Having stable electricity goes beyond more than having light because, to me, it brings comfort, means of surviving, and hope. Where I am from, when it comes to electricity, I can say that it is a rollercoaster of emotions. One moment, we have light for a short period of time, and another moment, we are using the hand fan to fan ourselves when the electric fan is down, and then the white bulb blinks suddenly as they restore the light, and that is when the shout of Up NEPA comes from all the walls of the neighborhood, especially from children. I once did that too. But it's not about ages this time because when you have been expecting light for a while, the chant comes out of one's mouth naturally, like a relief.
But behind this happiness that you and I face, especially in my life country, comes the reality. Having a constant electricity is something that even a seer cannot see. At times we have it for a few hours, sometimes days back-to-back, and sometimes, we won't even see any flash. The funniest and most annoying part is when the IBEDC workers bring the bill at the end of each month, you see the huge and intimidating numbers on the monthly amount, and you begin to wonder if you really enjoyed the electricity or not. It feels so weird and unfair, but to avoid disconnecting the wires, we keep paying because do we really have a choice?
Electricity has even changed the way we live culturally, because when it is restored, we all rush to pump water, plug in our phones, power banks, lamps, and other things; we rush to iron clothes, blend that pepper, and do other stuff. Even when the price of fuel is not something that we can just rush into, we still decided to switch on the generator when there is no signal that the NEPA will bring light. And this has always taught me to always appreciate those moments of electricity because I never can say when next it will be taken off.
I have even heard of a situation where some areas of streets have gone for months, even years, without a single flash of electricity all because their transformer was blown or something was stolen from it and they were unable to raise the required money to fix it. Just imagine the powerless situation of that community: no light means no fan, no ironing, no use of hotplates, no TVs, nothing other than total darkness, and still, a lot of people adapt easily to this, except for house that have generators.
Like I said in the first paragraph, having electricity goes beyond having light. It is about enjoying that moment of comfort to charge the devices I have, being able to read under the bulb, and ironing my daily outfit; it is also about dignity. And until we have stable electricity in my country, the shout of Up NEPA will forever be an anthem of suffering and smiling, joy and pain, reminding us that we are being deprived of what we have, what is our right, but still, we still lack it.
Thank you for reading.
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I am learning a lot about NEPA in all the posts from community! hehe so many complains!!
Lol...NEPA use to be the general name before, but the sold the company to a private organisation, so it it called different names now based on your geopolitical zone. Mine is now IBEDC like I said in the post. But most people still call them NEPA😂