As My Country's Darkness Grows Thicker...

Having spent this weekend in a permanent power outage that has
survived till this Monday afternoon, I guess I am now in the proper
state of mind to do justice to this topic. Working from my
now-on-low-battery phone rather than from a laptop, due to lack of
electricity, also stirs my Muse in the queerest of ways (permit my
grammar please).

I spent a greater part of this year in Europe, three months plus. And
in the entire period I experienced just one power outage while working
at the office in the university. I quickly grabbed my laptop to
Facebook it. In my mind of minds, I just wanted to discredit Europe's
much touted invincibility. But when I got home from the office, the light was on and
didn't look as if it was ever off. Later on, when I asked about the
office incident I was told that the outage was just for the university
building due to repairs on the ever-efficient elevators. Did I say
repairs? My bad! They were installing brand new ones. And I was among
the first to ride one of them.

Like I was saying, the power cut in the university building that fateful
day in March, was duly advertised. And I appear to be the only one who
didn't get to hear about it. The announcement was in French and except when speaking in tongues, it is a language I hardly use because I don't officially understand it. But I didn't tender a Facebook apology then even after getting to know what I found out. APOLOGIES TO MY SWEET BELGIAN CITY OF LIÈGE!

My first week back home: I absent-mindedly turned a decorative tap
over the sink in my kitchen after pouring liquid soap on my hands in
an attempt to wash my hands. I obviously thought I was back in Europe where taps are still functional. And as if to take their pound of flesh
for the leisures I allowed myself to indulge in while in Europe,
internet and electricity have been more vicious to me in their
unavailability here.

I took a train from Liège to Paris, a two-hour ride. And the return
trip was also by train. It was a sweet side to and fro Paris. I
actually found out the return train from Paris passes through Brussels
in Belgium and them terminates in Cologne, Germany. Chineke! Was I not
pleasantly shocked to discover that the trains are driven by
electricity. From Liège to Maastricht, The Netherlands! Liège to
Antwerp! All by trains that run on electricity! In Paris, the Metro
which is twenty feet below the surface, and the trains slightly above
them as well as the intercontinental version on the surface, all run
on electricity.

In my country, assuming we have trains and we are dependent on them
for the bulk of our transport of humanity and goods; and they are
designed to run on electricity, what will become of us? Imagine a trip
from, say Lagos to Abuja. How long will it take? Factually, no one
can tell except PHCN.

The irony of the darkness within which my nation and its tactless
(mis)leaders are groping is that the more money they ostensibly throw
at solving the power crisis, the more darkness we end up getting.
Permit my Eurocentrism, please ... could someone give us a European
torch or at least a Chinese brand before someone from the masses
throws a Tunisian spanner in the works?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"My Husband washes my Undies"

My country is indeed an interesting place! I read with consternation as a couple of women reportedly emerged on social media to announce to the world what their spouses do and whatnots. I believe the whole noise came off one of the events on the ongoing BBNaija show where one of the contestants reportedly washed the pants of his love interest. And the dying-to-be-distracted throng of Nigerian youths started another session of tantrum throwing on the internet over whether Neo (so is his name) should have or have not washed Vee's (I hope am correct) panties. And the stuff even made it to  Premium Times  and BBC .  So much noise about nothing, if you ask me! This is not the first time this is happening. In a previous season of BBNaija, another housemate sparked controversies for washing the undies of his love interest. A lot of internet perfectionists came out with condemnations or adulations. Others came with nothing. I call it the dying-to-be-distracted throng. The mass of Nero'
Read more

Why Guys Don't Propose Fast Enough

Image
http://www.reception-wedding.com/wedding_rings.htm I have been refusing to blog on this for a long time for fear of being misunderstood. But the barrage of complaints for a number of affected friends has not abated. Let me use this story to buttress my point. Please note that the names have been changed not to point at any individual living or dead. Adaku has always been a reserved girl. Right through Secondary School and her early university days, she kept away from associating with certain kind of friends especially girls who do not think like she does and guys. Her upbringing has been under the strict and conservative instructions of her parents. But in the university she meets Haruna, a handsome, intelligent and promising young man who was a year ahead of her in the University. One thing leads to another and before long, they were dating steadily. Their relationship continued from her 3rd year in the university till seven years afterwards. Now, Adaku isn't very sure
Read more

Learning Deutsch

The first time we arrived purposely to learn German, we were so enthusiastic. For me, I haven't really sat down to learn a new language, perhaps because there are no formalised institutions for learning Nigerian languages as in Germany. And that strikes me as odd! No one seems to have discovered that we could actually create formalised outlets for learning some, if not all, of our 250 languages. If that had existed, I could have spent time learning good Hausa formally in the six years that I spent teaching in Gombe.  But again, there is yet another snag: why would one pay, sometimes heavily, to learn a language that perhaps has little or no global presence? People have been learning German, French, Spanish and Portuguese, and they are now learning Chinese even in Europe. Why? The people who own those languages have some value or so they think, that those who are learning their language want. Take a look at English language. Even with Brexit, a lot of European nations are still sc
Read more