The first and only reason I changed my NYSC location to Jos, Plateau State, was because of the promise of constant light. When I first got here, it didn’t even feel like I was still in Nigeria, the electricity and weather were just so un-Nigerian. For the first two months, not once was there a power outage. As in, NEPA did not take light even once.
And the weather? Back home in Ondo State, everyone has at least one mini solar-powered fan because of the heat. But here? People own room heaters and trench coats instead.
Most homes in Ondo State have switched to solar for their electricity. It all depends on how rich you are, to be honest. Some homes have solar panels that feel like actual electricity because they can power the entire house and its appliances. Other homes have just enough to power the TV and a few charging sockets, while others barely have enough to power the bulbs. Regardless, people back home have a huge trust issue when it comes to NEPA.
Lol, allow me to explain. Back home, we always tried to figure out the pattern, if NEPA was doing two days on, two days off (that is, two days with stable electricity, then two days without) or five days off, two days on. They’re always switching the pattern as if they’re trying to be unpredictable. If, for some unprecedented reason, we have stable electricity for one week, we’ll play it cool and expect it to go off any moment. But if it lasts for two weeks? That’s when the trust issues start whispering, “What’s going on?” “Why do we still have light?” “This is scary. How come they’ve not taken light in two weeks?”
The scary part for some isn’t even something we can place our fingers on. For others, it’s totally the fear of the NEPA bill that will follow after giving us two weeks of stable light, it’s almost like a trap. Fortunately, my house has a prepaid meter, but unfortunately, if one is not cautious and well-versed in energy management, with the way the numbers run on that prepaid meter, we’ll end up buying light units every other week.
So, you can imagine my surprise when I moved to a city where the light never goes off.
There was this one time when the national grid collapsed, and Jos didn’t have light for about two months. The concept of generators—something that was nonexistent here—suddenly became a thing.
Because of the good light, people here often stack up food in their refrigerators, 80% of people’s work depends on electricity, and others simply aren’t comfortable with the darkness. Best believe, during that period, people selling generators made a lot of money. Every house in my compound got a generator, and I’m not even exaggerating. Some would switch it on from morning till night, some had a morning and night routine, while others only used it at night. That period, getting a decent sleep was a struggle.
Now, we’re back to having good electricity that never goes off, and the generators just remain unused in everyone’s homes. People are enjoying life here oh. It was during the national grid issue that people bought things like generators, fetchers to draw water from wells, or even mini fans for the afternoon heat.
Luckily, the weather here doesn’t even require you to own a fan, unless the idea of freezing or having pneumonia sounds appealing to you. But ironically, it can still get really hot in the afternoons, almost as if to remind us that we are still in Nigeria.
This, my dear friends, is my entry to Sci-fi prompt. To be honest, if I consider the good electricity supply in Jos? I’d never want to leave.
All images are mine, taken with my iPhone 7.
Thank you for reading! 😊
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Down here too they are trying to look unpredictable, today there's light only in the morning and tomorrow there is light only at night.