UP NEPA

Have you ever been to Lagos, the only city in Nigeria with an English name "Lagos" and local name "Eko"?. Have you been to Lagos, the most populated city in Africa?. Have you ever been so previledged to visit Lagos in the sweet month of march? 

"You know I haven't" was the only response I could give, I couldn't understand the sudden infinite questions James was asking me, could it be something I said? Oh I remember just few minutes before his rain of questions I had shouted "UP NEPA" , nothing is wrong in me saying that. It's what we all say everything NEPA brings light.

"James, why the sudden question about Lagos, was it because I shouted up NEPA?", I had to know his reasons for those questions, it's true James came over from Lagos last week to spend the weekend with us here in Abuja, but this is the first time have heard him looking so serious about a topic.

Oh yeah, the famous UP NEPA" he stated, Do you know that the National Electric power Authority Plc (NEPA) was nicknamed "Never Expect Power Always, please light candle" by frustrated citizens and the government tackled this problem by evening it to Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). 

"Well thank you James, last I checked am a Nigerian, so yeah I knew, go straight to the point,it's almost bedtime" I told James.

"Sorry, I was just taken back by the way you guys have constant light here, and also astonish by the fast rate PHCN brings light after taking it here in Abuja". "For us Lagosians, electricity shortage means cooking by torchlight, or companies spending a shocking 70% of the budget on petrol and diesel and we have some neighborhood that have spent half a decade with no power at all because their electric transformer was vandalised five years ago.

".

"This look like a long story and it seems James in not going to stop anytime soon, and am damn sleepy, well I better lay on the couch and pretend to be listening to him while the train of dreams come pick me up" I thought to myself while James continued.

"The officials from the energy utility demanded each house to pay the sum of 4,000 naira ($10),can you imagine. These are the same set up people whose means of livelihood has come to a stop due to lack of electricity, how and where will they get the money from?.

Middle class families own an inverter; poorer Lagosians resort to minuscule "I-pass-my-neighbour generators" it's so called because they give the owner an illusion of superiority over their fellow residents, though a single tank can power a small household for only three hours, despite the fact that Nigeria is by far, the largest oil producer in Africa it doesn't help even with its availability the price of petrol is as costly as an eye. And if the generator breaks, or you run out of money to power it, what do you do? "What do you do when it's 30c at 11pm, you haven't had power for days and your generator decided to pack up?"

Y..yo.. you..." I tried to find an answer, while being amazed as to why am not sleeping or feeling sleepy any more.

"Oh and you have a career- defining meeting at 8am the next morning?"

" Ok now am beat, I have no answer"

"Your car becomes your bedroom for the night."

A friend of mine once slept the whole night in his car with air conditioning on."

"And there is this new policy of light from 7am to 12pm while the other hours of the day are blackouts. Some people work involve about 30 plus hour of non stop computer activity and there isn't light, so they had to run generator for the remaining hours of the day. I once assume the 7am to 12pm is constant, i had left things until the last minute, and I assume I will be able to iron in the morning but when I woke up, there was no electricity. I panicked and started brainstorming. Eventually, I took an old iron in the house, place it on the stove and used it to iron. I had to wipe, iron, replace on stove, repeat."

" I couldn't help but laugh at his predicament, especially when he mentioned that his white uniform later turned black at the sleeve".

"Do you know what's worse at night?" He asked

Cockroaches?? I replied.

"No, what is worse is the under cover of darkness "land grabbers, arm robbers" young men who use physical intimidation to muscle into homes and extort scared residents. They also vandalise properties and even the streets are not safe.

"The streets?" I was astonished.

"Yeah, some roads remain unlit, even Third Mainland Bridge which is the most travelled in the country, you can't stroll at night after 8pm, it's like a suicide mission.

Our neighbor once decided to splurge on solar panels the day after mistakenly spicing his soup with kerosene while cooking by torch. It was one of those period of fuel scarcity, where a bachelor's hungry stomach cannot wait for light to return", James said "it was funny and sad at the time but this is Lagos".

James would have continued if not for the PHCN who suddenly decided to back up James words by taking the light. 

"Guess we are being forced to go to bed" James said with a smile. As he turned in for the night.

I watched him enter his room. While i remained on the couch staring at the ceiling, I couldn't sleep, the dream train came and have already left while I was busy listening to James. 

Everything James said gat me thinking, wow, so Lagos is that bad. It's not what I see on television, only God knows if James is exaggerating, I mean on TV Lagos was said to be the best city in the whole of Nigeria, but if light is not stable what makes it so great, oh well 

" I have not been to Lagos, the city of darkness"