I remember vividly the first time I saw a light bulb glow in our house, it was like someone had waved the magic wand and muttered the magical word, abracadabra. It was a small, dim yellow bulb hanging from the ceiling, and as a child, I was immensely overjoyed at so much brightness, that even the light from the flickering oil lamps and kerosene lanterns paled in comparison—we had moved from darkness into light.
As erratic as it was back then, power supply was still a luxury in my village, a wonder that came and went like the sunrises and sunsets. Most nights, we still relied heavily on kerosene lanterns and oil lamps, we still sat under the soft sheen of the moon as it lovingly gave its light, listening to my grandmother tell folktales, it made no difference then, it still makes no difference now.
Power Supply in Nigeria has always been epileptic and inconsistent since inception, power outages have been the order of the day, exams were read by candle light and even TV programmes were interrupted mid-sentence and businesses have continued to bear the brunt, with many of them running aground as a result, and to their own demise.
Whenever electricity returns, you can hear the children chanting, "Up NEPA!" The entire place would be agog with ecstatic shouts, never minding that the power could vanish just as soon.
Just this evening, I stood in my own home, listening to my neighbour battle with his old generator, as he repeatedly yanked the starter rope to no avail.
It simply refused to budge.
This is total blackout and from across the streets, one could hear generators roaring into life, another noisy night. Then I realized how nothing had changed through the years. The same struggles, the same complaints about power outages.
Will that time ever come when the lights will never flicker?
There's no gainsaying the fact that Nigeria's power sector has long struggled to provide consistent and adequate electricity to its population, but it has woefully failed in this venture, as it has, in every other sector of its economy, thereby bringing untold hardships to both households and businesses.
In view of Nigeria's significant challenges in its power sector, one would have thought that threading the path of seeking renewable power options would have been paramount, if actually they were sincere about providing a more stable and reliable power supply for its people.
I am @edith-4angelseu and thank you for stopping by my neighbourhood.