By Aderogba George
Mr Lolade Olamide, a gas engineer, has urged Nigeria to leverage its natural gas resources to drive industrialisation, create jobs and promote community development.
Olamide, who has extensive experience in the gas, Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) industries, made the call while presenting a paper at the Nigerian Society of Engineers conference in Glasgow, Scotland.
It was titled, “Avoiding the Crude Oil Trap: Using LNG Governance to Build Community and Industrial Opportunity in Lower Southern Nigeria”.
In a statement on Saturday, he said Nigeria’s challenge was not resource scarcity but weak governance and limited capacity to convert resource wealth into broad-based development.
Olamide, a Principal Engineer at a major U.S. LNG facility, said Nigeria had more than 200 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves, but LNG capacity remained about 22 million tonnes annually.
He said the disparity showed the need to strengthen governance, infrastructure and industrial linkages around gas development.
According to him, Nigeria must avoid repeating the crude oil experience, where decades of production generated substantial revenue without creating commensurate industrial opportunities in many producing communities.
“Resource wealth creates opportunity; governance determines outcomes,” he said.
Olamide said LNG projects should serve as anchors for industrial clusters rather than stand-alone export facilities.
He proposed clusters integrating power generation, petrochemicals, fertiliser production, manufacturing, fabrication, shipbuilding, marine services, logistics, data centres, research and technical training.
He cited Qatar’s Ras Laffan, Singapore’s Jurong Island, South Korea’s Ulsan and Aberdeen in Scotland as examples of resource-based regions that developed broader industrial ecosystems.
For Nigeria, he proposed an industrial corridor stretching from Calabar and Akwa Ibom through Port Harcourt and Warri to the Lagos-Ogun industrial belt.
He said the West African Gas Pipeline, coastal transport corridors, rail links and deep-sea ports could support interconnected industrial clusters across the region.
Olamide identified seven governance priorities, including transparency and traceability, industrial clusters and technology specialisation, institutional continuity and environmental accountability.
Others are workforce development, community benefit-sharing and land partnerships, as well as domestic value retention.
He stressed the need for policy continuity, saying LNG plants, ports, railways, industrial parks and technical institutions could not mature within four-year political cycles.
Olamide cited Ajaokuta Steel, steel rolling mills and Nigerian Machine Tools as examples of how major investments could fail to deliver sustainable industrialisation without policy continuity and strong value-chain linkages.
He advocated a minimum 10-year governance framework for LNG-led industrial development.
The engineer also called for host communities to move beyond being recipients of compensation and corporate social responsibility to becoming participants in the economic value generated by industrial projects.
He proposed transparent compensation, livelihood restoration, technical training, community development trusts and structured land partnerships.
“Under his Vision 2040, Nigeria would target 80 million tonnes of annual LNG capacity, three to four industrial clusters, additional seaports, regional rail connectivity and major petrochemical and fertiliser hubs.
“The vision also includes shipbuilding, marine services and development of a strong technical workforce to support industrial growth”.
Olamide said Nigeria must decide whether LNG would become another export enclave or serve as a platform for power generation, manufacturing, research, skills development and regional trade.
He urged policymakers to make governance, industrial linkages and community participation central to the country’s next phase of gas development.
