There has never been a time, the power supply in my country was "good"..from the national grid collapsing, to the electric poles being uprooted by rainstorms, to cables being vandalized by criminals, all factors contributing to inconsistent power supply…will all of this ever end in Nigeria?
In the village where my parents live, the electricity situation was very bad, the power supply had been cut off for as long as I could remember—so the people suffered without electricity, water was fetched from the well, but getting water from the well during the dry season, we all know, is a lot of hassles. They battled excessively with phone charging, until it became a regular complaint in the village.
Reaching my parents on phone became more and more difficult. But after an emergency that happened, one of my older siblings living abroad decided to install a solar power system for them which could conveniently power most things in the house, including the water pumping machine.
As I write this piece, power supply is non-existent in that place as everyday, my parents’ house was filled with people who wanted to charge one thing or the other, or fetch water from the borehole.
It is really so sad!
As for me, everywhere I have lived, from when I was a child up till now that I’m a mother, it has always been one issue or the other in terms of electricity supply.
Almost everyone where I live have either generators or solar panels, electricity has been so inconsistent for a while now, so my husband decided to cut us off completely from direct power supply. In his words, "we barely get electricity and they still slam us every month with unreasonable electric bills?”
We run our generator at least three hours everyday as there was no need for us to remain connected to direct power supply.
I remember vividly when my husband’s sister came in from Spain with her children, they wanted to spend some time in Nigeria so they started by staying at our place for a while.
They arrived at night, so my husband picked them up from the airport.
Upon arrival at my house, one of her kids began wailing
"I don’t want to stay in Nigeria, please I want to go back. Everywhere is so dark"
My husband immediately turned on the generator as we tried to pacify her.
They say, life is not balanced, she is used to constant electricity overseas, so I wouldn't blame her. But for me, I am so used to the darkness!
I don’t know if the problem of electricity will ever be solved in Nigeria, so I hope God blesses everyone with the resources to get solar systems installed, or be able to afford petrol to keep their generators running, or better still, be able to travel overseas where there’s constant power supply.
Thank you for reading.
