Nigeria is the most populous black nation on earth.
Nigerians are also industrious, fun-loving and adventurous, so it is normal to find a lot of Nigerians travelling abroad for various reasons which include seeking business opportunities, tourism or greener pasture.
Power supply has never been constant in Nigeria in spite of the huge investment in the sector. But interestingly, many Nigerians have grown so used to having regular blackouts that it affects their psyche even when they are in advanced countries where they enjoy constant power supply.
In Nigeria, the incessant outages experienced in homes are often greeted with shouts of ‘NEPA’. It has become a household name that even little children scream ‘Up NEPA’ on the streets when power is restored. NEPA, which stands for the National Electric Power Authority, used to be the name of the country’s power company before it was changed to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria- now defunct.
There have been accounts of hilarious experiences by Nigerians abroad, particularly first time travellers, who subconsciously assume that power supply outside the country is similar to the Nigerian experience.
For instance, a Nigerian woman, Ebere Ogbuabor, who recalled her experience during her first trip to the United Kingdom, said it took her a few days to subconsciously adjust to the constant power supply experienced over there.
She said, “I stay in Egbeda, Lagos, where power supply is really bad. So usually, by Thursday or Friday, if there is power supply, I iron the clothes my children and I will be wearing to church on Sunday since power supply is very unpredictable.
“So during my first trip to the UK, the moment I got to where I was to stay, I started ironing my clothes on seeing power. When my host who was not around at the time got back and saw me, she started laughing and making fun of me. It was then I realised that I had left Nigeria. I felt so embarrassed that the situation in the country could have affected me that much.”
Another Nigerian, Seyi Adewale, who shared his experience in South Africa with Power Talkback, also said he was embarrassed to realise that Nigeria’s abysmal power supply had affected his psyche so much that he naturally assumed the worst in a foreign country.
He said, “During my first trip to South Africa, the people I stayed with really had a fun at my expense. I was supposed to go out the following morning and I had totally forgotten that I was not in Nigeria. I was not sure that there would still be power supply by the time I woke up in the morning, so that night, I insisted on ironing my clothes.
“The guys I was staying with let me finish with the ironing before they all burst into laughter. They said Nigeria had wounded my mind and that I needed to go out more often. A similar thing occurred when we were about to cross the road. I dashed across the road while my friends stayed back.
They patiently waited for the traffic light to usher pedestrians to cross. The motorists waited for every one to cross the road and nobody ran like I did. Everyone strolled across and I felt like a fool.”
Meanwhile, the spate of power failure in the country has hardly improved. With the situation, most Nigerian homes and industries rely on fuel-powered generators for power supply. Consequently, a lot of industries are producing far below their installed capacities, with some of them closing down their factories due to the attendant huge cost of production.
The country’s health care also suffers as hospitals and clinics need electricity to run their equipment for surgical operations.
However, the Federal Government has again assured the public that it had put measures in place to ensure more stable power supply in the country by the beginning of October, 2014.
The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, who recently disclosed this to journalists after a meeting presided over by Vice-President Namadi Sambo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, said part of the strategies being employed by the government is putting measures in place to ensure availability of gas for generation companies.
He said the step had started yielding results as some parts of the country had started experiencing stable power supply.
He said, “The cheering news from all of these is that if you have noticed throughout the country in the past one week, people have been getting better power supply.
“The gas is now beginning to come back and it is something that gives all of us a lot of joy.
“And we know that it will continue to grow that way even until December because of some of the facilities, maintenance, repair works on the gas equipment and so on.
“The gas producers have come to a place where almost all of these are being taken care of, and then the new gas we are expecting is trickling in right now.”http://www.punchng.com/feature/power-talkback/frequent-outage-affects-nigerians-psyche-abroad/