Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday said Nigeria’s crude oil will no longer be highly useful in the future.

He spoke during the Second National Council on Niger Delta, NCND, meeting held in Akure.

He said, “Many countries are getting alternatives to oil, the development which would make the resource unprofitable in a few years.”

Osinbajo pointed out that the United States of America, USA, which is the largest importer of Nigeria’s crude oil, would no longer need the commodity because of alternatives for oil already discovered.

He added that Asian countries like Japan and China now have electric cars and charging points at filling stations.

Osinbajo said many of the countries in Europe have set deadlines for the phasing out of hydrocarbon cars, which would make Nigeria crude oil unattractive to the international market.

Osinbajo said: “The future of oil is in decline.

“The future of oil is declining, which is why it is the duty of all stakeholders to explore all the opportunities now and to ensure we are not constantly battling with the security of the pipelines we should have used the resources to develop other potentials of the region.

“It is the duty of this council to ensure we provide the road map for the future that will not necessarily depend on oil.

“It is obvious that oil is not going to last forever. As a matter of fact everything that we see showed that oil is declining very quietly.

“There is no reason why we should not develop other potentials apart from oil in the region. If we can do this the full potential of the region will be fulfilled and our collective vision will be realised.”

Speaking on the Ogoni cleanup, Osinbajo said; “It is on but might be slower than anticipated.”

He explained that the administration was applying caution so that the effort will not flop like those by past administrations.

Azeez