Have you ever missed something you hate so much? If yes, you will be quite familiar with my feelings right now. The smell of gasoline at the gas station today brought back nostalgic memories of Lagos. Oh how I miss the smell of gasoline lacing the cool evening’s air, the aching song of our diesel engine that sings me to sleep every night.

Every city has its distinct features, this is what differentiates it from other places. For Lagos, Nigeria, it's the Generator (power generating machine), I guess there is no other City in the world that can boast of that much of generators. This is not just true for Lagos alone, you find generators everywhere in other cities in Nigeria.

Power generating machine which we often call generators in Nigeria are part of our daily lives. It’s a must have for everyone, rich, poor, middle class; everyone keeps one around. The average Nigerian don't keep pets but he does keep or have a Generator, so that makes Generator a pet in every Nigerian home. They are domestic pets, you feed them, protect them and take them to the “clinic” when they fall "sick". In fact, when designing a plan for your new house, generator has a special part of the building, especially for the bigger ones. For a country that has been gasping in the fumes of generators for over two decades, it has become a status symbol to be seen as being able to buy a set.

The number of generators can be roughly estimated not far from the Nigerian population, an estimated "90m resident’s use generators of varying sizes" and this figure is soaring each year with generators becoming cheaper.

Every Society relies on power, so it shouldn't be surprising to see the important role Generator (which is now a substitute for the poor supply from the national grid) plays in the lives of every Nigerian

They come in different brands and sizes from the very cheap "i better pass my neighbor" which is the common man priced possession to the Big for the upper class, these machines all have one thing in common-Noise and Pollution.
If you are new to Nigeria, the power situation takes a little getting used to. In my case I wasn’t new. I had only left my birth country for 3 years and returning wasn't a Mr. Bean's joke. At first it was difficult adjusting back to the life with frequent power outage and the daily dose of Carbon monoxide, but within few weeks I adjusted just like any Nigerian does and here I was shouting Up NEPA!
The feeling of power being available for longer hours becomes weird, you start wondering why is there still light, have they forgot to turn it off?

The dexterity my six years old cousin displays when starting the generator is beyond imagination. He had mastered the art.


Once there is a power cut, which is frequent and often night-long everyone is dashing out to start their generators, and it's only a matter of time before the orchestra of generators is been led by my neighbors 12.5 kVA generator. This "melody" sometimes goes all night long till they sing you to sleep.
It’s always a dilemma every evening. Once the light goes off, I have to choose either to enjoy the quiet serene with mosquitoes in the darkness, or switch on the generator and get drown into the loud sound. The later was always my choice.

With Nigeria's life expectancy rate at 52, which is considerably low, apart from the day to day risky activities that endanger our lives, the constant intake of air, richly laden in CO plays a big role in our poor health situation. Such Headlines such as "5 killed in generator fumes" is quite common, almost impossible a month passes by without an incident.

I was at Idumota Market in Lagos, with my friend, he came to pick up his clothes from his tailor. The building was choked up and poorly spaced, generators in every corner you go .It was indeed the biggest gathering of CO emitting machines I have ever seen.
In the small cubicle (about 3 meters square), here was a group of tailors including my friend’s tailor, who calls himself Sure boy sewing and dancing to a popular Nigerian song, by Davido in the dense fumes, another case of the popular Fela's suffering and smiling! What you don't know won't hurt you, right?

The interesting thing is people don’t really care about their health, your health is only important when you fall sick. I wonder if there is an Environmental Protection Agency in Nigeria, at least if the government can't provide regular power supply they should regulate exhaust emissions. After all, filters and catalytic converter would save a lot of Nigerians’ health.

Anyway, like every article that has been written about the state of power in Nigeria, this will also go into the garbage bin. You know why? The government doesn't really care about your health, they only want your vote during the next election.
Source:http://www.tlkdrum.com/generators-a-pet-in-every-nigerian-home/

True talk bro... No country uses generators as much as Nigeria. personally, I dislike generators; the noise, the pollution, the maintenance and hazards involved are some of the reasons why I do.

In terms of electricity supply, Nigeria honestly deserve much better. We are just extremely unfortunate and unlucky to be repeatedly govern by a continues circle of clueless heads of state. Haba, with such audacity, look at this Otueke man singing out orders to waste almost about 50million dollars for the solely purchase of stoves. Ha! I'm telling ya with such huge funds, we can easily invest and harvest the free enormous solar energy from the Sun unlimitedly for ages.