I AM HOT!
intellectual prowess. But I am hot! The hot weather condition in Lagos
has brought many Lagosians like me to the point where we are now
desperately begging our creator for rain not minding that our roads
will be flooded, fares of buses will be hiked and prices of umbrellas
will be hiked. Thanks to the administration of Mr. Babatunde Fashola,
Governor of Lagos State; the effect of the rain may not exactly be that
bad flood wise for Lagosians. But we are still hot. The scorching sun
that smiles mercilessly on us as we go about our businesses and pierces
painfully through our skins has made toilet rolls and handkerchiefs
must have accessories. The other day I went out without a handkerchief
and boy, I felt like I had committed a great life error!
What I find frustrating is that after all the stress of the day; I go
back to darkness, you know what I mean, even after a cold bath, I’m
usually still unable to sleep and I spend the entire night awake in a
forceful vigil, and I sing lullabies to drive myself to sleep. No
thanks to PHCN, I’m learning the power of staying awake so when I
become a mum, staying awake won’t be that hard. Up NEPA! Or rather, Up
PHCN! I smile thanking God power has been restored, I curse under my
breath, though glad for the breeze and before I reach for the fan,
power is gone again! Yes, the message is gotten; I Never Expect Power
Always and I am seriously listening to the plea of PHCN to Please Hold
My Candles at Night.
I know I am not alone in this situation. Many people are tired, tired
from sleeplessness, and tired of the unfulfilled promises of the
government to provide constant power for Nigerians. What many find
appalling is perhaps that electricity is the number one agenda on the
administration’s seven pointless agenda. What is even more disturbing
is that not one of the agenda has been met.
If nature has not been kind to us, we at least should enjoy man made
electric stability. For a nation at 50, the current power situation can
be best described as shameful. When the Federal Government in December
2009 promised to deliver on 6,000 MW of electricity and 10,000MW by
March 2010, only a few people believed them. And they were justified
because the FG reneged on their promise. Media reports recently stated
that the national generation had dropped to 2,400MW from the dismissal
peak of 3,700 last December and 2,700MW some weeks ago. My advice?
Tighten your “sokoto”.
The unfortunate thing is that the masses are the ones at the receiving
end of this disturbing trend. Small scale business owners who barely
make enough profit now have to channel their little resources to buying
a generating set and of course fuel to power them. Even big
organisations are not left out as many run their activities only on
plants which of course make their services very expensive. Sometime
ago, Rev. Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Christian Centre revealed that the
Church spends well over #50million on fuel alone every year. This money
can of course be channelled into one of its programmes or even used to
give scholarships to indigent students. The Church as part of its
social responsibility even went ahead to stage a walk for light titled
“Let There Be Light!”.
Part of the negative effect of this situation is evident around us. One
can barely walk the streets without being disturbed with the noise of
generating sets that have become a norm in every home. Apart from the
noise, the pollution it generates also puts our health at a big risk.
It’s so bad that most houses now have two generating sets, one for the
day and the other for the night. Even the rich are not spared the
financial strains of power failure. A closer look around you and you
will discover not many rich people can provide 24 hours electricity for
their homes, no thanks to the fluctuating price of fuel and its
frequent scarcity.
Of recent the government again in its characteristic way gave yet
another promise that 10,000MW of electricity will be supplied to
Nigerians by June. Simply put, Nigerians do not believe them because
our government overtime have shown that they are not honest to
themselves much less the people they govern. Their repeated acts of
lack of integrity has stripped them of every iota of respect they
deserve.
It is high time that a new workable strategy is adopted to bring the PHCN out of its comatose state.