I had packed my bag that morning with excitement. I had hopes that my visit to Ogbomoso, a community in Oyo State, will be an amazing one.
Really, I wanted to get away from the rowdiness of Lagos to an environment where silence and nature meet to bedeck life with a refreshing beauty.
I had arrived at the usual park where buses from Lagos drop off passengers.
Immediately, I took a cab and headed to my mom’s place.
On getting home, I was greeted with this calmness that is so unusual for someone coming from Lagos.
I began to desire watching a few movies I had come with and then watching a few movies on DSTV.
But I was in for a shocker.
“Mom, when are they likely to restore this light,” I asked.
Her response threw me off balance, and I began to desire my Lagos again.
“Someone in the power company must be learning how to play with switches,” she said, responding in a popular way that literally explains it has been an off and on power supply.
Practically Paying For Darkness
My mom deals in frozen foods and that means a lot to her business.
Ogbomoso has been without electricity for some days now, I learnt. The few days I desire to spend were like weeks in my mind.
The situation is affecting businesses and visitors, making people lose a good amount of money to the epileptic power supply.
Generally speaking, you cannot be in the community and have a great stay without enough power banks to last you through your stay.
Sadly, residents are not sure of what the problem is, since they have been left in the dark as to why their power supply had become a toy.
People who sell frozen foods are the worst hit, as they have been forced to either sell their items at a discount or lose them totally.
Voltage supplied to areas like Agbala Daniel, Iwagba, Oke Anu, Papa Adeyemo, Stadium area, Odokoto, Caretaker, part of Randa among others, is too low and could not be useful for any socio-economic activities.
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Recently, the power company providing electricity to Oyo State lamented that residents were not servicing their bills.
But with the kind of voltage supply to these communities, no one will be motivated enough to make payments.
Categorically, residents who manage to pay their bills in Ogbomoso are practically paying for darkness.
