Ibadan was for a very long time the famed largest city along the West Coast of Africa and second largest to Cairo on the Continent until lately when Lagos and Kano came from behind to relegate the sprawling Oluyole territory to the background. Abuja is also hot on its heels with a population of 2.8 million. Cairo is the capital of Egypt which lies along the northern belt of Africa, nestling by the Mediterranean Sea. It has an estimated population of 12 million.
Ibadan boasts of a population of about 3 million with high density. That figure is conservative. That should be about half of the actual population. I was in Ibadan last weekend for my daughter’s wedding… some eight years after my last visit. Owing to my long stay-off, I had difficulty directing my driver to the Eleyele settlement where my elder brother lives. We arrived at Ibadan at past 6 pm but it took some time to navigate our way out of the usual maddening traffic at Iwo road to our destination. At first, a man whose geography of the city turned out to be very lousy sent us to the opposite direction. He made nonsense of the adage that says “Whoever asks for a direction can never get lost”.
We had covered a distance of about five kilometers before I realised that we were going on a wild goose chase. So, we made a U-turn to Iwo road. By the time we got back to Iwo road, the sun was done for the day and had gone to sleep, leaving behind total darkness. To avoid groping in the dark, I sought the help of an okada rider to lead us to our destination. Eventually, we got to a point where I rediscovered my geography to Eleyele. I paid the okada man off.
Perhaps, we would not have needed an outrider to lead the way if we had arrived before the sunset. What confused my geography was the near total darkness that enveloped the city except the moving headlights of vehicles on the road. There were no streetlights to identify directions or even spot familiar locations. Only a few houses along the streets had lights provided by generators.
As we meandered through the city in near total darkness, I could not but remember my first visit to Cairo in the late 70s in company of Yinka Craig (NTA), Ernest Okonkwo (Radio Nigeria) and Babatunde Oshuntolu (Daily Times), all of blessed memories. We were all heads of the sports desks of our media outfits assigned to cover the 1978 World Cup qualifier between the Green Eagles and the Pharaohs of Egypt. I went for The Nigeria Standard Newspaper of Jos.
The entire city of Cairo was illuminated. We were there for five or so days and their bulbs never blinked for a second, all day and all night. The streetlights were functional. You could even drive around without putting on the headlights. That was a city as large as Ibadan. In fact, you needed to look skywards before you knew that the night had fallen.
In fairness to Ibadan, the light situation was not as bad in the 70s as it is today. The darkness that has become the permanent feature of the city is a reflection of what obtains in virtually every nook and cranny of this country.
When we got to my brother’s place, his house was engulfed by darkness except one or two neighbours whose generators were throbbing with difficulty from over-flogging. My brother told me he had placed his household at the mercy of PHCN as he was fed up with using fake generating sets not to speak of maintaining them.
Ibadan is a hot city even at this time of the year. The weather is a sleep killer if you are not exposed to a cooling system like an air conditioner. Fans are not helpful. They work with available air. Late into the night, we left for the hotel provided for us by the celebrants. There was light and the air conditioner was on. But a few hours later, PHCN seized the light and the generator came on which was unable to run the air conditioners. So, we were left at the mercy of the ceiling fan. The next morning, my prospective son-in-law made a better arrangement and we were checked into a 5-star hotel where the facilities reminded me of the Cairo treat.
Darkness or lightlessness driven by public power supply is not alien to me. In the early 90s, I had a strange experience at Alheri, a location along Zaria Road, Jos. It was in the days of NEPA or Never Expect Power Always. My flat was singled out for lightlessness for a very long time that at a point, I had to write a piece in my column which I entitled: “NEPA, am I a LEPER?” This was because I could not understand why my flat would be the only one hugging darkness as if I was not paying my light bills.
Why should the power supplier avoid my flat as if I was a leper?
I left Ibadan feeling sorry for its inhabitants. The economy of the city is driven by generators… mostly counterfeit generators with high maintenance costs. Many homes and premises of small and medium scale premises are littered with heaps of generator scraps. And the state government appears to have accepted the terrible situation as fait accompli. There should be a way out, like tapping into the solar energy.
It is a great pity that despite the billions of dollars sunk into the power sector since the coming of the Obasanjo administration in 1999, Nigeria could only generate what the Heathrow International Airport alone consumes… which is 3,000 megawatts. Ibadan alone can consume that quantum of electricity and even ask for more. May God deliver Ibadan, the eye of Oyo state, from perpetual darkness… and also the whole of Nigeria.
When I arrived at home from the trip on Sunday at about 9 pm, I was hugged by darkness, packaged two hours before our return. When I asked what happened to our “I pass my neighbour”, the old reliable companion, I was told that it had guzzled all the fuel I left behind.
And by the way, does anyone out there know where I can purchase a pair of night goggles? I need it to fight the war against darkness.
