About three years ago, the news filtered into Nigeria that Ghana was celebrating five years of uninterrupted power supply.If their lights have not blinked since then, they must be getting ready to celebrate 10 years of uninterrupted power supply. For us in Nigeria, the citizens can only continue to dream that a day would come when it would celebrate 12 months of uninterrupted power supply. That cannot prevent Nigerians from holding tenaciously to the claim that their country is the giant of Africa. Though we now grudgingly admit that we are not the economic giant. That position of economic giant is conceded to South Africa. Even at that we still retain the position of a giant in economic potentials.A cousin of mine spoke about the potentials for growth when we met a few days ago. In spite of the predictably tight schedules of residents of Lagos my cousin and I still meet regularly which by Lagos standard is once in two weeks. For about two weeks before the 51st Independence anniversary and two weeks after our schedules were so tight that we did not even have time to talk on the phone.When we met on 15th October at a wedding ceremony, he gave me a piece of good news that his Somolu community in Lagos State experienced FIVE DAYS of uninterrupted power supply. It was such a memorable period to him that the dates Wednesday 21st September to Sunday 25th September were easily reeled off by him.Every household indulges in the minor celebration of welcoming the 'return of power' by bringing out all washed clothes for ironing as soon as their electric bulbs sprang to life. For those who have washing machines, it is time to wash all dirty clothes dumped in a corner of the house to wait for the blinking of electric bulbs.When the power supply persisted beyond 48 hours, my cousin decided to plug his refrigerator to power. For a long time my cousin's refrigerator was on forced leave. He did not want to take chances of leaving it at the mercy of epileptic power supply. He bought some bottles of beer and some cans of malt. He put them in the refrigerator to test its functionality. Low and behold! The drinks were chilled within a short time.The fear that a sweet dream could soon be aborted made my cousin shelve his plan to slaughter a goat and store the butchered parts in the deep freezer. His fear became real on the 6th day with a rude interruption in power supply at 9.15 a.m. while he was watching a sports programme on television.He was not angry with PHCN. On the contrary, he was happy that the power authority gave him five days of unusual comfort. He was happily jolted back into facing the realities of living in Nigeria.But a brother of mine who has a small printing press in Somolu did not have cause to celebrate the merciful disposition of PHCN that allowed them five days of uninterrupted power supply. This is the same Somolu where power outage could last an unbroken three weeks. This has forced small-scale printers like my brother to pack up. He diverted into the business of book supply. Thank God for an experience in book marketing.His dust-covered computer set still adorns his office. He did not bother within the five glorious days of PHCN to test the functionality of the computer set.His plight could not detract from the happiness of big-time printers who had been heavily reliant on diesel-powered generating sets for electricity supply. In spite of the eccentricity of PHCN, its power supply is relatively cheaper per kilowatt than power generated from diesel 'powered sets.For both my cousin and the big-time printers, the old times have returned. Nevertheless, I share in their joy of celebration. The five days of uninterrupted power supply in that part of Lagos is a sign that things would eventually improve throughout the country. I could remember that for a period of 25, years there was no day the engineers did not switch on the generators in my former office in Ikeja. And there was never a time the generators worked for less than four hours a day.Power outage in my community at night is now rare. So, I make a lot of savings in petrol purchase. But I am not selfish enough to be unmindful of the sufferings of tradesmen who are not optimally occupied in the afternoons when power outages are more frequent. Above all, there are signs that power supply is not as epileptic as before. Let us hope that President Goodluck Jonathan will win the power war by 2015.
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