It’s been so long my people. Work / Naija had been busy and hectic these last few weeks; so it was really a case of finding time to do my write-up for y’all.
For all of you that holla’d me for updates. Thanks a lot – tells me you are still interested in what’s up here in Las Giddy and that you still enjoy hearing from me!
And for those that are looking to taking the plunge and coming back home, don’t be put off by what you see or hear! If home is for you, then ‘Just Do It’! Leverage on the fact that your expertise may or is still highly required; it wont always be the case once home becomes flooded with the ‘Diaspora’! Wonder who coined that name! So be encouraged!
For this edition, here goes:
1. We underwent an episode of fuel scarcity a few weeks ago! Can you just believe that that can still happen in Naija with all our Oil! Thankfully, I didn’t have to endure any long queues purely because I’ve mastered one of the arts of survival here – always top up your tank once you’ve done a quarter on it! Once upon a time, I would wait till I only had a quarter tank left to go and realised how dangerous this was when I was almost caught up in the last scarcity. In fact, I was, the station attendant was just gracious that evening to sell to me after much ado and display of ‘ajebutterness’! Ok, ok, I wasn’t milking it but I truly didn’t have any other clue of getting fuel that evening!
This is one of the ways profiling works ultimately to your benefit here!
2. Saw a female newspaper seller. Not sure I’d seen one before now however, this was very striking. Its almost like gender based job discriminations are almost or out of the door now!
By the way, you can now purchase ‘efo’ (spinach) in Las Giddy traffic! All you need now are red oil, chicken and pot hawkers and bingo, you will be road run! Or better still, you can just get one of those stray chickens or dogs and you will still be road run! You know I’d touched on this in one of my previous blogs but then efo no dey dat list. Now I don add am!
3. Picture this: a few weeks back. I woke up to the smell of severely burning cables or such. I looked everywhere within the house and couldn’t locate the source. I unplugged every device from the wall (I usually do anyway but then plug some critical ones back once home). Still I couldn’t source the origin. Whilst concluding in my mind that it was probably external because of my open windows, I prayed to God for NEPA to strike! Believe me, no sooner did I pray that prayer they did.
So I finally convinced myself to get abed.
Next morning was a Saturday, so I got up early to finish off some chores. The smell remained strong throughout the house but not as strong as when there was electricity supply. As I cleaned the staircase, I saw burnt paper and wondered where that had emanated from. Suddenly, I looked up to where my electric points where and horror gripped me! That was what had been burning! The lack of electricity had slowed down the melting / burning process.
Some of the cables had been stripped down to the core; the cut-outs for phase change-over had burnt; the area of placement was blackened etc. Meanwhile my flat is the load sharer to the others, therefore a huge pressure point!
Some of the cables had been stripped down to the core; the cut-outs for phase change-over had burnt; the area of placement was blackened etc. Meanwhile my flat is the load sharer to the others, therefore a huge pressure point!
All these situated at the only entry / exit point to my place. On discovery I run out to alert my neighbours not knowing what to do or who to call (no 999s or 911s!). My neighbours were awed at the scene, then NEPA brought back supply. I never thought I would hate electricity supply as much as I did that moment! So with much effort, I removed the cut-out stuff.
We were able to get in an electrician. He was able to put a stop to the melting et al, restore power to all of us and staged a temporary solution until the next day when he came round to sort out everything. He categorically told me that I came out very lucky! He said there would have been an instant fire outbreak if not for the fact that it was situated near brick-ceiling!
However, as we stood out deliberating on the cause, I spotted the landlord and showed him the evidence, burnt and melted cut-outs / cables that the electrician had removed. The electrician had told us that the cables used could not accommodate the supply to the entire house and that some sub-standard equipment had been used. Anyway, on approaching the landlord – he was all defensive that the cables were sufficient, that they were superior quality products, that probably, the workmen did a shabby job blah, blah. He spoke highly about the situation and that he will get his NEPA contacts in to access everything; the electrician should do a work breakdown of the cost of putting things back in order blah, blah; and that I should contact him on Wednesday when he will sort out everything. So I left them there, only for the electrician to come back to the house to tell us that he doesn’t think our landlord was prepared to put a dime of his money down to rectify the faults. He advised us to do it ourselves! You would think that the landlord would be concerned about protecting his property from burning down!
We were able to get in an electrician. He was able to put a stop to the melting et al, restore power to all of us and staged a temporary solution until the next day when he came round to sort out everything. He categorically told me that I came out very lucky! He said there would have been an instant fire outbreak if not for the fact that it was situated near brick-ceiling!
However, as we stood out deliberating on the cause, I spotted the landlord and showed him the evidence, burnt and melted cut-outs / cables that the electrician had removed. The electrician had told us that the cables used could not accommodate the supply to the entire house and that some sub-standard equipment had been used. Anyway, on approaching the landlord – he was all defensive that the cables were sufficient, that they were superior quality products, that probably, the workmen did a shabby job blah, blah. He spoke highly about the situation and that he will get his NEPA contacts in to access everything; the electrician should do a work breakdown of the cost of putting things back in order blah, blah; and that I should contact him on Wednesday when he will sort out everything. So I left them there, only for the electrician to come back to the house to tell us that he doesn’t think our landlord was prepared to put a dime of his money down to rectify the faults. He advised us to do it ourselves! You would think that the landlord would be concerned about protecting his property from burning down!
Here was an incidence that had an occurred on a Saturday morning and he wasn’t ready to do much about it till Wednesday!
So that’s how we all contributed to rectify the issues and to date he hasn’t said jack to any of us; neither has he fulfilled any of the other promises of repairs he made to everyone of us since our meeting in January! 9ja landlords are cowboys and crooks!
So that’s how we all contributed to rectify the issues and to date he hasn’t said jack to any of us; neither has he fulfilled any of the other promises of repairs he made to everyone of us since our meeting in January! 9ja landlords are cowboys and crooks!
I was ultimately grateful to God that I indeed came of lightly! What if I wasn’t at home; I was not around just the weekend before! Meanwhile I don’t even have a metre so how would I have been able to turn off supply completely if NEPA hadn’t struck! This is one of major reasons of fire outbreaks in 9ja!
It turns out this sub-standard job was the culprit for the ever low-voltage / current the entire house had suffered for months. It was so bad I was convinced my ACs were factory defects and rejects because they just never chilled; light bulbs were never at full beam – never!
A similar incidence happened at the office where for whatever reason of sub-standardness, almost if not all our networking end-devices got snuffed out of life in one night!
Tip: Never plug any appliance directly into a power socket in 9ja without a surge protector, stabiliser or any such! Even at that you still need the grace and mercy of God!
Haya, Las Giddy! Na waya o!
4. Picture this: Dastardly act! A group of armed robbers wanted to rob a bullion van full of money – not in Las Giddy though. The occupants put up a brave act and didn’t succumb. Obviously the robbers’ bullets and machinery couldn’t gain them access. So, in revenge, they spotted a fuel dealer nearby, shot the dealer(s) and doused the bullion van with petrol and set it ablaze. Since they couldn’t lay their hands on the cash – they decided no one else would! All the occupants and the cash went to their graves in that incidence.
Really sad and troubling! Banks have equally become hot spots for robberies now!
May we not be at the right place at the wrong time in Jesus name. Amen!
5. Picture this: Instant Justice! I was on my way to the island one evening for a meeting when suddenly I saw people running helter-skelter on the carriageway. The cabbie convincingly told me that he’s certain there’s been a fatal accident. Truly, as we tried to meander our way through an alternative route, we just saw a truck go up in flames!
It turns out that the truck driver had killed an ‘okada’ man and ‘maruwa’ driver on the spot; a sight I believe we’d missed barely by a few seconds! It must have been a gory sight as people ran helplessly with screams amidst much panic. The truck and its contents were instantly set ablaze. The pandemonium gave the driver enough room to escape with his life!
6. On a suffer-head note, NEPA has been nefarious to us. I heard someone over the weekend rephrase PHCN as ‘Power Releasing’ rather than ‘Power Holding’. As in they are truly holding back power that needs to be released to us!
You can’t afford to plan anything around NEPA. It’s just been so bad since the start of the year more or less. And with the humid and hot weather, it’s been a real suffer head combo. Loss of perishables has spelt even lesser time in the kitchen; such that the gas cylinder I bought since last June just finally emitted its last air! Even the stockist treated me with much amazement when I finally had it refilled! Everything thaws pretty quickly in the freezer because you are not home daytime and you can be certain not to have any electricity supply during the daytime anyway! If they are gracious, you may get maybe two hours supply in every 24hours; if they are not, you may not get any supply in 48hours or even worse in some very unfortunate rural areas of Las Giddy!
At a point, work was spending at least N1.2m weekly just to keep one building operational!
The noise from generating sets from everyone around spells constant headaches and pollutions! So the zeal to turn it on when home is hardly ever there!
My earnest prayer is that for everyone who has partaken in keeping every one at the mercy of NEPA for all these years that God will wipe all of them out!
Because it just does not make sense to still be undergoing this kind of arrant nonsense hardship in this modern day 21st century!
Another Tip: Frost free freezer na Oyinbo concept o wey no dey work for Naija. Na de kin old freezer type wey get plenty block , na im better here!
Another Tip: Frost free freezer na Oyinbo concept o wey no dey work for Naija. Na de kin old freezer type wey get plenty block , na im better here!
7. And lastly, a whole national telecommunication backbone of the nation – NITEL has been on strike for over a week thereby throwing communication into chaos over these last few days! A whole international gateway Sat-3 was shut down!
How can a whole country’s telecommunication existence lie in one hand?
This can only happen here in 9ja!
8. And I guess ‘keeping it real’ means giving you a wee bit of honest expo about my feelings every now and then! So, this year thus far has been a mix of some Ds (despondency, dejection and depression) + some joyful and stressful moments.
I’ve had nights where sleep had completely eluded me! There’s been days when I just didn’t want to come to work, in fact getting out of bed became a chore! There have been a few tears – you know those that come about when you are convinced God has forgotten you! There have been days with 48hours in 24hours; and others with 8hours in 24hours! There have been times when getting through the day / week became so hard! Days with persistent headaches! There have also been times when being here was the most perfect thing!
In all however, not enough for me to want to run back to jand!
And that’s all I have for you for now until the next time. Take care. Stay safe. God Bless!
Always & Always,
Moi (Still Keeping It Real)
