by Lolade Sowoolu

NEPA has been frighteningly constant. Isn’t that supposed to be a good thing? Well, it was when it never happened. And now that it’s happening, it takes a conscious effort not to panic. Somewhere in my subconscious, I still feel this a trick. Oh yeah. And when this trick is over, we will be worse off. So, chide me not when I beg NEPA to revert to status quo so that I can have peace of mind rather than this palpitating heart on top 72 hours of uninterrupted power – when I haven’t moved to Aso Villa. Yet.

Since this is a strange situation, I’ve been trying to figure how to control my supply. You see, before now, we take what we are given when they feel gracious enough to supply us. And as such, once power is on, the brain goes into overdrive trying to prioritise chores based on power-dependence. So now that the light is steady, I find myself going round to ensure the water heater is on only for a brief period. Yesterday, I actually turned off my freezer during the day and powered it through the night. It’s called ‘load sharing’ and I learnt it from my neighbors in Cotonou.

This afternoon, on finding that my fruits are freezing in the fridge, I tried to think up the best way to make this power supply work for me and not against me. If you are one who stores fruits in the fridge too you’ll agree frozen watermelon, cucumber and pineapples are no good. So I remembered this knob in the back of the fridge, just by the light. Like every other Nigerian fridge, this knob is set to 7, coldest. So I reduced it to 4.

Then I crossed over to the freezer and tuned the temperature knob on the bottom right to 4 too.

That way, if (more like when) NEPA decides to revert to status quo, I shall not be caught unawares! For now, they are in a race to exhaust my power units purchased since Dec 31, 2015.

Good luck NEPA.

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Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Op-ed was first published HERE