The average Nigerian knows that a power outage is a usual incident in the country. Growing up in Nigeria would have surely gotten you acquainted with random and frequent power outages.
There's no routine for electricity distribution, and when there is, it's not even followed.
Most of us have had to substitute constant electricity for generators, some inverters, and other forms of electricity.
I've had terrible experiences with power outages, but the one that hurt to the bone the most has got to be the latest one . It was just a couple of weeks ago.
I had a lamp, a torch, a power bank that had a torch, and of course, a generator.
There has been a hike in petrol price so turning on the generator has been a bit of a challenge. Moreover, I leave home very early in the mornings to drop my son off at school and head on to the shop. We usually get back home late at night, and I'm usually too exhausted to switch on the generator.
So, what I do to charge things that need charging is to plug them at a place nearby to my shop where they turn on their inverter for commercial purposes.
On this particular day, I didn't go to the shop so I didn't have the opportunity to charge my phone. We got home earlier than usual and I was thankful because the electricity was on.
I rushed to plug in everything I needed to charge, and was quite thankful that I won't have to put on the generator.
I put my younger baby to bed because he was asleep, an eleven-month-old baby. I was in the living room with his brother trying to prepare and put things in place for the next day when the electricity fluctuated twice.
I was skeptical because I knew the electricity distribution company was fond of playing hide and seek.
The electricity had barely been on for 3 hours when it blinked twice and went off.
I was angry, but still thankful that I have charged the things that I needed to charge. I crawled to the extension box where I plugged everything in darkness, and it was probably the hardest thing I ever had to do because I was afraid of the dark.
My older child was already screaming out for me where he was seated because everything had turned pitch black. He wasn't asleep yet even though it was a few minutes after 11. He slept in the evening and I already knew it was going to be a challenge to get him to bed early. I managed to turn on my phone and it only had a 5% charge on it. I was shattered to discover that none of the things I plugged got charged, I didn't remember to turn on the extension box. Believe me when I say the feeling I had in that moment was more painful than child birth.
My estate had a no generator after 11 policy, so I couldn't turn on the generator anymore. I won't ask you to imagine my pain, cause you won't even be able to relate.
I led my son to the room and I coaxed him to sleep. He was also afraid of the dark and I summoned the courage I didn't have to sit in the dark after he had slept.
I didn't sleep a wink, I kept imagining shapes coming out to get me from the darkness. I felt goosebumps all over me around 2 a.m. when a certain breeze shook my window panes. It was the first time I ever slept in the dark and it was a terrible experience...