I’m sure that by now you’ve read a number of power outage accounts by Nigerians, so you’ll know that this is not something that is alien to us. It has become a part of us to the point that if it doesn’t happen for an extended period of time, we become worried.
I read posts where members in other countries talked about how they experienced power outages sporadically. Some had theirs once in four months, others had theirs once in a year. It’s really beautiful, I must say. If we had it even this good, our economy would improve as a result. And that’s the honest truth.
Sadly, many of us don’t even know what it feels like to have a constant power supply. The people who live in the best cities, the closest they can get to constant light is for a couple of hours each day. And for the people in the worst areas, they could go for years without even a flash from the power holders.
Even as I’m making this post to you, there’s no power. The thing is, despite how important power has come to be for all of us, many of us have found a way to cope without it. I don’t think any Nigerian will panic when there’s a power outage, even if it lasts for a decade. Because this is like a training we’ve been getting since we were born. Even when we get the power, we’re already mentally prepared for when it’ll be gone. That’s why we rush to charge anything at all that has a battery. From phones to laptops and power banks. We charge them all because we know that power is just like a thought, it can be gone faster than you can blink!
I also have my own power outage story, and it almost cost me a good deal!
This happened about two years ago when Nigeria was suffering those series of blackouts when the National grid kept collapsing every couple of weeks. Now, where I lived, our light was good enough. To some extent, you could count on them because you were certain they’d bring it for at least a few hours each day. And that was enough to charge everything we needed to charge and also power the fridge. Then, at night, we used generators when the power got interrupted.
This time though, it seemed all the powers that be were after my life. At first, the generator got spoilt. It wasn’t a minor thing, and when the mechanic named his price, it was too huge for me to do on the spot. So, I asked him to give me some time to raise the money. I was counting on the fact that I would charge everything whenever they restored power.
This only worked for two days, and on the third day, there was a total blackout in Nigeria! A grid had collapsed. And one funny thing, before I learned of this, I used my laptop to see a movie, hoping to recharge it when the power came back on. So, by the time learned of the grid collapse, my laptop battery was low. I didn’t have a power bank then, and I knew my phone couldn’t last me as long as I would have wanted.
I had a job to do and submit, and without my laptop, that would have affected me greatly. You know how laptops aren’t like phones. You can easily charge a phone at a friend’s place, even leave it there and be confident you’ll find it in one piece when you return. Sadly, that’s not the case for a laptop. We tend to exercise more restraint when trying to charge them in external places and it’s understandable.
I didn’t want to charge outside, but I had no choice. When power still didn’t come back the next day, I was forced to take it to my friend’s place to charge. But this was not an easy arrangement for me because it happened for quite a while. I had to go almost every day because I used my laptop to work every day and that drained the battery which meant I had to recharge it as well.
Thankfully though, the grid issue was fixed and power was restored. The moment I could, I bought a 30000mAh power bank which has served me well since then and I still use to this day. And then, I also fixed the generator so that I would never be blindsided like that again.
As I said, this power issue is something that so many of us are used to. We all know what it feels like to lose power by 9 PM, the sudden silence that falls over the neighborhood. And for a few seconds, it feels like the world has died. Then, you hear the first generator. And then, another generator. And soon, the world is moving on once again because the good people of Nigeria are getting power, one way or the other.
Well, as things stand, I don’t even know when we’ll have a more reliable power system in my dear country. But it’s not even as scary as it sounds anymore. Because whether the government gives it to us or not, there’ll always be light.
One way or another.
