The frustrations and realities of living without steady electricity

Power is one of the most basic units of life these days. Whether you live in a rural, suburban, or urban area, one thing is certain: the need for electrical power.

Electricity has become a basic necessity, however you want to think about it. From powering the light bulb that is needed to brighten our space to charging gadgets, cooling food, and even cooking and preserving agricultural products, just to mention a few, electricity is needed, however little.

It can be very frustrating when you need light for something and it's not available. I remember preparing for my 300-level first-semester exams while I was in school. There was a sudden power outage, which led to always having to go on campus to find a place to charge.

Those who had generators allowed people to come charge some of their devices, and I remember going to a friend's place and over 30 gadgets were being charged in his room—laptops and phones. A good friend of mine, @starstrings01, who introduced me to the Hive blockchain, had to connect a socket outside his room just so people wouldn't disturb him about charging.

Well, the light situation at Alabata, where the Federal University of Agriculture is located, has been pretty awesome over time, with an average of about 18 hours of light daily, except maybe the light is faulty.

The area where I live shares her transformer with the major part of another street, which is supposed to have her own transformer, but for reasons best known to those in charge, they don't, and so most times when the load becomes too much, a part of the transformer goes off.

Each time this happens we have to wait for an official to come and help us fix it, which can be very frustrating because you see a situation whereby those who you share the same transformer with have light and you don't.

Sometimes what's more annoying is the fact that once they fix it, then we would experience a general power outage 😨😩. My current hostel has a prepaid meter, which can be recharged online through the Ibadan electrical distribution company (IBEDC).

Tariffs were increased about a month ago. Before now we could buy light for 1000 naira, which was 14 units, but since the increment, 1000 naira of light is now 4 units, which is about a 70% reduction, which is so unfair. This has led to a need for weekly contributions in order to purchase units.

When I was much younger, the street we were staying on shared a transformer with another street, so the light was being rationed one day in and one day out, but some greedy people from the other street would always wait till late at night to remove the fuse and fuse their side. It resulted in a dispute that led to getting another transformer.

It's no doubt electricity is a basic necessity of life because of the role it plays in our everyday life.

This is my response for the Scifi multiverse weekly engagement writing prompt.

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Images were AI generated.