Since I was a kid electricity or the lack of steady electricity, has has been a big problem. When I was growing up you could have weeks of uninterrupted electrical supply, followed by a week or more of none. You could have one to a few days a week of electricity and then none at all for a one or more days. It was whatever took the fancy of the governmental body that was in charge of electricity called NEPA (National Electric Power Authority).
As you can imagine, growing up in such circumstances would be difficult for children who need to be entertained. So when there was no light, out came the alternative light sources. When I was growing up our house had lanterns (I believe there are called hurricanes or hurricane lanterns here?) like the one above. We had about 2 or three for our little 2 bedroom apartment we lived in. We had to do our homework by the light of the lanterns on many a night. And when homework was done you found ways to entertain yourself such as reading and when we were bored with that we would tell each other stories or recreate scenes from American movies we had seen. One of my brothers is quite the mimic so you can imagine what a ham he was.
Now in a way this is a bittersweet memory because on one hand it was a difficult existence, but on the other hand it gave us quite an imagination as children. Till today all my siblings are avid readers and with exceptional vocabularies and are very creative. However you have to think, how was it for kids who were not raised by educated parents who encouraged them to read? What must it have been like in houses where even lanterns were a luxury and they had to see by candles alone? I mean we are talking about tropical weather here and I know that even in our house, sometimes my siblings and I would sleep on the cement floor in our room because it was cool. Why shouldn't a country be able to provide such a basic necessity?
That situation was bad enough growing up with, so imagine my surprise when I go home and the situation is even worse now. With no exaggeration, out of the three months I was home, I can honestly say that we did not have up to 5 days of electricity from morning to night. You would have electricity maybe in the middle of the night that would be off by 6:00a.m and then no light at all all day again until the middle of night again. So, in the evenings, for those who can afford it, it was time to turn on your generator. You can imagine the cacophony of a city full of generators! When you can afford the price for an acceptable amount of fuel (about 750 Naira, a lot of money there for most), you were fine and safe from the heat. At least till about midnight which is when most people turn of their gens (gen/gens is general slang for generators in Nigeria).
When you can't afford the fuel, you go back to old faithfuls like the above trio of light sources. Good, Better, Best. I guess Nigerian ingenuity kicked in and someone came up with a standard lantern but with tiny light bulbs in it. You see, it works rather well, but what they don't tell you is that it works on intricately wired large A (?) batteries that have been stuffed into the lantern's well. So when it dies you have to be really good with wiring to figure out how to get the batteries of the well to attach new ones. We tried; it didn't go so well, lol. So at least you have two light sources for sure.
So here's the thing, in a country of over 141 million people, how is it that what is considered a basic necessity in most countries escapes us so? The corruption and incompetence of NEPA certainly did not help. It was such an incompetent entity, that in 2005 the government allowed it to be be taken over by 18 separate companies and it was renamed the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). I guess they did hoping that deregulating the industry and allowing private sector companies would help. Unfortunately, the PHCN also seems to be doing such an exceptionally poor job of it that at this point it's time to bring in some foreign investors who can ACTUALLY do the job. Now, I realize this is easier said than done and powering a country that dense would be done in stages, but you have to think that someone out there has to know what needs to be done. If only our government was not too busy filling its pockets and actually do their research, then maybe we will have a time when every Nigerian can reasonable expectation of electricity in their homes and offices.
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