by Tolu Omoyeni

Just few weeks back, Nollywood actor, Bob Manuel Udokwu said in an interview, “I am pessimistic we can succeed in getting good power supply again in this country”. But the Electricity Distribution company is set to prove the man wrong. It is difficult to deny that electricity supply has notably improved in the country (but let’s use Lagos as a case study). The only problem now is that so many Nigerians are not ready to admit that maybe, just maybe, the Change they voted for is beginning to manifest.

Over the last two weeks, there’s been an ongoing conversation on Twitter about power supply in Lagos. What is fascinating about the conversation is how tweeps have chosen different standpoints. There’s a group of people who readily admit that “there’s light” at least 16 hours a day now. There’s another group who kind of admit that “there’s light” but suspect that the government has an ulterior motive, maybe President Buhari is trying to distract us, or maybe something really terrible is about to happen and they’re using constant electricity to prepare us for it. Then, there are the absolute pessimists like Mr Bob Manuel who assert that the increase in supply is a result of rainfall and we’ll return to darkness when the dry season returns fully. There’s also a group who just won’t talk about it because they don’t want to jinx it (if you say there’s light, NEPA will hear and off it). What is wrong with all of us?

In a series of tweets posted by an handle called @AsoRock, we know now that the only sane explanation for the increase in power supply is improved gas availability. According to the tweets, Nigeria now generates more than 3,000MW, not necessarily impressive number but a good start. To put the Twitter division to rest, on-air personality and social commentator, Osikhena Dirisu @Osi_suave shared some of his knowledge on why we’re having having “more light”. The summary of his analysis is that Nigeria has more functioning gas power plants than dams, and the gas plants produce way more megawatts than all our cherished dams put together. So, rain does not hold water in this matter.

Overall, judging from the results of Twitter polls that we’ve seen recently, electricity has improved in most parts and as backwards as it seems, we should applaud the efforts of the power ministry. The fact though still remains that many Nigerians are not ready to accept the Change they so crave.

(Let’s quickly wrap this post up before they ‘off’ the light)

Isime Esene