I AM HOT!
Yes I am hot! Not because of my clothes, my shoes, my car or even myintellectual prowess. But I am hot! The hot weather condition in Lagoshas brought many Lagosians like me to the point where we are nowdesperately begging our creator for rain not minding that our roadswill be flooded, fares of buses will be hiked and prices of umbrellaswill be hiked. Thanks to the administration of Mr. Babatunde Fashola,Governor of Lagos State; the effect of the rain may not exactly be thatbad flood wise for Lagosians. But we are still hot. The scorching sunthat smiles mercilessly on us as we go about our businesses and piercespainfully through our skins has made toilet rolls and handkerchiefsmust have accessories. The other day I went out without a handkerchiefand 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 goback to darkness, you know what I mean, even after a cold bath, I’musually still unable to sleep and I spend the entire night awake in aforceful vigil, and I sing lullabies to drive myself to sleep. Nothanks to PHCN, I’m learning the power of staying awake so when Ibecome a mum, staying awake won’t be that hard. Up NEPA! Or rather, UpPHCN! I smile thanking God power has been restored, I curse under mybreath, though glad for the breeze and before I reach for the fan,power is gone again! Yes, the message is gotten; I Never Expect PowerAlways and I am seriously listening to the plea of PHCN to Please HoldMy Candles at Night.
I know I am not alone in this situation. Many people are tired, tiredfrom sleeplessness, and tired of the unfulfilled promises of thegovernment to provide constant power for Nigerians. What many findappalling is perhaps that electricity is the number one agenda on theadministration’s seven pointless agenda. What is even more disturbingis that not one of the agenda has been met.
If nature has not been kind to us, we at least should enjoy man madeelectric stability. For a nation at 50, the current power situation canbe best described as shameful. When the Federal Government in December2009 promised to deliver on 6,000 MW of electricity and 10,000MW byMarch 2010, only a few people believed them. And they were justifiedbecause the FG reneged on their promise. Media reports recently statedthat the national generation had dropped to 2,400MW from the dismissalpeak 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 receivingend of this disturbing trend. Small scale business owners who barelymake enough profit now have to channel their little resources to buyinga generating set and of course fuel to power them. Even bigorganisations are not left out as many run their activities only onplants which of course make their services very expensive. Sometimeago, Rev. Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Christian Centre revealed that theChurch spends well over #50million on fuel alone every year. This moneycan of course be channelled into one of its programmes or even used togive scholarships to indigent students. The Church as part of itssocial 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. Onecan barely walk the streets without being disturbed with the noise ofgenerating sets that have become a norm in every home. Apart from thenoise, 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 theday and the other for the night. Even the rich are not spared thefinancial strains of power failure. A closer look around you and youwill discover not many rich people can provide 24 hours electricity fortheir homes, no thanks to the fluctuating price of fuel and itsfrequent scarcity.
Of recent the government again in its characteristic way gave yetanother promise that 10,000MW of electricity will be supplied toNigerians by June. Simply put, Nigerians do not believe them becauseour government overtime have shown that they are not honest tothemselves much less the people they govern. Their repeated acts oflack of integrity has stripped them of every iota of respect theydeserve.
It is high time that a new workable strategy is adopted to bring the PHCN out of its comatose state.
What I find frustrating is that after all the stress of the day; I goback to darkness, you know what I mean, even after a cold bath, I’musually still unable to sleep and I spend the entire night awake in aforceful vigil, and I sing lullabies to drive myself to sleep. Nothanks to PHCN, I’m learning the power of staying awake so when Ibecome a mum, staying awake won’t be that hard. Up NEPA! Or rather, UpPHCN! I smile thanking God power has been restored, I curse under mybreath, though glad for the breeze and before I reach for the fan,power is gone again! Yes, the message is gotten; I Never Expect PowerAlways and I am seriously listening to the plea of PHCN to Please HoldMy Candles at Night.
I know I am not alone in this situation. Many people are tired, tiredfrom sleeplessness, and tired of the unfulfilled promises of thegovernment to provide constant power for Nigerians. What many findappalling is perhaps that electricity is the number one agenda on theadministration’s seven pointless agenda. What is even more disturbingis that not one of the agenda has been met.
If nature has not been kind to us, we at least should enjoy man madeelectric stability. For a nation at 50, the current power situation canbe best described as shameful. When the Federal Government in December2009 promised to deliver on 6,000 MW of electricity and 10,000MW byMarch 2010, only a few people believed them. And they were justifiedbecause the FG reneged on their promise. Media reports recently statedthat the national generation had dropped to 2,400MW from the dismissalpeak 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 receivingend of this disturbing trend. Small scale business owners who barelymake enough profit now have to channel their little resources to buyinga generating set and of course fuel to power them. Even bigorganisations are not left out as many run their activities only onplants which of course make their services very expensive. Sometimeago, Rev. Sam Adeyemi of Daystar Christian Centre revealed that theChurch spends well over #50million on fuel alone every year. This moneycan of course be channelled into one of its programmes or even used togive scholarships to indigent students. The Church as part of itssocial 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. Onecan barely walk the streets without being disturbed with the noise ofgenerating sets that have become a norm in every home. Apart from thenoise, 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 theday and the other for the night. Even the rich are not spared thefinancial strains of power failure. A closer look around you and youwill discover not many rich people can provide 24 hours electricity fortheir homes, no thanks to the fluctuating price of fuel and itsfrequent scarcity.
Of recent the government again in its characteristic way gave yetanother promise that 10,000MW of electricity will be supplied toNigerians by June. Simply put, Nigerians do not believe them becauseour government overtime have shown that they are not honest tothemselves much less the people they govern. Their repeated acts oflack of integrity has stripped them of every iota of respect theydeserve.
It is high time that a new workable strategy is adopted to bring the PHCN out of its comatose state.
