MY EXPERIENCE DURING A LONG TERM POWER OUTAGE

Normally power outage seems to be a normal thing for we Nigerians, the only way to enjoy steady electricity is by installing a solar system or you on your generator 24/7 which is very very expensive to maintain now as the price of fuel has increased drastically and might still increase again.

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I can remember when we are small, whenever light is restored by the electricity distribution company, then NEPA was the company in charge of that, you'll see everyone shouting up NEPA in the street, because it's strange and it happens once in a while, we're not used to having light for a long time or everyday, even when the light is taking too long before it's being taken, we will consider ourselves to be very lucky, so when they take light, there's this habit of an average Nigerian to curse the NEPA. Even though the company handling the electricity distribution has been changed, we still call the present company NEPA, it's so funny but it's what we're used to, I don't think that name can be erased from our memory.

Another funny thing is how the light is usually being taken when you're watching a very interesting movie, or a TV show, you'll think it's an intentional act but it's just coincidence, it happened today where I went to watch football match between Chelsea and Arsenal, they took the light when the match was getting very interesting, you need to see the reaction of my fellow Nigerians lols.

Many times in my area we've experienced blackouts, but mini blackouts, some last for two days, some three, I think the highest was five days not until we had a long time blackout, guess what, it was our transformer and you know when it's a transformer issue, you're most times on your own, because it's the people using it that would eventually pay for it's repair or the purchase of another one, if you want your light to be fixed on time, waiting for external intervention is really a very long thing.

When our transformer got spoilt, a message was passed round to everyone in the street that we're to pay a certain amount of money after the landlords had already met earlier.
So some people were selected to go round and collect the fees but trust me it was not easy, even though I was not selected but my elder brother was, he usually tell us how stressful it's going round the street and begging people to pay so that light can be restored.

It was during that time I knew how much they were paying to charge devices or gadgets, power bank is #300 while mobile phone is #200. (approximately 0.3 and 0.2 cent respectively). I did not know things were very expensive like that, but I don't have a choice than to join.
All those times of power outage was not a good time at all, I was praying everyday that people would just pay up.

After a month we were able to gather the money for the repair of our spoilt transformer, and that was how our light was restored. I feel like I was the happiest man lols, because the money for charging was choking me already because many times I had to pay for my younger sister too. I don't wish that we experience that again.