July 9th to 10th, 2022. What a date! Foreign Days in the Local City of the Brown Rusted Roof!
In my entire life, the date above was when I witnessed not only a day uninterrupted power supply but almost three days full electricity non-stop. Should we remember, that was the date of this year’s Ileya Festival. The light was there for three days only broke out a bit in the third day. If my brain serves me well, it wasn’t up to an hour before the electricity was even restored that very day. Power Galore!
With the presence of light, I felt quite comfortable. My body system knew not again how darkness looks like. The atmospheres were heavenly. I couldn’t believe not going out— I was indoors throughout masticating my festival delicacies, scrolling on internet, perusing stuffs, seeing movies without the fear of my gadgets shutting down. Cherubic!
Either by design or default, INEC has chosen this month of September for kick-starting of political campaign against 2023 election. From where I come from, September is the beginning of Osu Ba-Ba-Ba. Ba-Ba-Ba could be relatively traced to Àlùbá. Àlùbá semantically translates to calamity, and all form of misfortunes. Superstitiously, my people may tend to ask INEC why starting what should be a good luck for us in such an “unlucky” month. E e ti je?
As if that is not enough, my mobile dictionary defines Septembrize, a verbal form of September, thus: ” to motivate common people to overthrow a ruling class by force...” Has September ever been positively described or defined in other languages? I don’t know. But to most tongues in Nigeria, September is always an ember. Fortunately or unfortunately, this is when the journey of another tenure wants to start in Nigeria.
Permit me to crave your indulgence, beloved readers. This 2023 election is when what has never happened in Nigeria wants to happen. And, what is that? It has never occurred for a president to come out on his on volition and says he wants to be the president and eventually becomes one. Let’s face it: Obasanjo didn’t seek to be the president before he became one. He was brought from prison. Think of all the presidents after him till the incumbent, it’s either they are brought artificially or nature beckoned on them— Jonathan’s saga.
Now, 2023 is here: all the contestants for presidency are all coming out on their own accords to be the Number One citizen of the Nation. Will it happen? Well, there’s an answer to this at your fingertips.
My own concern for anyone who wishes for power is about the issue of power electricity. Electricity is the pillar of socio-economic development after Security. Security should even come second but only a living soul can use electricity. This notion, per se, is also debatable.
Electricity is inscribed in the Exclusive Legislative List of our Constitution. That is to say, only the president has a say in it. This is the need we have to hold these aspirants tightly in this month of September when the political rhetorics will commence.
We should only entrust power (governance) to anyone who is ready to give us power (electricity). It should be Power-4-Power! Nothing less, something else.
To have a stable electricity in Nigeria, to the best of knowledge, is neither a rocket science nor a quantum physics. It’s what some countries have achieved. African countries, whom Nigeria is called their Giant, inclusive.
In 2016, Egypt was reported to comission Siemens to build a power plant that could generate 14.4 gigawatts of electricity. This was completed in July 2018 with just a token of £7.26 only. You will understand why I called the amount token if you know how much Nigeria expends on the “non-electricity” electricity we are using in this clime.
Despite the fact that our National Grid fell intermittently—to borrow Tinubu’s lingo, O lu’le — we still have some reserved areas that enjoy uninterrupted light till this very moment. This points to the fact that we can achieve constant power supply if the will is there for the presidency.
No one loves to do anything good willingly save under duress. We are to then enforce this on them as they will soon come out to cook political words for us. Asking them who will give us power is not enough but how. Any one of them who couldn’t give a coherent response should be “septembrized.”
We should ask them this and make them to realize that it will be an oppression if they renege on getting to the office. We should remind them how hodgepodge of caustic words are trailing after the just Late Queen Elizabeth from the Oppressed.
My wish actually is to see Nigeria heading to another heydey even though I believe no one among the present candidates can change anything sporadically in this country. But at least I want to see the morrow of this country to be better than the present.
I wrote the date of the first time I experienced constant electricity in my diary so that, if by God I live long, I’ll be able to tell my children, and probably grandchildren when their father/ grandfather first witnessed uninterrupted power all his life.
The response of my offsprings when I revealed this to them will be determined by the choice we made our to-be president make now. If the power has improved for better before then, my (grand)children would laugh and pray for my generation, but if otherwise they’ll look into my ruffled face and ask helplessly: ” Papa, will this country ever be great again?” Heavily sigh!
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