Living in one of the largest and fast-developing countries in Africa, Nigeria, one would think the least of the problems we would have in today's world is power supply, but sadly as it seems, this is one of our biggest problems, Imagine having to stay 2 days without power and the one day on that power is usually expected to be restored before we face the next two days without power, it hardly is restored up to five hours, and this five hours is not in a stretch but off and on, that is how insane the power situation of my country is.
Before now, I used to think maybe we indeed did not have enough resources to enjoy a stable power supply, but recently, I realized that is the biggest lie the government has told, because in this same area where I live some groups of people enjoy stable power supply and when I inquired why it was so, I was told that the distribution of power to the citizens has been split into categories A, B, C... while band A is for mostly the influential or wealthy citizens of the nation, they hardly ever have interrupted power supply, band B is also for citizens who pay a huge certain amount of money to get power as well, then the rest of us are left to suffer, and still get stamped with Light bill for what we don't enjoy.
It is sad indeed, that corruption and greediness have eaten deep into every aspect of the nation, I thought things like water and power supply were supposed to be a basic human need and amenities provided compulsorily by the government to its citizens not minding class or influence, as long as we keep paying our taxes and normal light bill, now we are not suffering because we don't have enough resources for the power to be provided, to think that we even distributer power to neighboring countries, we are suffering because the government deem us not important, an opportunity cost for them to live the extravagant life while we keep suffering.
Apart from the fact that power provides us with entertainment and comfort because when there is light, we can put on the fan, AC, TV, etc, power also plays a huge role in our business, without power, we have to result in generator usage which has high market value here, even though they get more expensive every year, we have no choice than to depend on them, which cost us too many expenses, to maintain them and also buy fuel which they run on, considering the high cost of fuel in the country, some business has even folded due to this constant expenses, leaving families to suffer more poverty and debt.
It got to a point where I stopped buying fuel because it was eating deep into my pocket, and had to result to charging my devices at a charging center, another business that isn't supposed to exist if there is a constant power supply, yea, my devices face the risk of being stolen since there usually large numbers of phones and other gadget collected for same charging purpose, I also pay every day to get my devices charged as I can't afford to stay offline as an online earner,
Mostly this method of charging my devices affects my productivity, for instance, I was supposed to submit this post earlier this morning but had to wait for my devices to get charged a bit, if I had power at home, I wouldn't have to face this delay.
It's high time our government put an end to this madness in power supply and make power readily available to everyone irrespective of their financial status or class.
This post is inspired by the #Aprilinleo monthly contest, day 8, check out Leogrowth's thread and be inspired,
All images used in this post are mine.