Commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, support the holding of nuclear referenda across Africa

Earlier this week, the Kenyan government announced via the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency that it plans to build a five billion dollar nuclear power plant by 2027. Kenya is one of a number of African countries, including continental heavyweights Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa, that have made swift progress in formulating nuclear plans and setting ambitious targets (both in terms of timelines and generating capacity) for executing these plans.

The manner in which the Kenyan government has proceeded in formulating its plans and plans to execute them offers the world a glimpse of what the future of nuclear energy across Africa is likely to look like. One, limited public knowledge of nuclear power and the running of few, if any, meaningful public education campaigns will not prevent governments from pushing ahead with their nuclear plans. Two, governments will cite the critical need to grow and develop their economies as justification for their nuclear ambitions. Three, deal-making will be dominated by technocrats and sundry experts and there will be very little scope for the general public to provide input into national nuclear decision-making. Four, nuclear deals will be struck behind closed doors and awarded to foreign companies from countries with whom the sitting regime enjoys friendly relations. Five, the build, operate and transfer (BOT) model that enables plant operators to avoid intense levels of public scrutiny yet saddles the public purse with high levels of debt for generations to come is to be the preferred basis upon which contracts are awarded.

Readers with longer memories, and a sense of irony no doubt, would note the timing of this announcement; it comes during the week in which the world observes the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the twin events that ushered in the Nuclear Age. Like those upon whom these bombs were dropped all those years ago, ordinary Africans’ nuclear fate seems to be out of their hands. Surely, we Africans deserve more than this. Surely ordinary Africans deserve to have their nuclear destiny placed in their own hands rather than those of the powers that be — whomever these may be or purport to represent.

A referendum; or more precisely, a series of referendums in each African country where the government is contemplating embarking upon a nuclear power programme; is the ideal way for ordinary citizens to wrest mastery of their fate from the entrenched interest groups that now dictate African countries’ nuclear plans. Arguably, there is no more befitting a way in which we Africans could honour the memory of the victims of the bombings we commemorate today than by giving ordinary citizens the final say over their country’s nuclear plans. Unlike the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, this is a decision upon which all of humanity will look back upon with pride in 75 years’ time. If you would like to be part of something your descendants and their descendants will be proud of, then we urge you to lobby your government to submit its nuclear plans to a referendum and to support calls for African countries to do so. You can start by supporting our call for a referendum on nuclear power in South Africa by signing up at www.facebook.com/CRNPSA