priority to urgent matters of development, lamenting the effect of the challenges on the continent.
He made this statement at the ongoing African Development Bank annual general meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, where he and other African leaders spoke at a high level roundtable on the theme: ‘Energy and Climate Change’.
“For us, priority today is development and we have to take development seriously,” he said recalling for instance the fact that 45 percent of those who do not have access to power in the world are from Africa and that almost half of that African share is in Nigeria.
“We are faced with a very dire situation and in most of Africa we simply don’t have power and without power there is very little that can be done,” he said.
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He restated the importance of renewable energy, saying: “We think that renewable energy and all of the concern about Climate Change are important, but we must prioritise development.”
He said Nigeria as an example is one of the major hydro-carbon enriched countries, and that makes fossil fuels important.
“We have to leverage all that we can get from fossil fuel, coal is also important,” Osinbajo said.
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He said while Africa is the least contributor to global emissions, yet the continent is also “the hardest hit by the whole consequences of climate change, that is the paradox. But that paradox becomes jeopardy when we are being asked to take the greater burden of resolving the problem of climate change, so we really need the help of the west in particular.”
Explaining some of the limitations of solar power for instance, the Vice-President said: “we must bear in mind that for industry for example, the base load power is critical, the base load power is so much more difficult to get from solar power for example…so we must understand that our immediate need requires the base load power that can move us forward quickly and that we would get from fossil fuel, hydro power and coal fire plants.”
Other speakers at the panel include the presidents of Zambia, Edgar Lungu, and Chad, Idriss Deby Itno, who is also the current chairman of the African Union.
The president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, prime ministers and senior ministers from several other African countries were also in attendance at the formal opening event of the meeting where the president of the ADB, Akinwunmi Adesina observed that the presence of several African leaders at the meeting is an expression of their support for the bank.
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