Let\u2019s look at African realities<\/p>\n
A kettle boiled twice a day by the rich and luxurious family of radical leftist group Extinction Rebellion\u2019s Chlo\u00e9 Farand in the France, uses five times as much electricity as an entire Malian family uses per year.<\/p>\n
900 million Africans rely on solid biomass such as firewood and charcoal for cooking, which causes indoor pollution that kills 600,000 people a year. On average, a Tanzanian would take 8 years to consume as much electricity as Chlo\u00e9 Farand consumes in one month.<\/p>\n
Sub-Saharan Africa has undiscovered, but technically recoverable, energy resources estimated at about 115.34 billion barrels of oil and 21.05 trillion cubic metres of gas. We have to use our natural gas to fix Africa\u2019s problems. Chlo\u00e9 Farand needs to decarbonize and Bola, Aderike, Abosede, Atinuke Omolade and Oyinola need to have electricity, clean cooking, jobs and industrialization. And we need to use African natural gas to do that. Except you believe like many in Chloe Ferand\u2019s camp do, that Africans do not deserve reliable and affordable power just like they have in Europe.<\/p>\n
Environmental Concerns<\/strong><\/p>\n While environmental causes are a major focus in the West, lawmakers in Africa\u2019s developing countries are more concerned with living wages and supplying basic necessities to the continent\u2019s growing population.<\/p>\n The plan of radical western activists like Chlo\u00e9 Farand who often pretend to be journalists to hide their murky anti-Africa agendas and Extinction Rebellion would amount to austerity measures in Africa that would see Africans leaving petroleum resources in the ground that has benefitted Farand and generations of her family for hundreds of years, in exchange for poverty for Africans. Her parents colonized us and took everything and today she essentially brands poor Africans criminals \u2014 or at the very least enemies of the environment \u2014 for using fossil fuels. We just saw it with the recent hit job and attacks on Africans at COP27.<\/p>\n Africa\u2019s natural gas sector will soon be responsible for large-scale job creation, increased opportunities for monetization and economic diversification, and critical gas-to-power initiatives that will bring more Africans reliable electricity. These significant benefits should not be dismissed in the name of achieving net zero emissions on deadlines set by Farand, her ilk and people who only know Africa from TV, Halloween parties and the odd exotic trip abroad. To tell African countries with gas potential like Mozambique, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Libya, Algeria, South Africa, Angola and many others that they can\u2019t monetize their gas and rather wait for foreign aid and handouts from their western counterparts makes no sense. At the same time, Farand and her family in France and the UK continue to enjoy power from the same gas they deny Africans, as well as coal and other forms of hydrocarbons.<\/p>\n What\u2019s more, we can\u2019t overlook the fact that renewable energy solutions are still young technologies \u2014they are less reliable and more expensive per unit of power than other tried-and-tested sources of base load, including hydrocarbons. Achieving net zero by 2050 would therefore require that Farand focus her advocacy on her family and her neighbors rather than pick on poor Africans.<\/p>\n Banning African Natural Gas Production<\/strong><\/p>\n A ban on African natural gas production would bring about the collapse of many carbon-dependent governments in Africa. The oil industry is the primary source of income for many African nations. Without the continuation of petroleum production \u2014 or time and opportunities to cultivate new revenue sources \u2014 their economies will suffer \u2014 along with their citizens.<\/p>\n Fossil Fuel executives should be at COP27. We have maintained in the past and continue to believe that demonizing energy companies and those that work in the oil and gas industry is not a constructive way forward and ignoring the role that carbon-based fuels have played in driving human progress distorts the public debate. Western countries are flat-out wrong on this. They have benefited the most from Fossil Fuels. We are facing climate challenges today solely due to their historic pollution.<\/p>\n We cannot expect African nations, which together emitted seven times less CO2 than China last year and four times less than the US, according to the Global Carbon Atlas, to undermine their best opportunities for economic development by simply aligning with the Western view of how to tackle carbon emissions. At the same time, no western nation is ready to pay a fair price for their role in legacy carbon emissions<\/p>\n Outside Agitators at COP27.<\/strong><\/p>\n Africans who attend COP27 are not outside agitators. Africans who work in the natural gas industry continue to be treated as outside agitators for daring to attend an African COP27 in Egypt. The nasty and vicious attacks from radical environmental groups such as extinction rebellion and their surrogates such as Chloe Farand who claim and pretend to speak in Africa\u2019s best interest.\u00a0 Where and when were they elected to these positions and by which Africans might we ask? A very rich white woman who does not understand the need to defeat black energy poverty. We are not surprised by the racist undertones of their advocacy, given that her Organization do not hire or recruit black people. Maybe she can start by hiring some token blacks. \u00a0She has refused to provide documentation on her funding for such anti-black and African activities.\u00a0 She plagiarized a discredited and debunked story to attack Africans. Sounds familiar.<\/p>\n Black people who are fighting energy poverty in Africa must understand that they will continue to be attacked by vested anti-African interests, many of which often pretend to be pro-African. They will face situations like that of African Americans fighting for civil rights in the 60s. \u00a0Segregationist Alabama Governor John Patterson for example refused to condemn white rioters, and instead blamed the Freedom Riders for the violence they suffered in Alabama at the hands of white rioters who used similar language like we see being used today against African anti-energy poverty advocates; trouble makers, charlatans, fraudsters, looters, corrupt, terrorists etc.<\/p>\n Patterson had warned that integration would cause \u201cviolence, disorder, and bloodshed\u201d and had refused to repudiate an endorsement from the Ku Klux Klan. \u201cIf the Federal Government really wants to help in this unfortunate situation,\u201d Patterson told reporters in Montgomery, \u201cthey will encourage these outside agitators to go home. We have the means and the ability to keep the peace in Alabama without any outside help.\u201d<\/p>\n White opposition to black energy poverty was largely a quiet movement that has now become the rallying cry of the climate movement. Africans need to pay attention to this. When they attack your beloved African Energy Chamber and anyone associated with it, it is because our work is picking up steam and they need to silence our voices. We will not be silenced by people who live in houses that use coal, use gas to drive their cars, use diesel to power their economies and then lecture Africans that they need to stay in the dark and be happy for it for the sake of our environment. A very white colonialist agenda.<\/p>\n