TOO SAD BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

TOO SAD

BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

When I was growing up in those good old days, in the early 70’s and 80’s, I could notice electricity, yes, plenty of electricity in Nigeria. The future was bright as smiles beams from every face you could see because of the brightness of the environs. There was light in mostly every capital cities, towns, and in almost all influential villages that had a big politician in government. I never knew then what a generator would do. What do you need a generator for when we had light; I mean electricity for almost 24hours every day. Sometimes no power outage for days running into weeks; but today the difference is the case, as power outage is now seen as part of the Nigeria economic development. Whether this is leading us to economic prosperity, I don’t know. Many of us never knew the generator then as an alternative power source but those born today grew-up to know it as the only vital source of light for business and leisure. That is so wrong!

The erroneous believe is that children born today don’t know of the electric or lighting situations before they were born, they thought what they came to meet is the normal lighting situation of our country. Well some thought that it is normal to take light or seize it as the case may be, some see darkness as part of the government’s economic and social plan. Once upon a time, a litter of petro was sold for N1:50K. How many of us still remember those good old days?

In the 70’s and 80’s, we hardly experience power failure expect when there is a major maintenance to carry out, but today power failure is usual. How many of us can still remember those good old days? Things were better than what we have now. What we are facing now is a child of corruption born by bad leadership in Nigeria. They don’t care whether we are comfortable or not. All they care about is their comforts only. We are so unfortunate to have ‘egotist’ as leaders ruling us. We are still praying for good leaders who will take us to the next level.  Selfless leaders like Julius Caesar who said, ‘What concerns us we ourselves shall be last served.’ Well, we are yet to find such leaders in Africa. May God give us one!

Go to some cities, towns, or villages in my country you will be surprised that people still lit lamps in the nights to see either because there is no electricity or they have not been connected to the national grid by the authorities concerned. If you ask me I will say we have no reason whatsoever not to have electricity in Nigeria because we have diverse sources of energy deposited by nature for us. All we lacked are good leaders to manage them for us. It is often said that we are the giant of Africa. In most cases, the citizens don’t believe this because the situation on ground does not reflect it.

            Even our lamps are crying for kerosene, for we cannot get kerosene to buy at the exuberant price. Not that we lacked this natural resources, in fact, we have them in abundance. But we still suffer when we have this gift of nature within our reach, because of the activities of bad leaderships around us. Ours is the case of the proverbial man in the river still thirsting for water to drink.

Many governments have come and gone promising us electricity and other social amenities, if voted into power; as soon as they get there they deny their promises and face stomach infrastructure. A previous administration once alleged to have spent 16 million dollars for electricity yet we still remain where we are. Whether they really spend that amount of money is still an unanswered question. One may be forced to think that they did not get there by your votes after all, so why should they help you? If that is their ideology, then it is selfish!

Well, who will deliver us from these bad leaders and build a better atmosphere for us is still a myriad.  Come to think of it, there are still many selfless leaders in Africa but they cannot get to the corridor of powers mainly because they are poor and do not have the money to contest an election if they try to contest they might fail because the political terrain had been monetized and it is no longer a game for the poor, selfless and honest. Politics is for the rich and ‘big boys’ who had previously embezzled public funds. These are the ones who can buy the exorbitant forms and contest elections and have money to throw around or bribe their way through the process. In most cases they come into power through the back door that is why their actions are most questionable.

 The use of generator is now very prominent in most Africa countries like Nigeria. Who will you blame? The governments who cannot provide stable electricity or the citizens who buy generator from the market to provide electricity for themselves? Sadly enough is that we see our governments signing trade relation contracts with generator companies abroad; to bring more generators into the country. This further tells us that we are very far from reaching the solution of electricity and what we are seeing our government do every now and then is not too encouraging.  Tell me, how will a government who wish to solve electricity problem in his country start importing ‘gene’ for its poor citizens to buy. It is ironical, very ironic! Worst still,  one of the state governors once installed generators to power light for a ‘street light’ project he embarked on to provide light for the people.  This is one fact that points to the fact that they are unwilling to solve electricity problem in Nigeria. I wonder why we are called giant of Africa when we are still struggling with electricity.

There is high cost of living in the country today because production cost is too high. Industries are suffering from electricity and so they resolved to other sources of power supply like generators. All cost of production incur by these businessmen are passed on to the customers of such goods and services.  That orchestrates the high cost of goods and services in Africa. We cannot tell if the situation will ever get any better than what we are experiencing now because there is no hope from our government concerning electricity. The governments cannot tell us why there is darkness in the country.

As at today, Nigeria has 36 states and the federal capital territory, and a population of about a hundred and eighty million (180) people; using less than 5,000 Mega wax of electricity, it means, the future is very blink for us and that amount of mega wax is unable to provided adequate electricity for our population. To some other Africa country like South Africa and Kenya, it is a very laughable situation for the said giant to pride themselves with such. The mentioned Africa countries above have lesser population but have a large amount of mega wax of electricity supply to power their economic and social life.. It bits me hollow when they call us giant of Africa or are they mocking us? Your guest is as good as mine.

The deregulation of the power sector added more problems to electricity supply in Nigeria as we now live at the mercies of the private authorities who bought and control the power sector. With the present conditions of the electricity sector it seems we are even getting into hopelessness. No light for days when you complain your complaint fall into deaf ears or the authorities come out to defend themselves with one technical lies that we can’t understand. There are unseen reasons for seizing the light and every of their negligence are fluently explained to us. That is why the lighting situation is even worse than what it used to be. And we have ready market for generators and generators companies will always smile over our plights.

NECESSARY EVIL

    

            Today, the use of generator has come to stay in most Africa countries like Nigeria. Many of us now see it as one very important ‘furniture’ that you must provide for yourself, If you ever wish to live well. Electricity is a vital source of energy for any country to power its economic and social activities. Knowing this this, we try to provide most electricity we consumed for ourselves by the use of generators, it is rather sad that our governments cannot guarantee us 24 hours light, leading to the suffering of businesses and social life.

If you ask our governments officials to talk on the disadvantages of generator flumes I am sure they will give a very long list but they will readily deny the practicality of providing us with electricity. That is why the use of generator is now everywhere in the country.  Now, generator flumes are seen as a necessary evil today for the very reasons that it is harmful to human existence.

The ozone layer sheds the human race from the ultraviolet radiation of the sun. The earth is in a big trouble if the ozone layer is completely depleted. It is a well-known fact that most of man’s activities are harmful to the ozone layer like the use of the generators which brings out a Chlorofluorocarbon (CFCs) which harms the ozone layer. When the ozone layer is destroyed what becomes of human and existence?

Well, the adverse effect of this is that generations to come will taste from the lack of electricity we are facing today, if nothing is done to remedy the situation then we are in for worst things because of the nonchalance of our leaders today. During the lives and times of the Late Afro beat King, Fela Anikulapko Kuti sang and preached vigorously about the provision of this all important amenity yet it fell on deaf ears. Years after his death many are still talking about electricity and we are still hoping for a change if there will ever be. That is why generator still persists in our country today, even though many die from it.

The type of air we now breathe in is questionable with regard to generator carbon everywhere. Oftentimes many people or families have died from the arid air they inhaled from these generators in order to provide light for themselves. If you ask me the cause of their death I will only say your guess is as good as mine. We have lost many young businessmen and women to generator flumes which they inhaled in the cause of doing their businesses. They would be alive today contributing to the economic growth of the country if not for the generator that stole their lives away. The lack of electricity is doing us much harm than good.

When I was growing up I could noticed that there were less than three houses that had generators in our streets, because there was electricity all the time for businesses and pleasures. But today, the difference is the case as we can hardly see electricity in our homes. Now electricity is now a choice commodity which should not be so mentioned in anyway but the government has made it so by selling it to private individuals who now control the power sector. These individuals now made it more impossible to us. Electricity solution is now worse than when it was controlled by the government.

In every house you go to what you hear is the sound of generator working, businesses are not left out.  We can no longer hear sounds of music, sounds of nature or night sounds but that of generator struggling to outdo each other. The resultant consequence is that somebody is suffering from a myriad or headache as a result of the noise coming out from the numerous sounds of generators.   

That makes me sad when I hear people dying from Generator flumes. Sadly enough, more people will still die there from, because, there is no immediate solution to solve the electricity problem of my country, today, probably, the light might shine in the next generation, but now, no not one.

            If I were a Senator, I will promulgate a bill stopping people from sleeping with their generators on and stopping the importation of generator forthwith and making the use of generator illegal.

            Every generator working beyond 10 o’ clock pm shall be arrested and the owner jailed for attempting murder.

The provision of electricity is solely for any good government and not for business men who are out there to make profit at the expense of lives of people. I urge the government to revoke electricity license in the hands of private businessmen or individuals who toil with lives and properties.

            Finally, pass a vote of no confidence on any government who cannot solve electricity problem within six months of that government in power.

We are gradually going backwards into what we have previously overcome. (The Stone Age)

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka